A Study Of The Effects Of Working Memory On Chinese EFL Learners' On-line Causal Inference Generation

The dissertation presents a study of on-line causal inference generation among Chinese EFL learners. This study explores the effect of working memory on causal inference-making during expository text comprehension.On the basis of the extant theories and empirical evidence concerning the reading and inferencing process, the author points out the hypotheses of the present study: it is assumed that on-line causal inferences that EFL learners at China's tertiary schools generate correlate significantly with their working memory span, that is, readers with larger functional working memory capacities exhibit faster responses to targets, whereas their low functional working memory counterparts do not.In order to test the hypothesis and study the L2 on-line causal inference process during expository text comprehension, an experiment is designed. The present research is implemented among ninety-four third-year non-English majors in Ocean University of China and employs the psychological on-time research software DMDX to record the respondents'response time and response results. The data show that EFL learners'working memory span affects the success of causal inferential processing. High span readers can respond faster and make fewer errors than their low span counterparts. The results of this experiment support the contention that readers'working memory is an important factor during the on-line generation of causal inferences.The results of the present study contribute theoretically, methodologically and pedagogically to the fields of L2 reading and English language teaching in China. Theoretically, this study yields insight into the nature of L2 reading processes and addresses some fundamental issues in L2 expository text processing, thus contributing to the research on on–line causal inferences. Methodologically, the present investigation employs reading time and methods, the on-line measurements which are widely used in Ll inference research to investigate Chinese EFL learners' on-line causal inferencing. Thus, it expands the research methods to the research on L2 reading and inferencing research. Pedagogically, the findings of the present study also suggest that EFL teachers and learners should shift the traditional teaching and learning methods and pay more attention to comprehension processes.This thesis consists of five parts. The introduction part provides the research orientation, objectives and the outline of this study. Chapter Two theoretically and empirically reviews relevant literature. Three reading models, i.e. bottom-up, top-down and interactive models have also been expatiated in this part. Chapter Three introduces the experiment. It describes the experiment participants, materials and the procedures. The following chapter, Chapter Four, provides the data analysis and a general discussion of the results about this study. The final chapter concludes the major findings, summarizes implications of the study and provides suggestions for future research.