This study investigates the influence of cognitive ability on EFL
reading comprehension (development). 138 EFL students participated with
data collected at a week interval. At Time 1, the participants were
either 18 or 19 years old. Reading comprehension measures targeted
comprehension using multiple comprehension tests were conducted. At
Time 2, the researcher randomly presented 14 reading passages to 138
Japanese college students in one of the three forms: (a)baseline, (b)
simplified, or (c) elaborated. The texts cover a wide range of genres;
biology, economics, science, psychology, and daily issues.
Comprehension, assessed by 43 multiple-choice test items was highest
among learners reading the simplified version, and significantly
different from those reading the elaborated and baseline version. The
type of modification interacted significantly with the kind of test item
used for assessing comprehension - specific, general, or inference -
showing there is a significant difference in specific test-item, but
not in both general and inference test-item. It suggests that different
kinds of text facilitate different levels of comprehension.

Takaaki Takeuchi is a professor in the Department of Foreign Language
Education at Aichi University of Education, Japan. His interests are in
instructed second language acquisition and English education in Japan.
His recent papers focus on corrective feedback and classroom
observation, and how language is learned through motivation and
instruction.