不同二语水平中国英语学习者情绪词汇的语义-韵律加工研究

Effects of L2 proficiency on the semantics and prosody processing of emotion words: Evidence from Chinese English learners

语义效价与情感韵律不一致会造成听话人在理解情绪词汇时存在困难,这种现象被称为语义-韵律斯特鲁普效应。本研究以不同水平的中国英语学习者为研究对象,分别进行韵律判断任务和语义判断任务。结果显示:1)低水平学习者在韵律判断任务中的反应时显著短于语义判断任务,而高水平学习者在两个任务中的反应时未呈现显著差异;2)高水平学习者在语义-韵律一致条件下的反应时显著短于不一致条件,而低水平学习者则没有展现出此种语义-韵律斯特鲁普效应;3)低水平学习者对积极语义的反应时显著短于消极语义,对伤心情绪的反应时显著短于开心情绪,高水平学习者则未展现对特定语义效价或情感韵律的偏好。本研究表明,在二语情绪词汇加工中,低水平学习者偏向于借助韵律通道,而高水平学习者未表现出明显的优势通道。语义-韵律斯特鲁普效应的强度与二语水平呈正相关关系,但更高的二语水平并不一定意味着处理干扰信息的能力更强。

The inconsistency between the semantic valence and emotional prosody adds barriers to listeners’ emotion word processing, which is known as the semantics-prosody Stroop effect. In this study, Chinese-speaking L2 learners with different levels of English proficiency were asked to perform prosody and semantics tasks. Results showed that: 1) low-level learners had a shorter reaction time on the prosody task than on the semantics task, while high-level learners did not show significantly different reaction times on the two tasks;2) high-level learners reacted faster under the consistent condition in either task, while there was no semantics-prosody Stroop effect in low-level learners;and 3) low-level learners showed a shorter reaction time in response to positive words and sad emotion, but high-level learners did not show bias towards any semantic valence or emotional prosody. The findings indicated that during the processing of L2 emotion words, low-level Chinese English learners showed a prosodic-channel preference, while no channel bias was found among high-level learners. There is a positive correlation between the intensity of the semantics-prosody Stroop effect and second language proficiency, but improving second language proficiency does not necessarily mean the enhancement of the ability to deal with interference information.