Restructuring:Evidence From Chinese-speaking Learners' Development Of English Mitigation

The information processing theories have been emphasized much during the rapid development of the field of second language acquisition research. In this line. restructuring theory has been drawing increasing attention. It has been proved that practice can lead to improvement in performance as sub-skills become automated, but it is also possible for increased practice to create conditions for restructuring, with attendant decrements in performance as learners reorganize their internal representational framework (McLaughlin,1990).In the process of second language acquisition, the newly learned information access into the learners' language system, disturbing the stability of the whole system, and then resulting in restructuring. Accordingly, it has become the research focus to master the key period of knowledge restructuring, so as to improve the learners'learning ability.The thesis is an empirical study framed in the restructuring theory about language learning and teaching, and aimed to explore whether Chinese EFL learners'development of English mitigation follows the modes as suggested in restructuring theory. 78 students participated in this study.24 second year high school students formed Group 1, and other students majored in English including 26 sophomores formed Group 2 as well as 28 second year postgraduates formed Group 3. A test, a questionnaire-based survey and another questionnaire was carried out among them. All the other conditions of the subjects were controlled, and they have the same testing materials and length of the class time. Data were collected from the test and the questionnaires, and the statistic analysis of One-way ANOVA was applied to the data.The results showed that Chinese EFL learners' development of English mitigation follows the modes as suggested in restructuring theory. According to McLaughlin (1990). learners in high school have learned some rules in the target language at the initial stage, but most of them cannot use it correctly; at the second stage, learners of sophomores are able to use those rules and progressively refine and automate the operations; and postgraduates at the third stage have acquired and perfected complex processing skills that allowed for rapid processing of incoming material. The whole restructuring process can be testified in the experiment.Results of the study suggested that it is necessary for students to have more practice, develop more skills in second language learning, and master the key period of restructuring so as to improve students'learning ability. Thus, the research may have provided a justification and a criterion for restructuring training as well.