The Contributions Of Chinese Reading Skills, Chinese Reading Strategies And English Proficiency To English Reading Ability

As an important aspect of second language learning and teaching, L2reading hasdrawn great attention from L2teachers and researchers. The relationship between Llreading and L2reading has been discussed under the framework of two hypotheses:the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (or the reading universal hypothesis) andthe Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis (or the short-circuit hypothesis).The Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis states that reading is universal innature and L1reading ability transfers to L2reading automatically. The LinguisticThreshold Hypothesis contends that the reader has to reach a threshold of L2languageproficiency in order to transfer the reading ability effectively from L1to L2;otherwise, insufficient knowledge of L2would “short-circuit” the reader’s readingsystem. A series of studies have already confirmed the transfer of L1reading abilityand at the same time lent support to the existence of “threshold effect”. But mostprevious studies were conducted between cognate or alphabetic languages, whetherthe previous conclusions are applicable to Chinese EFL learners or not remains to besettled. Moreover, most previous studies mostly focused on the effect of L1readingability and L2language proficiency on some components of L2reading, or the effectof L1reading ability and some components of L2language proficiency on L2reading,however, few studies concerned certain specific L1reading abilities. So, the presentstudy aims to probe deeply into the contributions of specific L1reading abilities（Chinese reading skills, Chinese reading strategies） and English proficiency toEnglish reading ability. The research questions are as follows:1. In general, do Chinese reading skills, Chinese reading strategies and Englishproficiency contribute to English reading ability? If so, to what degree？2. For the low English proficiency group, to what degree do Chinese reading skills,Chinese reading strategies and English proficiency contribute to English readingability?3. For the high English proficiency group, to what degree do Chinese readingskills, Chinese reading strategies and English proficiency contribute to English reading ability?54testees participated in a Chinese reading skill test and a Chinese readingstrategy questionnaire. English reading ability was measured by the scores of thereading comprehension test chosen from CET-4,2013. The scores of CET-4, exceptthose of the reading comprehension test, were used as representative of the testees’English proficiency. Analyses of multiple regressions show the following majorresults:1. For the whole group, English proficiency, Chinese reading strategies andChinese reading skills all prove to be significant predictors of English reading ability.English proficiency can explain45.8percent of the variance of English reading (p<.05, R2=.458). Chinese reading strategies can explain additional14.6percent of thevariance of English reading (p <.05, R2=.146). Moreover, Chinese reading skills canexplain additional6.1percent of the variance of English reading (p <.05, R2=.061).English proficiency (Beta=.590) accounts more for the variance of English readingability than Chinese reading skills (Beta=.284), which account more for the varianceof English reading ability than Chinese reading strategies (Beta=.274). Therefore,English reading, on the whole, is more like a language problem than a readingproblem for Chinese EFL learners.2. For the low English proficiency group, English proficiency appears to be asignificant predictor, which can explain44.3percent of the variance of Englishreading (p <.05, R2=.443), whereas Chinese reading skills and Chinese readingstrategies do not prove to be significant predictors of English reading (p>.05).3. For the high English proficiency group, Chinese reading skills, Englishproficiency and Chinese reading strategies all prove to be significant predictors ofEnglish reading. Chinese reading skills can explain57.8percent of the variance ofEnglish reading (p <.05, R2=.578). English proficiency can explain additional15.8percent of the variance of English reading (p <.05, R2=.158). Moreover, Chinesereading strategies can explain additional4.7percent of the variance of Englishreading (p <.05, R2=.047). Chinese reading skills (Beta=.496) account more for thevariance of English reading ability than English proficiency (Beta=.338), which accounts more for the variance of English reading ability than Chinese readingstrategies (Beta=.298).In summary, only when English proficiency level is above the linguisticthreshold can Chinese reading skills and Chinese reading strategies be transferred toEnglish reading, otherwise it won’t occur. The present study has importantpedagogical implications. It is not wise to give importance only to L1reading abilityor L2proficiency in L2reading instruction. For L2learners whose languageproficiency is lower than the linguistic threshold, the teaching of L2reading shouldgive much more attention to the improvement of L2proficiency. For learners whoseproficiency is higher than the linguistic threshold, L2teachers should encouragelearners to make active and conscious use of reading skills and strategies alreadygained in L1reading practice. Teaching of L2reading should be based on L2readers’L2proficiency level while at the same time the significance of L1reading ability is, inno sense, to be ignored.