Chinese EFL Learners' Recognizing And Processing Of The Ambiguities In English Structure

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of English ambiguity and draw some conclusions for EFL ambiguity recognizing and processing. The investigation was carried out through analyzing the similarities and differences in ambiguity comprehension and processing between native English speakers and EFL learners. Especially, the attention is focused on the factors that may influence ambiguity recognition and processing: whether EFL learners are conscious of the existence of ambiguity in English and intend to comprehend it, why there are different first reactions to ambiguities between native speakers and EFL learners, and whether some rules of disambiguating can help the EFL learners to deal with ambiguity recognition and processing?The paper begins with the exploration of the nature of English ambiguity and the negative and positive effects of it, expatiating structural ambiguities, distinctive features of disambiguation, and the important position they occupy in languages. Previous studies on ambiguity are reviewed in the latter part of the second chapter. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 identify the causes of structural ambiguity and analyze the empirical data of structural ambiguities. These three parts cover ambiguity recognition and processing, and the teaching of ambiguity recognition and processing, with the emphasis on the second language learners' structural comprehension and processing.By analyzing the recognition and processing of ambiguity in both L1 and EFL, the thesis put forward feasible suggestions to overcome problems with learning and teaching approaches. For EFL learners, the consciousness-raising of ambiguity is considered the first step to comprehending and processing ambiguity.