中国学生英语论述文篇章处理模式

Chinese Learners?Text Processing Strategies in Reading English Expository Texts

篇章处理模式是影响阅读理解的一个重要因素。第一语言阅读研究发现三种不同的篇章处理模式,并对影响读者篇章处理模式的因素进行了分析。但在二语阅读研究中,对读者的篇章处理模式存在争议。为了检验二语读者的篇章处理模式,作者对64名中国大学生进行了一项有声思维实验,发现了四种不同的篇章处理模式,并分析了语言水平和文章结构对这四种篇章处理模式的影响,得出综合处理模式是最有效的阅读理解模式的结论,同时提出随着二语读者英语水平的提高,他们会更积极地思维,并根据文章结构调整自己的阅读策略的意见。

Reading comprehension is a very complicated cognitive process. In L1 reading research, three major types of text processing strategies were discovered: top-down, bottom-up and integrative. It has been universally recognized that the integrative strategy is the best one. It was also found that age is an important factor that affects the reader抯 text processing strategies. In L2 reading research, however, opinions differed. Some scholars believed that L2 reading strategies were fundamentally similar to L1 reading strategies. But some scholars believed that L2 text processing strategies were fundamentally bottom-up. Block (1986) and Horiba (1996) conducted a study of L2 text processing strategies respectively, and came up with contradictory conclusions. In order to test the conclusions drawn by Block and Horiba, the author conducted a study of L2 text processing strategies. 64 Chinese university students at two proficiency levels participated in the study. They performed the think-aloud task when reading an English expository text. Upon finishing reading and performing the think-aloud task, all the subjects were required to write down what they remembered of the text in details. Upon analyzing the processing activities of the subjects, four predominant processing strategies were discovered: integrators, passive followers, subjective processors and passive processors. ANOVA analysis showed that different text processing strategies had significant effects on the scores of written recall. Sheffé抯 test showed that the integrators were much better than the subjective processors and the passive processors in their written recall but not significantly different from the passive followers. A Chi-square test was conducted to find out the effects of language proficiency and text structure on the reader抯 text processing strategies, and it was found that language proficiency had significant effects on the passive processors but not the other types, while text structure had significant effects on the integrators and subjective processors but not the other types. The results not only showed that L2 text processing strategies were similar to L1 text processing strategies, they also revealed that the integrative strategy was the best one in L2 reading. The results were not only consistent to those in L1 reading research but also confirmed the findings by Block. Besides, the results showed that the structural strategy suggested by Meyer (1984) was an effective strategy in expository text processing, as it enabled the passive followers to build up their mental representation of the text by following the macro-structure of the text. The results also suggested that with the improvement of proficiency in the target language, L2 learners tended to transfer their L1 text processing strategies to L2 reading. What is more important is the finding of the effects of text structure on the integrators and subjective processors. It implies that L2 readers may adopt different strategies in dealing with texts of different cohesiveness. In general, the study confirms Koda抯 (1987) assumption that 揾uman cognitive processes are fundamentally the same?and points out the importance of text processing strategies in L2 reading.