A Study Of The Effects Of Reader's Reading Ability And Context Condition On On-line Predictive Inference Generation During L2 Narrative Text Comprehension

This thesis presents a study of the effects of two factors:reader's reading ability and context condition on Chinese EFL learners'on-line predictive inference generation during narrative text comprehension. With an attempt to reveal the cognitive process of predictive inference generation and the effects of factors influencing predictive inferencing during the process of narrative text comprehension, and based on relevant theories and empirical studies, the study aimed to test the following three hypotheses:firstly, when a narrative's context condition is more active and supportive, it will be more possible and easier for readers to generate predictive inferences on-line; secondly, for high-skilled readers, the activation of on-line predictive inferences will be much easier than their low-skilled counterparts; and thirdly, there exists an interaction effect between the two factors.In order to test these hypotheses, an experiment was designed and carried out among 60 non-English majors from the College of Oceanography of Ocean University of China. The Reading Time (RT) method was adopted, with the psychological research software DMDX being applied to this investigation to record response times and response results of the subjects.The results proved that the process of predictive inference generation during narrative text comprehension is affected by both context condition and EFL readers'reading ability.This thesis consists of five parts. It starts with an introduction, providing the research orientation, objectives and outline of this study. Chapter One contains a literature review and an introduction to the Constructionist Theory and the Minimalist Hypotheses. Related with the models, the author focused on the review and discussion of two topics:whether predictive inferences can be generated or not during the reading process and factors that can affect the generation of predictive inferences. Chapter Two is concerned with the experiment with detailed descriptions of methods and procedures for the experiment being presented. Chapter Three provides the data found in the present study and the results of the analysis of the data. A summary of the major findings and implications of the present study, and suggestions for future studies are presented in the last chapter.