Text Difficulty,Working Memory Capacity and Mind Wandering During Chinese EFL Learners’Reading  

文本难度、工作记忆容量与中国英语学习者阅读心智游移的关系

作　　者：Xianli GAO Li LI 高宪礼;李丽(广东药科大学外国语学院;广州大学外国语学院)

机构地区：[1]Guangdong Pharmaceutical University [2]Guangzhou University

出　　处：《Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics》2024年第3期433-449,525,共18页中国应用语言学（英文）

基　　金：广东省本科高校教学质量与教学改革工程建设项目“以内容为依托的大学英语课程思政教学模式研究与实践”(JG2021295);广东省哲学社会科学规划外语学科专项“学习生态视角下大学生英语在线学习投入研究”(GD24WZXC01-07);广东省教育厅教育科学项目“课程思政背景下大学英语教学范式的重构与应用研究”(2021GXJK315);教育部产学合作协同育人项目“互联网+视域下《医学英语口译》混合式教学平台设计研究”(220501339245050)的资助。

摘　　要：This experimental study investigated how text difficulty and different working memory capacity(WMC)affected Chinese EFL learners’reading comprehension and their tendency to engage in task-unrelated thoughts,that is,mind wandering(MW),in the course of reading.Sixty first-year university non-English majors participated in the study.A two-factor mixed experimental design of 2(text difficulty:difficult and simple)×2(WMC:high/large and low/small)was employed.Results revealed that 1)the main and interaction effects of WMC and text difficulty on voluntary MW were significant,whereas those on involuntary MW were not;2)while reading the easy texts,the involuntary MW of high-WMC individuals was less frequent than that of low-WMC ones,whereas while reading the difficult ones,the direct relationship between WMC and involuntary MW was not found;and that 3)high-WMC individuals had a lower overall rate of MW and better reading performance than low-WMC individuals did,but with increasing text difficulty,their rates of overall MW and voluntary MW were getting higher and higher,and the reading performance was getting lower and lower.These results lend support to WM theory and have pedagogical implications for the instruction of L2 reading.本研究探讨工作记忆容量相异的学习者阅读不同难度文本时对不同形式心智游移的效应并探讨这两个因素对阅读成绩的影响。60名非英语专业大一学生参加研究。研究者通过运用操作广度工作记忆任务和英语易读性公式分别测量被试的工作记忆容量和文本难度,并收集文本难度和工作记忆容量对阅读中不同形式(自主性、非自主性)心智游移的影响数据进行分析。研究发现:(1)工作记忆容量和文本难度对自主性MW主效应显著且二者具有显著的交互效应;而对非自主性MW主效应和交互效应均不显著;(2)工作记忆容量高的个体在阅读简单文本时,非自主性MW频率较低,而阅读困难文本时,非自主性MW频率与工作记忆容量没有直接的关系;(3)工作记忆容量高的个体的总体心智游移频率与自主性MW频率较低,阅读成绩较高,而随着文本难度的增加,总体心智游移频率与自主性MW频率越来越高,阅读成绩则越来越低。这些结果支持工作记忆理论,并对第二语言阅读教学具有教育意义。

关 键 词：text difficulty working memory capacity reading mind wandering voluntary mind wandering involuntary mind wandering reading comprehension 

分 类 号：H319[语言文字—英语]