Investigating L1Use In Chinese EFL Students’ Reading

As an important component in Chinese EFL students’ study, second language readingattracts more and more attention from second language researchers. Recently, a wealth ofresearch has been conducted in order to examine the first language influence on ChineseEFL students’ second language reading. However, most subjects of those studies were notmainland Chinese EFL learners because those studies were undertaken either abroad oroutside the mainland China. For this reason, the present study was conducted. This study,based on the transfer theory, adopted empirical approach to explore the influence of firstlanguage on Chinese EFL students’ second language reading.It tries to explore the attitude they hold toward first language use during secondlanguage learning and reading, the reading strategies they employ during second languageand how will the EFL students resort to their L1in L2reading. The research questions areIn order to ensure the reliability and validity of the research, the researcher collecteddata via both a questionnaire and think-aloud protocol. The participants for the presentstudy were students from3classes majoring in3disciplines of a university in Beijing.Allof the three classes--105students participated in the questionnaire, while15studentsselected from the three classes participate in the verbal protocol. After a training section inthink-aloud, students were required to think-aloud while they were doing a secondlanguage reading, and then they were also required to do a retrospective interview. Basedon the results of the questionnaire, think-aloud protocols and retrospective interviews, aholistic picture of the L1influence on students’ L2reading can be seen and the researchquestions are answered.The major findings are the students’ attitude toward their L1is contradicting. Theybelieve that L1should be avoided but actually, they rely heavily on it; and with the rise ofthe students’ L2proficiency, their reliance on their first language as the language ofthought while reading in L2declines. On the other hand, students tend to use a wider rangeof strategies to make inferences and monitor their comprehension (top-down strategies)while making sense of the L2text. Therefore, it can be concluded from the study, that L1 use does facilitate L2reading. However, Ll use might also be negative and unsupportive.This study has both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, it enriches theexisting theoretical system of L2reading; practically, it provides an overview about theinfluence of L1on Chinese EFL students’ L2reading from a new perspective. Therefore tosome extent, this research can shed light on improvement of teaching and learning ofEnglish reading skills.