Language play has an important position in the use of language. Cook (in Lucas, 2005) makes the argument that language play is even one of the primary uses of language. Partly due to the focus on research in second language learning, advanced L2 users’ language processing gets little attention in research on language use (Shaw & McMillion, 2008). Therefore, there is limited knowledge regarding the reading processes of this group.  While Shaw and McMillion (2008) show that there is no difference in language proficiency between L1 and advanced L2 readers, Paradis (2009) argues that there indeed is a difference in processing among L1 and advanced L2 speakers. Gernsbacher and Robertson (1995) examined the differences in processing between more and less skilled L1 readers using ambiguous words and puns. However, this kind of research has not been done for L1 and advanced L2 readers.  A study concerning the speed and ability in pun recognition was carried out to investigate whether any differences could be found between L1 and advanced L2 readers, with the same language proficiency. Tests in accuracy and speed in recognizing puns were carried out with university students in Stockholm and Los Angeles, while a survey investigating degree of amusement was distributed online.  Initial hypotheses assumed that L1 readers, compared to L2 readers, would be both more skilled and faster at identifying a number of categories of puns as well as perceiving all categories of puns as being more amusing. Results show support for some of these hypotheses: L1 speakers were faster and more accurate in finding certain categories of puns. However, other categories showed no difference, and results were not able to prove differences in degree of amusement between the two groups. Questions about other categorizations of puns are raised, as well as further research opportunities.

The continued underperformance of many L2 students at primary, secondary and tertiary level is a cause for grave concern in South Africa. In an attempt to better understand the cognitivelinguistic conditions and processes that underlie academic performance and underperformance, this study looks at the problem of differential academic performance by focussing on the inferential ability of undergraduate L2 students during the reading of expository texts. The study works within a constructivist theory of reading, where the successful understanding of a text is seen to involve the construction of a mental representation of what the text is about. Inferencing plays an important role in constructing meaning during reading because it enables the reader to link incoming information with already given information, and it enables the reader to construct a mental representation of the meaning of a text by converting the linear input into a hierarchical mental representation of interrelated information. The main finding showed that the ability to make inferences during the reading of expository texts was strongly related to academic performance: the more inferences students made during the reading of expository texts, the better they performed academically. This relationship held across the making of various inferences, such as anaphoric inferences, vocabulary inferences, inferences about various semantic relations, and thematic inferences. In particular, the ability to make anaphoric, contrastive and causal inferences emerged as the strongest predictors of academic performance. The study provides strong empirical evidence that the ability to make inferences during reading enables a reader to construct meaning and thereby also to acquire new knowledge. Reading is not only a tool for independently accessing information in an information-driven society, it is fundamentally a tool for constructing meaning. Reading and inferencing are not additional tools that students need to master in the learning context- they constitute the very process whereby learning occurs. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

The continued underperformance of many L2 students at primary, secondary and tertiary level is a cause for grave concern in South Africa. In an attempt to better understand the cognitivelinguistic conditions and processes that underlie academic performance and underperformance, this study looks at the problem of differential academic performance by focussing on the inferential ability of undergraduate L2 students during the reading of expository texts. The study works within a constructivist theory of reading, where the successful understanding of a text is seen to involve the construction of a mental representation of what the text is about. Inferencing plays an important role in constructing meaning during reading because it enables the reader to link incoming information with already given information, and it enables the reader to construct a mental representation of the meaning of a text by converting the linear input into a hierarchical mental representation of interrelated information. The main finding showed that the ability to make inferences during the reading of expository texts was strongly related to academic performance: the more inferences students made during the reading of expository texts, the better they performed academically. This relationship held across the making of various inferences, such as anaphoric inferences, vocabulary inferences, inferences about various semantic relations, and thematic inferences. In particular, the ability to make anaphoric, contrastive and causal inferences emerged as the strongest predictors of academic performance. The study provides strong empirical evidence that the ability to make inferences during reading enables a reader to construct meaning and thereby also to acquire new knowledge. Reading is not only a tool for independently accessing information in an information-driven society, it is fundamentally a tool for constructing meaning. Reading and inferencing are not additional tools that students need to master in the learning context- they constitute the very process whereby learning occurs. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)