LINGUOCOGNITIVE FOUNDATIONS FOR DEVELOPING ENGLISH TEXT COMPREHENSION COMPETENCE

This article theoretically examines the linguocognitive foundations for developing English text comprehension competence. Text comprehension is understood not merely as grasping the meanings of linguistic units, but as a complex process involving learners’ cognitive activity, prior knowledge, memory, attention, logical reasoning, inferencing, and effective use of metacognitive strategies. Vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, morphological awareness, working memory, and higher-order cognitive skills are important factors in reading English texts. Recent studies indicate that L2 reading comprehension develops through the interaction of linguistic and cognitive factors (Vettori et al., 2024). It is also argued that instruction based on principles of cognitive linguistics can promote a deeper understanding of language units through conceptualization, schemas, semantic associations, context, and imagery (Liu & Qin, 2024). The article discusses the linguistic, cognitive, semantic, and metacognitive aspects of English text comprehension and substantiates opportunities for developing reading competence through the integration of these components. The findings may provide a theoretical and methodological basis for designing comprehension-focused tasks, developing learners’ analytical and critical thinking, and fostering independent reading.