A Study Of Chinese EFL Learners’ SEMS Cost In Sentence Processing

According to perceptual symbol theory,a person will reshape his or her understanding of a concept based on previous bodily experiences of visual,auditory,tactile,and other modalities.The phenomenon is known as modality switching—from one modality to another.In the process of switching,the modality-switched takes more time compared to the modality-maintained,a phenomenon called the cost of switching.Both domestic and overseas scholars have conducted a series of studies on conceptual representation,most of them are based on the native language,and the existence of the modality switching cost in bilingual processing has been less explored.In addition,most previous studies on modality switching have focused on the switching in the sensory system(visual,auditory,tactus,gustation,and olfaction).There is a lack of research on the switching cost of emotional system.Therefore,this study explores the cost of switching in Chinese EFL learners’ sentence processing by employing reaction time techniques from the perspective of sensory and emotional modality switching.The specific questions are:(1)Are there SEMS costs in English sentence processing for Chinese EFL learners?(2)Are there SEMS costs in Chinese sentence processing for Chinese EFL learners?(3)Are there differences in SEMS costs in English and Chinese sentence processing between Chinese EFL learners?This study includes two experiments,both with a 2(modality type: sensory modality vs.affective modality)× 2(modality condition: modality-switched vs.modality-maintained)two-factor within-subjects experimental design.Thirty-eight graduate students majoring in English from Sichuan Foreign Language University were selected as participants in the experiment.The experiment used a sentence judgment task paradigm,in which participants were asked to judge the correctness or incorrectness of concept descriptions in the target sentences.The experimental procedure was programmed by E-Prime software,and the data were analyzed by SPSS20.0,and the experimental results were as follows:The English Experiment(Experiment One)showed that,the time for sensory modality sentence processing is also significantly different from the time for emotional modality sentence processing(t =-2.064,p =.048 <.05);the reaction time for modality-switched was significantly different from the reaction time for modalitymaintained(t = 3.140,p =.002 <.05).There is a modality switching costs in Chinese EFL learners’ processing of English sentences,which is influenced by the type of modality.The Chinese Experiment(Experiment Two)showed that,the time for sensory modality sentence processing was also significantly different from the time for emotional modality sentence processing(t =-2.299,p =.028 <.05);the reaction time for modality switching was significantly different from the reaction time for modalitymaintained(t = 3.210,p =.002 <.05).There is a modality switching costs in Chinese EFL learners’ processing of Chinese sentences,which is influenced by the type of modality.Comparing the data of the English Experiment and the Chinese Experiment showed that for the case of modality-switched,the reaction time of English sentence processing showed a significant difference from that of Chinese sentence processing(t = 11.51,p =.000 <.05);for the case of modality-maintained,the reaction time of English sentence processing showed a significant difference from that of Chinese sentence processing(t =-9.534,p =.000 <.05).It indicates that Chinese EFL learners are influenced by language when processing sentences.In conclusion,Chinese EFL learners have a modality switching cost when processing English sentences,which is influenced by modality type and modality condition;Chinese EFL learners have a modality switching cost when processing Chinese sentences,which is also affected by modality type and modality condition;Chinese EFL learners have a difference in the modality switching cost when processing English and Chinese sentences.