Illustrated by an empirical study of English as a Foreign Language reading in Argentina, this book argues for a different approach to the theoretical rationales and methodological designs typically used to investigate cultural understanding in reading, in particular foreign language reading. It presents an alternative approach which is more authentic in its methods, more educational in its purposes, and more supportive of international understanding as an aim of language teaching in general and English language teaching in particular.

Melina Porto is Professor of English Language at Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina and Researcher at Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina.

Michael Byram is Professor Emeritus at University of Durham, UK, Guest Professor at University of Luxembourg, and Visiting Professor at University of Sussex, UK.

Foreword Henry Widdowson Introduction. 1. Reading and Cultural Understanding 2. A Model of Cultural Understanding of Texts 3. Using the Model of Cultural Understanding in text selection and analysis 4. Analysing Comprehension of Texts in Readers' First Language 5. Developing New Instruments for Research and Teaching 6. The Reading Response Task and Foreign Language Texts 7. The Visual Representation Task and Foreign Language Texts 8. Using the Model of Cultural Understanding in Self-Assessment 9. Conclusions