A Comparative Study Of Temporal Thinking Patterns By Chinese EFL Learners At Different Proficiency Levels

People around the world may rely on space to think about time.For example,people can represent elapsing time via the horizontal axis(e.g.,to conceive of temporal sequences as oriented from left to right)or the vertical axis(e.g.,from top to bottom).This study which recruited Chinese EFL learners at high and low proficiency levels as participants sought to examine the similarities and differences of the temporal thinking patterns between EFL learners at different proficiency levels through two psychological experiments.The ultimate purpose is to explore the rationality and possibility of the mainstream theoretical viewpoints on the relationship between second language acquisition and thinking patterns and to test whether second language acquisition can influence or even change people’s habitual thinking patterns.Three questions are addressed:1)How do Chinese EFL learners at low proficiency levels think about time?2)How do Chinese EFL learners at high proficiency levels think about time?3)Are there any differences or similarities in the temporal thinking patterns between Chinese EFL learners at different proficiency levels?A total of 142 Chinese EFL learners took part in the study.Experiment 1 used a card arrangement task,which required the participants to arrange several groups of pictures depicting the development of natural events(e.g.,the growing process of animals/plants,aging of people)in the correct chronological order.Experiment 2 used the E-Prime software to design the program required for the experiment.In the task,a set of pictures depicting the time sequence of event change development was presented on the computer screen.Some were arranged along the horizontal axis and some were arranged along the vertical axis.The participants were asked to judge whether the time sequence in the picture was in the correct order or notResults demonstrate that:1)Chinese EFL learners at low proficiency levels possess both horizontal and vertical axes in their temporal thinking patterns;2)Chinese EFL learners at high proficiency levels also rely on horizontal and vertical axes to represent time.3)Therefore,there exist great similarities in the temporal thinking patterns by Chinese EFL learners at different proficiency levels.The temporal thinking patterns exhibited by Chinese EFL learners at high and low proficiency levels are highly consistent with those of Chinese monolinguals found in previous studies.But there is a salient difference between Chinese EFL learners and English native speakers in temporal thinking patterns since native English learners only depend on the horizontal axis to represent time.Therefore,it appears that second language acquisition of English may not affect the temporal thinking patterns of native speakers of ChineseThis study examined the three hypotheses proposed by Yang and Sun(2016a)regarding the relationship between temporal thinking patterns and second language acquisition,and in particular verified the first hypothesis,i.e.,second language acquisition would not affect or even change the basic conceptual structure or thinking patterns in such domains as time and space.Current western theories generally hold that second language acquisition is a process of constructing a new way of thinking patterns or conceptual structure.The results of the present research have to some degree revised this mainstream view.