A Study Of Dual Coding Theory In College's English Expository Reading

As for the study of English, reading is a very important aspect and skill for students. Besides, it is also very difficult to master. The major reading models and theories in history put emphasis on linguistic factors in the reading process. It is clear that, in the actual reading process, some non-linguistic factors exist. Therefore, these reading models and theories cannot clarify the non-linguistic factors in the reading process.Dual coding theory (DCT), a new cognitive theory put forward first by Paivio in the 1970s, gives equal emphasis to both verbal and non-verbal aspects in reading process. On the theoretical basis of this theory, the thesis makes an empirical research on the effect of this theory on the comprehension and memorization of the English expository reading, and its effect on the attitude of the readers.This thesis utilizes three kinds of instruments (testing paper, free report, and questionnaire) for data collection and analysis. The subjects are 120 sophomores, 60 of who are students from two classes of Shandong University of Technology majoring in English, and 60 of who are students from two classes of China University of Petroleum (East China) majoring in Petroleum Engineering. One of the two classes of each college was taken as the experimental group, and the other one class were taken as the control group. The testing paper and the free report were designed to test the understanding and remembering of the content of the expository reading materials. The questionnaire was to test the effect of the dual coding theory on the attitude of the subjects. The results of the experiments were analyzed through quantitative and qualitative methods, which reveal that the dual coding theory enhance the comprehension and memorization of the subjects, and make them be more interested in reading expository texts.Then the author gets some implications from the application of this theory to improve the students'reading ability from both the teachers and the students'perspectives. Although there are some limitations existing in this thesis, the dual coding theory still has profound influence in the language teaching and learning.