Özet:

Reading comprehension is one of the main language ability and some studies have proposed that it is the most important skill needed by L2 students for academic success (McDonough and Shaw, 1993; Ostler, 1980). Being such an important skill for academic success, L2 reading comprehension is profoundly affected by various factors such as L1 reading comprehension, L2 grammatical knowledge, L2 lexical knowledge, decoding, and etc. The aim of this study is to find out the contribution of L1 reading comprehension, L2 grammatical knowledge, and L2 lexical knowledge to L2 reading comprehension of Turkish 1st and 4th grade ELT students. 91 Turkish ELT students participated in the current study. 4 different standardized tests were applied to measure L2 reading comprehension, L1 reading comprehension, L2 grammatical knowledge, and L2 lexical knowledge levels of the participants. Correlation matrix and multiple regression analysis were conducted and the analysis showed that there is high positive and significant correlation between L2 reading comprehension and L2 vocabulary, L2 grammatical knowledge, and L1 reading comprehension of 1st grade ELT students respectively. Similarly, L2 vocabulary, L2 grammatical knowledge have positive and significant contribution to L2 reading comprehension of 4th grade ELT students while L1 reading comprehension does not have significant contribution to L2 reading comprehension of 4h grade ELT students. The current study has been conducted with Turkish students who are learning English as a second language. Therefore, the results might be limited to Turkish ELF learners and might not be generalized to other L1 contexts. The findings of the study have been discussed with reference to the literature and pedagogical implications have been suggested.

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