A Study Of The Correlation Between Reading Comprehension And Tolerance Of Ambiguity In English Learning

Over the past decades, people are becoming increasingly aware of the important role cognitive style plays in second language acquisition. TOA is one of the cognitive variables which is infrequently explored despite its practical implications for language learning and teaching. The present study aims at exploring the relationship between tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension. 119 freshmen of non-English majors from Shandong Agricultural University were chosen as its subjects. Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale was selected to assess degree of TOA of all the participants. A reading comprehension test was designed to collect information on students' performance in reading tasks. After that, statistical analyses were conducted with SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science), Version 11.0.Based on the literature available and the statistical analyses mentioned above, the following conclusions are obtained:1) There is a positive correlation between TOA and students' overall reading comprehension. Higher TOA tends to lead to better achievement in reading.2) Both skills of drawing inference and reading for specific details are correlated with TOA. Students" skill of reading for inference is more related to his degree of ambiguity tolerance when it is compared with his skill of reading for specific details. There is also a positive con-elation between the two reading skills.3) There is a difference in TOA between proficient readers and ineffective readers.4) Although almost no significant difference can be seen between male students and female students on TOA. evidence shows that gender has some bearing on students" reading performance.The findings of the present investigation have both theoretical and pedagogical implications and may provide insights into both the language learning process and the language teaching method.