Abstract:
The present study reviews the results and findings of the previous studies on reading comprehension and
vocabulary of ESL/EFL learners. The majority of the studies showed that L2 reading can help second
language acquisition. Sometimes, many unfamiliar words are found in reading texts and students fail to
notice all these unfamiliar words and understand the whole texts. Most of the studies have confirmed that
glosses are very useful for vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. This paper reviewed the
previous studies from a new view; whether textual glosses have significance in L2 reading
comprehension or not. The implication of the researches, the limitation of the studies and the direction of
the future research were discussed. The researcher found that there is no consistency in the results of the
previous studies. Therefore, the researcher recommends more studies to explore which glosses are more
effective in reading comprehension of ESL/EFL learners
