While online lexical analysis tools can help reading teachers determine whether materials are suitable for their students of English as a second language, one aspect of the analysis that teachers may be unsure how to approach is proper names. It is commonly assumed in second language (L2) vocabulary and reading research that proper names are known, though there is little empirical support for this assumption. This study investigates how L2 readers handle proper names in continuous text. Japanese readers of English ( N = 49) were given texts of varying difficulty, and asked to mark any unknown vocabulary. Choosing from marked vocabulary, participants listed items to check in a dictionary. It was found that participants did mark proper names as unknown vocabulary. A Chi-square test of independence indicated a significant dependence between the number of names marked as unknown and text difficulty, with a small to medium effect size ( V = .23). Nearly a third of participants listed at least one proper name to check, not supporting the assumption that L2 readers understand all proper names. The finding that proper names may represent enough of a burden to trigger look-up behaviour has implications for classroom teachers, and materials and test writers.

中文翻译：

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L2 英语读者如何理解专有名词？


虽然在线词汇分析工具可以帮助阅读教师确定材料是否适合英语作为第二语言的学生，但教师可能不确定如何处理的分析的一个方面是专有名词。在第二语言 (L2) 词汇和阅读研究中，通常假设专有名称是已知的，尽管这一假设几乎没有经验支持。本研究调查了第二语言读者如何处理连续文本中的专有名称。日本英语读者（N = 49）被给予不同难度的文本，并要求标记任何未知的词汇。参与者从标记的词汇中进行选择，列出要在字典中检查的项目。结果发现，参与者确实将专有名词标记为未知词汇。卡方独立性检验表明，标记为未知的名称数量与文本难度之间存在显着相关性，效应大小为小到中等 (V = .23)。近三分之一的参与者列出了至少一个专有名称来检查，不支持第二语言读者理解所有专有名称的假设。专有名称可能会带来足够的负担来触发查找行为，这一发现对课堂教师、材料和测试编写者都有影响。