| The cognitive load theory proposes that while completing a specific task, the individuals would consume the limited cognitive resources provided by working memory, causing intrinsic cognitive load, extraneous cognitive load and germane cognitive load, which may influence their learning. Influenced by modality(such as visual modality and audio modality), Chinese EFL learners? listening and reading abilities are unbalanced, which is quite common. In recent years, some scholars try to explain the differences between listening and reading from the perspective of cognitive load. However, the results of the influences of modality on cognitive load remain controversial. With the improvement of language proficiency, will the influences of cognitive load on language comprehension change? To further investigate the internal reason causing the differences between listening and reading, this study, from the perspective of cognitive load, probed into the effects of cognitive load on second language discourse comprehension under three input modalities(visual modality, audio modality and audiovisual modality). This study, therefore, addressed four questions:1) What are the influences of input modality upon different types of cognitive load and total amount of cognitive load induced in second language discourse comprehension?2) What are the influences of input modality upon second language discourse comprehension?3) In each input modality, is there any correlation between different types of cognitive load and second language discourse comprehension? And is there any correlation between total amount of cognitive load and second language discourse comprehension?4) Among the participants with different language proficiencies, what are the differences of cognitive load, second language discourse comprehension and their correlation?The learners with different language proficiencies, 120 sophomores of English majors and 130 freshmen of non-English majors, were invited to take part in this study. In each language proficiency group, these participants were comparable both in their global language proficiency and listening ability. And they were randomly divided into three groups and were presented with three types of treatment respectively: 1) passage reading(the V group); 2) passage listening(the A group); and 3) simultaneous passage reading and listening(the VA group). The passage had ten paragraphs which were presented one by one. In three input modalities, the presentation time of the same paragraph was exactly the same. After each paragraph presentation, the participants were required to complete a secondary task(a sentential logic-judgment task) which aimed to measure the participants? total amount of cognitive load that was induced in second language discourse comprehension. And the participants were requested freely recalled and wrote down the passage they comprehended as much as they could. Both Chinese and English were accepted. After the presentation of the whole passage, the participants would complete multiple choice comprehension questions. Both of the free recall task and the multiple choice test were aimed to examine the participants? second language discourse comprehension. At last, the participants completed a self-reported scale of cognitive load, which intended to measure the participants? different types of cognitive load. We found that:1) Input modality had influence on three types of cognitive load and TCL in second language discourse comprehension. Comparatively speaking, TCL was less influenced by modality. Audio modality caused heavier TCL than visual and audiovisual modalities. With the aid of visual input, visual and audiovisual modalities induced lower ICL. Meanwhile, the two modalities caused higher ECL and contributed to higher GCL.2) Input modality affected the participants? second language discourse comprehension. Their language comprehension under audio modality was significantly lower than that under visual and audiovisual modalities. But no significant difference was found between visual and audiovisual modalities.3) Cognitive load played an important role in second language discourse comprehension, but its effects varied with input modalities. No correlation was found between TCL and language comprehension, no matter what the modality was. ICL was negatively correlated to language comprehension in each input modality. A weak negative correlation between ECL and comprehension was only found in visual modality, while GCL and language comprehension were positively correlated to each other under audio and audiovisual modalities.4) With the improvement of language proficiency, a) the participants’ ICL and ECL significantly decreased in three input modalities. Their GCL increased although no significant difference was found in each modality. In addition, the participants? TCL reduced under visual and audio modalities while it increased under audiovisual modality. b) the participants? language comprehension was greatly improved in three modalities. c) under audio modality, the participants? ICL became negatively correlated to their language comprehension while under audiovisual modality, the correlation did not exist. Under visual modality, the participants? ECL became negatively correlated to their language comprehension. Under audio modality, the correlation between the participants? GCL and their language comprehension did not exist.From this study, we can see that although TCL was less influenced by input modality, different types of cognitive load were affected to some extent. Due to the nature of each input modality, the participants? perception of material difficulty, temporal pressure and mental efforts were different. These individual differences influenced the amount of different types of cognitive load in each modality, which would finally have impact on the participants? language comprehension. With the improvement of language proficiency, visual input helped to induce less ICL and ECL and contributed to higher GCL. Higher ICL and ECL would make the participants? language comprehension more difficult while GCL facilitated it. Chinese EFL learners? unbalanced reading and listening abilities cannot be neglected. Based on their own language proficiency, the participants should choose the proper materials and comprehension strategy which would finally facilitate their comprehension and keep a balanced development of their language skills. |
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