This experimental study investigated how text difficulty and different working memory capacity(WMC)affected Chinese EFL learners’reading comprehension and their tendency to engage in task-unrelated thoughts,that is,m...This experimental study investigated how text difficulty and different working memory capacity(WMC)affected Chinese EFL learners’reading comprehension and their tendency to engage in task-unrelated thoughts,that is,mind wandering(MW),in the course of reading.Sixty first-year university non-English majors participated in the study.A two-factor mixed experimental design of 2(text difficulty:difficult and simple)×2(WMC:high/large and low/small)was employed.Results revealed that 1)the main and interaction effects of WMC and text difficulty on voluntary MW were significant,whereas those on involuntary MW were not;2)while reading the easy texts,the involuntary MW of high-WMC individuals was less frequent than that of low-WMC ones,whereas while reading the difficult ones,the direct relationship between WMC and involuntary MW was not found;and that 3)high-WMC individuals had a lower overall rate of MW and better reading performance than low-WMC individuals did,but with increasing text difficulty,their rates of overall MW and voluntary MW were getting higher and higher,and the reading performance was getting lower and lower.These results lend support to WM theory and have pedagogical implications for the instruction of L2 reading.展开更多
The present study constitutes a critical appraisal of the deconstructive reading of Rousseau＇s Confessions that Derrida undertakes in the second part of Of Grammatology. In this examination, the author will first lis...The present study constitutes a critical appraisal of the deconstructive reading of Rousseau＇s Confessions that Derrida undertakes in the second part of Of Grammatology. In this examination, the author will first list some of the significations into which Derrida disperses （forced, as he asserts himself, by an ＂inassimilable residue＂ in the text itself） the meaning that he has already construed as apparently simple during the first moment of deconstructive reading （i.e., ＂the doubling commentary＂）; the author will then go on to enquire into the operations which enable Derrida to arrive at these self-conflicting significations. The main aim of this essay is to demonstrate that it is not language alone that disables the philosophy of Rousseau and enables the philosophy of Derrida. When Derrida attempts to support his philosophy through an analysis of Rousseau＇s theory of language and the alleged contradictions in Rousseau＇s texts, he misinterprets basic tenets of these texts in order to make them conform to the presuppositions of the deconstructive approach. The ＂reversal＂ and ＂displacement＂ of metaphysical conceptuality in the text of the Confessions is made possible after the text has had meanings transposed into it from a plurality of other texts. Derrida attributes to the text significations he discovers by construing, explicating and over-reading passages that occur elsewhere in Rousseau＇s total oeuvre （especially in the Essay on the Origin of Languages）.展开更多
This paper is intended to reveal the likelihood that conceptual categorization can be used to understand a text by reconstructing the semantic categories through which the author＇s meaning is conveyed, and proposes a...This paper is intended to reveal the likelihood that conceptual categorization can be used to understand a text by reconstructing the semantic categories through which the author＇s meaning is conveyed, and proposes an alternative way to look into reading comprehension. It is proposed that categorization can be taken as an alternative approach to second/foreign language reading instruction. That is, while reading comprehension is defined in terms of the ability to recognize the inclusion and membership properties of contextually determined semantic categories in a text, the learner needs to arrange the events, actions, or concepts into a structured unit, both horizontally and vertically. Categorization theory will be introduced in relation to Rosch famous studies （1973, 1975）, examples taken from a graded reader will be illustrated as how to identify items with category structure, and finally issues that are not addressed in this paper will be discussed.展开更多
With the progress of the implementation of College English Reformation, the balance of distributed attention between six requirements is assuming more and more weight for the primary purpose of improving learners'...With the progress of the implementation of College English Reformation, the balance of distributed attention between six requirements is assuming more and more weight for the primary purpose of improving learners' listening and speaking competences. Under such circumstance efficiency in teaching and learning reading comprehension is increasingly becoming crucial since it constitutes an indispensable part of acquiring English as a second language. The orientation of functional discourse markers at various textual levels in CET reading texts is elaborated upon in this paper to map out one alternative way to contriving an effective reading strategy on the basis of reading test — reading strategy study.展开更多
文摘This experimental study investigated how text difficulty and different working memory capacity(WMC)affected Chinese EFL learners’reading comprehension and their tendency to engage in task-unrelated thoughts,that is,mind wandering(MW),in the course of reading.Sixty first-year university non-English majors participated in the study.A two-factor mixed experimental design of 2(text difficulty:difficult and simple)×2(WMC:high/large and low/small)was employed.Results revealed that 1)the main and interaction effects of WMC and text difficulty on voluntary MW were significant,whereas those on involuntary MW were not;2)while reading the easy texts,the involuntary MW of high-WMC individuals was less frequent than that of low-WMC ones,whereas while reading the difficult ones,the direct relationship between WMC and involuntary MW was not found;and that 3)high-WMC individuals had a lower overall rate of MW and better reading performance than low-WMC individuals did,but with increasing text difficulty,their rates of overall MW and voluntary MW were getting higher and higher,and the reading performance was getting lower and lower.These results lend support to WM theory and have pedagogical implications for the instruction of L2 reading.
文摘The present study constitutes a critical appraisal of the deconstructive reading of Rousseau＇s Confessions that Derrida undertakes in the second part of Of Grammatology. In this examination, the author will first list some of the significations into which Derrida disperses （forced, as he asserts himself, by an ＂inassimilable residue＂ in the text itself） the meaning that he has already construed as apparently simple during the first moment of deconstructive reading （i.e., ＂the doubling commentary＂）; the author will then go on to enquire into the operations which enable Derrida to arrive at these self-conflicting significations. The main aim of this essay is to demonstrate that it is not language alone that disables the philosophy of Rousseau and enables the philosophy of Derrida. When Derrida attempts to support his philosophy through an analysis of Rousseau＇s theory of language and the alleged contradictions in Rousseau＇s texts, he misinterprets basic tenets of these texts in order to make them conform to the presuppositions of the deconstructive approach. The ＂reversal＂ and ＂displacement＂ of metaphysical conceptuality in the text of the Confessions is made possible after the text has had meanings transposed into it from a plurality of other texts. Derrida attributes to the text significations he discovers by construing, explicating and over-reading passages that occur elsewhere in Rousseau＇s total oeuvre （especially in the Essay on the Origin of Languages）.
文摘This paper is intended to reveal the likelihood that conceptual categorization can be used to understand a text by reconstructing the semantic categories through which the author＇s meaning is conveyed, and proposes an alternative way to look into reading comprehension. It is proposed that categorization can be taken as an alternative approach to second/foreign language reading instruction. That is, while reading comprehension is defined in terms of the ability to recognize the inclusion and membership properties of contextually determined semantic categories in a text, the learner needs to arrange the events, actions, or concepts into a structured unit, both horizontally and vertically. Categorization theory will be introduced in relation to Rosch famous studies （1973, 1975）, examples taken from a graded reader will be illustrated as how to identify items with category structure, and finally issues that are not addressed in this paper will be discussed.
文摘With the progress of the implementation of College English Reformation, the balance of distributed attention between six requirements is assuming more and more weight for the primary purpose of improving learners' listening and speaking competences. Under such circumstance efficiency in teaching and learning reading comprehension is increasingly becoming crucial since it constitutes an indispensable part of acquiring English as a second language. The orientation of functional discourse markers at various textual levels in CET reading texts is elaborated upon in this paper to map out one alternative way to contriving an effective reading strategy on the basis of reading test — reading strategy study.
