The purpose of this study is to explore the source of reading ability in a foreign language (English). The interest in this study lies in whether the first language reading ability and / or general cognitive ability such as graphic symbol memory contribute(s) to the second language reading ability. The author's previous study (Yanase, 1988) found that verbal efficiency (the number of correct responses performed within a limited time) revealed differrences between good and poor readers, while

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... uracy (the number of correct response irrespective of time limitation) did not (d. Perfetti, 1985). Good readers performed better in three reading tasks ranging from word recognition to discourse creation. No interaction was found between reading ability and the three tasks, indicating that good readers were consistently better than poor readers in the performance. It was suggested that the source of reading ability lies in at a more fundamental level than that of word recognition. What, then, could be the source of difference in reading ability in a foreign language ? Many studies are done on the source of reading ability in a first language. Vellutino and Scanlon (1987 ) made a comprehensive review of the issue and supported the view that reading ability is not related with visual percePtion, visual memory, association learning, serial memory and rule learning. Thus they suggested that reading ability is linguistic ability, . as opposed to general cognitive ability cited above. Concerning the relationship between first and second language (reading) ability, some studies claim that the first language (reading) ability is related to the second language ability. Cummins (1979), for instance, proposed the concept of cognitive / academic language proficiency