Study On The Contextual Constraint In Processing Counterfactual Constructions Of Chinese English Learners

The present paper conducts an empirical study on whether Chinese English learners will be affected by contextual constraint when processing counterfactual constructions.The present study adopts a self-paced reading task with the help of E-prime2.0 software.68 Chinese students,in two different levels of English proficiency,take part in this experiment.By using the sentence judgment method,Chinese English learners’ processing counterfactual constructions are tested in factual context and counterfactual context.And the experimental data is analyzed by SPSS 23.0.At last,the author discusses the experimental results based on Contextual Constraint Theory and Multiple Levels in the counterfactual world.Contextual Constraint Theory considers that context can affect or even constrain processing(Schwanenflugel,1991).In the light of this theory,during the process of comprehension,context will have restrictions on people’s thinking and then make a certain impact on the later understanding of the sentence or entire discourse.Moreover,in recent years,many foreign scholars have found that the dual semantics of counterfactuals can be represented online in context.Once given sufficient contextual information,people can eliminate the interference of factual semantics or counterfactual semantics in the counterfactuals to promote the processing of counterfactual constructions.Moreover,under the circumstance of consistent context,the difficulty of processing counterfactual constructions is reduced.And the reading time is shortened in the meantime.Nevertheless,before adapting to the counterfactual semantic representation,readers still process it in line with the knowledge in the real world.Consequently,it is still difficult to process the inference that conflict with the real world in the early stage.However,the great majority of participants in the above conclusions are native speakers of English.It is unknown whether the second language(Chinese English)learners can achieve the same effect when processing counterfactual constructions in context.This paper aims to carry out an empirical study on whether the processing of counterfactual constructions by Chinese students is influenced by contextual constraint on account of foreign studies.Then analyze and discuss the experimental results with multiple levels in the counterfactual world.The purpose of this paper is to investigate the following questions:(1)Are Chinese English learners affected by contextual constraint when processing counterfactual constructions?(2)Are Chinese English learners with different English proficiency levels affected by different contextual constraints when processing counterfactual constructions?(3)Are Chinese English learners affected by different contextual constraints when processing different counterfactual constructions?The main findings of this study are as follows:(1)Chinese English learners are affected by contextual constraint when processing counterfactual constructions,but they quickly make an evaluation based on the knowledge in the real world before adapting to the representation of counterfactual world.(2)Chinese English learners with different English proficiency levels are affected by different contextual constraints when processing counterfactual constructions,as the intermediate group is more affected by contextual constraints than advanced group.(3)Chinese English learners are affected by different contextual constraints when processing different counterfactual constructions,as the contextual constraints on processing non-conditionals are stronger than processing conditionals.The above three findings of this experiment are the same as those in L1 acquisition as a whole.However,the accuracy of Chinese English learners in the factual context is higher than that in the counterfactual context,and there is no significant difference in the response time between the factual context and counterfactual context,which are quite different from the processing of counterfactual constructions in L1.Under the contextual constraint theory,this paper explains the above findings combined multiple levels in the counterfactual world.It is considered that in spite of the previous context,Chinese English learners still make their judgment on the basis of the knowledge in the real world when processing counterfactual constructions.There are different restrictive effects on Chinese English learners in the factual context and counterfactual context.The factual context has a high accessibility to people’s real life environment,which is helpful for Chinese English learners to understand and process counterfactual constructions.But as soon as counterfactual context activates Chinese English learners’ counterfactual thinking,then they establish corresponding dual semantic representations,namely,two independent "fact" representations,which aggravate the cognitive burden and lead to longer reading time.The research on the processing of counterfactual constructions in second language acquisition is an empirical supplement to the study of contextual constraint in this aspect of China.It is also a verification of the contextual constraint theory.What’s more,we hope that our study can make some contributions on the study of second language acquisition and second language teaching.As for whether contextual constraint theory can explain many other phenomena in second language acquisition(such as vocabulary acquisition),and whether Chinese English learners acquire counterfactual constructions are also affected by other factors(such as the marker of subjunctive mood),which remain to be further studied.