Autonomous Reading and the Cross-linguistic Transfer of Cognitive and Metacognitive Reading Strategies from L2 to L3 and L1 in a Multicompetent Mind

Autonomous Reading and the Cross-linguistic Transfer of Cognitive and Metacognitive Reading Strategies from L2 to L3 and L1 in a Multicompetent Mind

This paper touches upon issues and trends in language transfer studies, and reading autonomy research. In language transfer studies the idea is that languages affect each other. In the Iranian educational system leaning of foreign languages, namely Arabic and English is an obligatory matter at high school level. As students put a lot of effort into learning these foreign languages simultaneously, it is very important to regard the influences of one foreign language on another foreign language, or even on the native language, as they exist in one mind. These influences can be studied from both process and product views. If this is done, a step toward reading autonomy, or taking responsibilities for one’s own reading has been taken. This paper reports the results of two studies ( study one is on the effect of L2 on L1 and study two is on the effect of L2 on L3) performed on Iranian high school students who took cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies instruction in L2 (English). Analysis of data showed that if students are taught how to read strategically in one language, they learn how to read strategically in another language without having any instruction there. It is concluded that it is logical and cost effective to regard strategic reading in L1 and L2s as seriously as possible if we believe that learnersʹ skills and experiences in language learning are cross-linguistically linked together. This will also create students who are responsible for their learning.