A Note from the Editorial Team

Abstract

In this issue of the Journal of College Reading and Learning, we are pleased to share four articles about reading. While these articles all focus on reading, they each come from unique perspectives, showcasing a wide range of reading research and demonstrating multiple ways that college professionals can support student readers and reading can support college success. We open the issue with “Improving Second Language Acquisition by Extensive and Analytical Reading in a Digital Environment,” by Yury Muravev. This article investigates the benefits of reading for English language learners, in a climate that has emphasized speaking and listening. The author’s study found that reading and analyzing books was associated with second language learners’ improvement on English reading assessments and that most study participants rated the reading activities as “relatively helpful” for their English language learning progress. Also noting the benefits of reading for accumulating background knowledge such as cultural references, the article encourages the use of reading with analysis as an important component of a language-learning program and describes the role of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) software to scaffold such methods. In “A Probe into Cognitive and Metacognitive Reading Strategy Use and Reading Comprehension Test Performance in Light of Emotioncy,” authors Elahe Moradi, Zargham Ghapanchi, and Reza Pishghadam consider the role of emotioncy, or sense-induced emotions, in reading comprehension. Studying a group of English as a Foreign Language learners, they found a connection between learners’ emotioncy for words in a reading passage and their performance on a reading comprehension test for that passage. They additionally found that higher emotioncy was related to higher cognitive and metacognitive strategy use, and that emotioncy was more predictive of reading comprehension scores than were reading strategies. We then turn to disciplinary reading in “Exploring Students’ Responses to Reading Assignments in First-Year University Mathematics Courses,” by Dawn Atkinson and H. Smith Risser. This article presents a study designed to gather information about students’ reading experiences and attitudes in their mathematics course. Students were provided with incentives, including open-note quizzes and points for notes, and support for completing reading assignments. Participating students were then interviewed about their reading experiences and attitudes, and the results were presented as case studies of each student. Reflecting on the case studies, the authors discuss the importance of supporting reading and note-taking strategies in mathematics courses, JOURNAL OF COLLEGE READING AND LEARNING 2023, VOL. 53, NO. 1, 1–2 https://doi.org/10.1080/10790195.2022.2151302