Linguistics and Language Compass

When the mind wanders to unrelated thoughts and feelings while reading, the eyes often continue to scan the words without due attention to their meaning. This mindless reading, similar to states such as daydreaming or absentminded lapses, is a state of decoupled processing in which attention to ongoing perceptual information is reduced often in favor of the active consideration of internally generated thoughts and feelings. Normal reading involves a complex interaction between bottom‐up representations of the text that is being read and top‐down representations of the more general context that help to keep the readers mind on what they are doing. Since states of decoupling involve a reduced processing of sensory information, the coupling between the reader and the text breaks down during mindless reading. This reduced external coupling is one reason why mind‐wandering during reading has significant implications for reading comprehension. Following the presentation of a model of the decoupled state and a specific consideration of mind‐wandering during reading, five key unresolved issues for future research in mindless reading are identified.

In the last 20 years, several scholars have referred to willingness to communicate (WTC) as a useful construct in explaining an individual's first (L1) and second language (L2) communication. WTC in L2 is defined as a readiness to initiate discourse with specific person(s) at a particular time, using an L2 (MacIntyre, Dörnyei, Clément, and Noels ). This paper presents a sketch of the current themes and research directions in WTC, which are particularly novel or forward‐looking. The survey is divided into several main sections: the origin and theoretical advancements, orientations in research methodology, and directions for future research. The paper discusses how WTC was originally conceptualized with reference to L1 communication and, later, introduced as welcome appendage to L2 pedagogy. Furthermore, it compares trait‐like and situational views toward L2 WTC and argues for the importance of facilitating WTC in language learners. Finally, the paper outlines some possible venues for further research that can expand advance in L2 WTC research.