A Study On The Influence Of Tolerance Of Ambiguity On Senior High School Students’ English Reading Competence

Ambiguity is an inherent phenomenon in language,and English learners often inevitably come into contact with various linguistic ambiguities such as grammar,vocabulary and syntax.Tolerance of ambiguity refers to the degree of psychological acceptance of tolerance when learners face ambiguity in the process of language acquisition.Ambiguity is common in senior high school English reading.However,due to the insufficient attention paid to the cognitive problem of English TOA in senior high school English teaching and the neglect of the training of reading strategies in English teaching,senior high school students’ English reading competence is generally low.Therefore,how to effectively improve English reading competence has become a difficult and time-consuming task for senior high school English teachers.In view of this,it is particularly important to investigate and analyze the current situation of senior high school students’ English TOA and explore the effects of the high,middle and low TOA groups on senior high school students’ choice of English reading strategies and English reading achievements,with a view to improving their English reading competence.The specific research questions are as follows:1.What is the current status of senior high school students’ TOA in English reading?2.In what ways do different levels of TOA affect senior high school students’ choices of English reading strategies?3.How do senior high school students’ different levels of TOA affect their reading achievements?The two parallel classes of first year high school students in a senior high school of Tianshui are taken as the research subject,the main research methods are questionnaire,test and interview.The measurement instruments used are Ely’s Ambiguity Tolerance Scale(2002),Zhang & Wu’s Reading Strategy Questionnaire(adapted from Mokhtari & Sheorey’s Reading Strategy Questionnaire(2002))and the Test paper for English Reading.The data collected by measuring instruments are taken as the independent variable of this study while the reading achievements in the three monthly exams of Class 6 and Class7 in a senior high school in Tianshui are taken as the dependent variable of this study.The results show that TOA of senior high school students is at middle or low level;Different levels of TOA affect senior high school students’ choice of English reading strategies: the high and low TOA groups are flexible in using English reading strategies,while the middle level group is lack ability in choosing English reading strategies;Different levels of TOA affect high school students’ reading achievements: the reading achievements of the subjects in the high TOA group is higher,while that of the subjects in the middle or low TOA group is lower.TOA has a significant positive effect on English reading competence.Improving TOA of senior high school students and strengthening the training of English reading strategies can be helpful to improve English reading competence.