基于自定步速阅读实验的英语关系从句加工研究

Studying the Processing of English Relative Clauses Based on a Self-paced Reading Experiment

目前国内外对关系从句加工的研究主要针对母语者。本文采用自定步速阅读实验考察二语学习者与母语者加工主语和宾语关系从句的异同。实验对象包括两组不同语言水平的中国英语学习者和一组英语本族语者。实验结果显示,中国英语专业硕士生能够像英语母语者那样利用句法信息为基础的积极填充词策略和语义信息来加工句子,而高中三年级学生则更多地依赖语义信息。据此可以推断,二语学习者能否像母语者那样使用句法信息来加工句子与语言水平密切相关。本研究对二语学习者句子加工模型的建立和英语教学均有一定的启示意义。

Existing research on relative clause processing mainly focuses on native speakers. This paper studies the processing of subject and object relative clauses by I2 learners. The study is based on a self-paced reading experiment participated by two groups of Chinese learners of English at different proficiency levels and a control group of English native speakers. Results show that master students process the clauses in ahnost the same way as native speakers, by making use of stnlcture-based active filler strategy as well as semantic information. In contrast, high school learners mainly rely on semantic information. It is thus inferred that L2 proficiency plays an important role in L2 learners＇ recruitment of syntactic information. This research sheds some light on the construction of L2 sentence processing models as well as second language teaching practice, especially English teaching in China.