The Influence Of Proper Names On Comprehension In Second Language Acquisition

Language is a unity combined with its pronunciation, form and meaning. It is well accepted in traditional language acquisition theory and in modern language theory as well that in addition to grammar acquisition, there should be pronunciation acquisition, semantics acquisition and vocabulary acquisition. From this classification, we could see that vocabulary acquisition is really a significant component in the whole language acquisition. Persons'names are not conventional. With the development of the society, they involve in many factors, such as time, language, culture, personality and genetic factors as well. As civilization goes further, names have gradually become a carrier of culture connotation for different societies. They are vital in understanding foreign reading materials and they even have profound significance in acquainting a nation. So we can say that proper names, especially persons'names play a very important part in language acquisition.Currently speaking, persons'names take on more and more proportions in language teaching in our country: It has been counted by the People's Education Press that fifty-two translated foreign passages are included in the revised Chinese Textbook concerning more than a hundred foreign names, let alone the English Textbook and the reading materials for second language learners. The names of those famous westerners, such as scientists, littérateurs, politicians, militarists and the like appears so frequently that no language learner could have avoid being confronted with them even in one passage. Yet, some teachers only give little or even no attention to them in the course of language teaching, even the learners themselves neglected this prospect in terms of language learning.The paper focuses on the influence of the command of proper names on the comprehension in SLA. From this new perspective of proper names acquisition, it is meant to take a new step in the research of names by testing SLL. There are two tests on the acquisition and comprehension of proper names among the language learners. In the first test two types of discourses of the same difficulty and length will be designed, one having proper names, the other not.As we could see in our own culture, persons'names involve the learning of history, convention and culture. It shouldn't be taken no notice of in language teaching and learning. And to what extent the comprehension of names would affect the language learners'understanding of materials in foreign languages is something neglected in the teaching and learning of foreign languages. It is really a blind spot in language research. The present research is a tentative step in this aspect and it is hoped to arouse research interest in other aspects of proper names in second language acquisition.