The Effects Of Top-level Structrure Of English Expository Texts On Comprehension And Recall Of Chinese Efl/esl Learners

Reading is one of the basic skills for Chinese ESL/EFL readers. Research on reading in second language and efforts to improve second language reading instruction have grown remarkably in the past three decades. However, rhetorical organization (or formal schemata), which is supposed to be able to facilitate of reading comprehension and recall of text information (Carrell, l984a), is largely neglected in experimental studies (Koda, 1994). To gain some knowledge about this aspect, this study investigates how the four types of rhetorical organization or top-level structure梒ollection of descriptions/listing, problem}solution, causation, and comparison梐ffects the comprehension and recall of Chinese ESL/EFL readers at two different proficiency levels (the intermediate and the advanced) in different recall conditions (the immediate recall and the delayed recall). 160 Chinese first-year and third-year undergraduate students majoring in English (80 in intermediate proficiency level and another 80 in advanced proficiency level) participated in the experiment. The 80 subjects at each of the two proficiency levels are subdivided into four equal groups, each of which received a written recall test twice. A 4 X 2 X 2 factorial design was applied. Data from 160 subjects were analyzed qualitatively and qualitatively. The following findings were obtained: 1) The four types of top-level structure have no significantly differential impacts on recall of Chinese ESL learners, and there is no clear tendency which top-level structure is more facilitative of comprehension and recall than other structures; 2) The top-level structure is facilitative of comprehension and recall. And the ability to use the top-level structure is closely related to the subjects?proficiency level. The higher the proficiency is, the higher the ability to use the top-level structure is. Furthermore, if ESL readers possess the appropriate top-level structure to process the reading materials and use the top-level structures to organize their recall protocols, they can recall more information. 3. In general, the ability to use the top-level structure in recall protocol organization facilitates the recall of both the main and minor idea units under immediate and delayed recall conditions. However, such effect is more obvious in the intermediate subjects than in the advanced subjects.