Study On The Relationship Between Tolerance Of Ambiguity And College English Reading Strategies

According to Oxford(1990),tolerance of ambiguity(TOA) is one of the important elements influencing foreign language(FL) learning strategies.Among the various researches on FL learning strategies,there is relatively less study on the relationship between TOA and English reading strategies(ERS).Therefore,it is necessary to do further study on the relationship between TOA and ERS.Based on the theories of TOA and ERS,this thesis is an attempt to explore the relationship between TOA and college students' use of ERS.The key research questions addressed in the study include:1) Are there any significant differences in their use of ERS between high TOA and low TOA students?2) Is there any significant correlation between TOA and students' use of ERS?The subjects involved in this study are 116 second-year non-English majors from Wuhan University of Science and Engineering.Data are collected by a combination of the Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale(SLTAS),an English reading strategies questionnaire,and an oral interview.Data are analyzed by using SPSS(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) 15.0 and adopting such statistical methods as descriptive analysis,independent samples T-test,and correlation analysis.The major findings are as follows:1) Second-year college students have medium level of TOA on the whole.There is no significant difference between male and female subjects in their TOA degrees.2) Chinese college students use reading strategies at the medium level of frequency.Social/affective strategies are used most frequently,followed by metacognitive strategies and cognitive strategies.3) Significant differences are found in metacognitive strategies and social/affective strategies between high and low TOA students.There are 11 items which demonstrate significant difference between high TOA and low TOA students. However,no significant difference is found in students' use of cognitive strategies and their total use of reading strategies.4) Significantly positive correlation is found not only between TOA and ERS, but also between TOA and metacognitive strategies,between TOA and cognitive strategies,and between TOA and social/affective strategies.The findings of the present study have both theoretical and pedagogical implications.First,they confirm the influences of students' TOA degrees on students' use of reading strategies and show that individual differences in cognitive style have certain effects on their reading processes.Second,these findings may impel Chinese English teachers to reorient their roles in reading strategies teaching,and to adjust their teaching methods in terms of their students' different TOA degrees with the purpose of cultivating the students' abilities to employ reading strategies and improving their reading proficiency.