Transfer Of Chinese Reading Ability To Thematic Inference In Non-English Majors’ Text Comprehension

In1984, Alderson came up with the groundbreaking question:Is second language text comprehension a language problem or a basic reading ability problem?Motivated by the question proposed by Alderson, a considerable number of researches have been done to investigate the impact of L1transfer on L2learning. The previous researches investigating the transfer of students’L1reading ability to their L2acquisition adopt think-aloud or recall methods, while this empirical research adopts lexical-decision method.What’s more, the previously conducted researches investigating the transfer of students’first language from the macro-perspective; whereas this empirical study investigates language transfer from the perspective of thematic inference. Text comprehension depends largely on inferences. Thematic inference is the process which forms the structure, key point and theme related to the text. It can help the reader construct a united and comprehensive mental representation, and guarantee the text stored in memory in a relatively stable way.This study is to explore the role of L1reading ability in L2text comprehension by probing into L1effect on non-English majors’thematic inference process. This empirical study aims to answer two questions:1. In English text comprehension, can students’L1reading ability transfer to English text comprehension? If it can, is it a positive transfer or a negative transfer?2. In English text comprehension, can thematic inference ability transfer from L1to L2?This research carried out two experiments to explore the role of L1reading ability in L2text comprehension by probing into L1effect on non-English majors’thematic inference process. Four instruments are employed:Chinese reading ability test, English reading ability test, thematic judgment ability test and English proficiency test. The researches findings are as follows.First, students’Chinese reading ability can positively transfer to English text comprehension. Although, both Chinese reading ability and English proficiency are significant predictors of English text comprehension, English proficiency accounts more for the variance of English text comprehension than Chinese reading ability does.Second, non-English majors’thematic inference ability can transfer from L1to L2. This transfer is related to their English level. That is, the inference ability which exists in Chinese text comprehension transfers to students’ English reading only in the students with higher level of English proficiency.This research has some implications for foreign language learning and teaching from the perspective of research theories, research methods and teaching practice.