The Influence Of Tolerance Of Ambiguity On Chinese College Students During Their Reading Comprehension

People often request the precision in the course of using languages,paying attention to the conciseness and comprehensiveness of language.However,language phenomena are complex. Sometimes what communicators say is not really what they mean,which will cause some misunderstanding in between.As a linguistic phenomenon;ambiguity is universal,existing in all languages.English is quite different in syntax,vocabulary and phonetics;hence,Chinese College Non-English Majors inevitably encounter ambiguous phenomena,which can decide the filter of language,the speed and quality of language learning,and even affects the final learning outcome in language input and fusion.Therefore,to absorb and deal with English information,learners must own a certain degree of tolerance of ambiguity.Tolerance of ambiguity should not be neglected in the process of foreign language learning.In 1949,based on the research of intolerance of ambiguity learners,Frenhel-Brunswik who was a psychologist first put forward the term of tolerance of ambiguity and its definition. At present,tolerance of ambiguity,which has been found to have a close relation with the second language acquisition,attracting more and more attention by linguists and scholars at home and abroad.Reading is important in foreign or second language learning.In China, reading comprehension has the largest part in the whole score of all kinds of exams and English proficiency tests.Participants in this study were 81juniors from Harbin Engineering University.Data required by the study were obtained by using two measurements:the Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale(Ely) as well as the reading comprehension achievement of College Test Band 4(CET-4).Statistical analyses were conducted by SPSS(statistical package for social science),version 16.0.Based on the literature available,this research probed into the relationship between the tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension achievements in the process of reading.The following conclusions are obtained:1.By applying Pearson Correlation analysis,it is verified that there was a statistically significant positive correlation between non-English majors' tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension achievement.The correlation between high level tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension score is uncorrelated.The correlation between moderate tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension score is positive,what is more,there is a significant correlation between the two variables.The correlation between low level tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension score is uncorrelated.2.By applying an independent-sample t-test to compare the variance and mean scores of ambiguity of tolerance in different genders,the male students' tolerance of ambiguity in reading is slightly higher than the females'(8.65＞8.46),whereas there was no significant difference in tolerance of ambiguity in reading between male and female groups(P＞0.05).3.An independent-sample t-test was used for a second time to explore the variance and mean scores of ambiguity of tolerance in different majors.Based on the statistical mean data, engineering students were more tolerant than arts students in reading(8.75＞8.36),but there was no significant difference in tolerance of ambiguity(P＞0.05).The article takes trial and preliminary exploration about tolerance of ambiguity in the field of reading comprehension.Before the thesis goes to the conclusion,some proposals are put forward in the hope of offering a modest spur and presenting some enlightenment for English reading and teaching in China.