The Processing Mechanism Of English Phrasal Verbs By Chinese Efl Learners At Different Levels Of Proficiency: An ERP Study

English phrasal verb is a typical semantic structure in English language, which is also the difficult and important point of Chinese EFL learners. Semantic features and syntactic structures of English phrasal verbs are always the focuses of theoretical and empirical studies.The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to study the following questions: (a) What are the processing mechanism of English phrasal verbs with literal meanings and figurative meanings for Chinese EFL learners at different levels of proficiency? (b) What are the differences of the processing mechanism of English phrasal verbs between Chinese EFL learners at different levels of proficiency? (c) Can Chinese EFL learners at a high proficiency level achieve native-like processing?Participants in the present study were divided into two groups: 20 were English majors who at least acquired the TEM - 8 (Test for English Majors - 8) certificate, and they were labeled as L2 learners with high proficiency (L2-high group);the other 20 were non-English majors who passed CET - 4 (College English Test - 4), and they were labeled as L2 learners with low proficiency (L2-low group). Forty L2 learners (twenty participants in each group) were presented with one hundred and sixty-eight English experimental sentences involving English phrasal verbs. Each phrasal verb can be interpreted as literal meaning or figurative meaning. Two versions of test sentences containing phrasal verbs with literal meanings or figurative meanings separately were formed, but the participants saw only one version. Then they were required to make semantic judgment as soon and accurate as possible according to their instinctive reaction. The behavior data (accuracy and response time of semantic judgment) and electrophysiological data were recorded by E-prime 2.0 and Brain Product software respectively. After the whole experiment, behavior data and EEG data were analyzed with the repeated measures analyses of variance(ANOVAs) by SPSS 20.0 software package.As to the behavioral results, the L2-high group outperformed the L2-low group in both accuracy and reaction time of semantic judgment. As to the ERP data, L2-high group demonstrated higher N400 when processing phrasal verbs with literal meanings than that when processing phrasal verbs with figurative meanings while L2-low group demonstrated higher N400 when processing phrasal verbs with figurative meanings than that when processing phrasal verbs with literal meanings. When processing phrasal verbs with figurative meanings, L2-low group demonstrated higher N400 than that of L2-high group.No reliable ERP effects were showed when comparing the process of phrasal verbs with literal meanings between two groups. According to the behavior data and the ERP data, it's easy for the L2-high group to process phrasal verbs with figurative meanings than phrasal verbs with literal meanings while it's easy for the L2-low group to process phrasal verbs with literal meanings than phrasal verbs with figurative meanings. The L2-high group performed better than the L2-low group in processing phrasal verbs with figurative meanings while there was no clear ERP evidence to prove that the L2-high group performed better than the L2-low group in processing phrasal verbs with literal meanings.With reference to the analysis of previous ERP studies on phrasal verb processing by native speakers, Chinese EFL learners with high proficiency can achieve native-like processing in phrasal verbs.Regardless of proficiency level, Chinese EFL learners showed distinguishable electrophysiological reactions when processing literal meanings and figurative meanings.However, the patterns they exhibited are different from each other. Compared to the L2-low group, the L2-high group tended to attain native-like processing concerning phrasal verbs.