A Contrastive Analysis On Word Attacking Strategies Used By High-and Low-Proficiency Learners Of English

Many Chinese EFL low-proficiency (LP) learners often complain that their progress in reading comprehension is very slow. Undoubtedly there exist many factors to affect their way of pursuing the communicative goals of a reading task. But one of the prominent barriers they reflect is that they don't know how to appropriately attack unknown words related to the understanding. Of course, words attacking is a complex task because it involves a range of abilities and requires some considerable strategies. While according to the researches by Rubin(1994) and H.H Stern(1975) which were based on the classroom observations of language students, high-proficiency(HP) learners are usually willing and accurate guessers .They are expected to perform quite well in an EFL reading. Therefore, the analysis on the differences between HP- and LP learners in using word attacking strategies (WASs) becomes the main concern for this study. That is,l.Do Chinese High and low -proficiency EFL learners use WASs just as effectively? If no,2.What are those factors related to the differences between HP and LP learners in their WAS use?The late research on achievements of the student cares not only intelligent factors, but also non-intelligent factors as well. This study is based on the investigation of the two perspectives above. To test the first research question, the author administered a true examination by which the effectiveness of WASs is predicted to be reflective. As to the second, two investigations were conducted梙abit and attitude. LP learners are likely to be unaware of how to use WASs and reading strategies. Besides, they may not know how to read a text as a discourse. Possibly, this might result from the lack of a sense of discourse, and of practice. Reading habits might account for the variations in discourse processing skills梩he use of WASs. For attitude, as Naiman et al discovered, LP learners are probably less tolerant of ambiguity. They might have a negative attitude to WASs.60 non-English major freshmen from 6 classes representing 298 students in Xi'an Translators' College were sampled and tested. They were ranged as HP learners (meanscores 110-120) and as LP learners (mean scores 60-70) according to Nation-Wide College Entrance Examination. Three reading passages were arranged for a test with 15 multiple choices of words guessing. No time was limited, but the author made a record of each individual's finishing time. After that, an immediate questionnaire was conducted, including the subjects' habits of WASs and attitudes towards WASs, for which the study mainly concerns.The experiment reveals that there actually exist inferring ability differences. HP learners are conclusively flexible and effective when using WASs. While LP learners have a problem using context clues appropriately just as HP learners do. As to the investigation of "habits" and "attitudes", there is no large gaps within the two groups. But the recommended differences turn out that HP learners are more skillful at using context clues and more tolerant in some words attacking strategies.