This sutdy intends to shed light on the nature of L2 reading for provlding instructors in this field fundamental and essential information to examine their unconscious assumptions about L2 reading, and therefore to evaluate teaching approaches efficlently. As L2 reading is basically one kind of reading behavior, any attempts to trace the development of L2 reading must begin with a solid understanding of the nature of reading. Following the recognition of the nature of reading,the rich complexity of L2 reading is explored through portraying both the brief recent history of theories of L2 reading and the recent research arguments concerning the L2 reading process. It is hoped that when neither L2 reading is treated merely as "reading" nor L2 readers are regarded merely as "readers," instructors may not oniy pay more attention on predicting the kinds of diffi-culty their students may encounter in learning to read another language, but also may try to meet their students' special needs in selecting material, designing tests, and applying instructional approabaches. 本文旨在闡明非母語閱讀的本質，希望藉以提供在此領域的教學者一些根本而必要的訊息，檢測潛意識中對非母語閱讀的假設，進而助益有效評估教學的實現。基於非母語閱讀亦隸屬閱讀行為的一種，本文的探索啟始於對閱讀本質的認知。而後，經由近代理論之勾勒，佐以眾多學者之論證，呈現出非母語閱讀的複雜性。當非母語閱讀不再被誤認為一般閱讀，而其讀者也不再被待之以一般讀者，教學者除將更留心於預測學生在學習閱讀他種語言可能遭逢的困難外，也將在教材選擇、測驗設計和教學法應用上配合學生特殊的需求。
