Ruth A. Berman(1978) Syntactic Components of the SL Reading Process

Abstract

Berman investigates what she considers to be syntactically-based problems encountered by native speakers of Hebrew who are advanced-level SU students reading English texts. In this review, I will speak from the point of view of Korean learners of English. In Section J, Berman makes claims and outlines some potentia:l sources and types of syntactic problems which affect SL readers. Then, in Section II, she reviews some experiments of her own and those of others (Cohen et al, 1978; Cohen & Fine, 1978; Olshtain & Bojarano, 1979) , in order to subtantiate her claims made in Section 1. Finally, in Section III, she concludes that the evidence emerging from the experiments and investigations in general substantiates her claims. She further makes some suggestions. 'with respect to research procedures; isolation of variables relating to type of text, type of learner, type of question, and type of elicitation technique.