Poster Description By Chinese Learners Of English:A Cognitive Perspective

This study examines how adult English learners’ online language production at a discourse level is affected by learner’s first language(L1)thinking patterns under the theoretical framework of thinking for speaking and also investigates the extent to which adult second language(L2)learners are able to learn the appropriate L2 thinking-for-speaking patterns.There were 48 participants in this study divided into three groups depending on their second language proficiency(beginning,intermediate,and advanced).This research focused on the following aspects: reference maintenance,place-of-location,and types of relation,and information organization.Results have revealed that concerning place-of-location,second language learners across proficiencies predominantly put the locative phrase at the beginning of a clause.For types of relation,beginners expressed a majority of topological relations in description,which took up 50% of usage in first language(L1)and second language(L2).However,the intermediate L2 learners were aware of the linguistic differences and demonstrated a more target-like pattern approach by utilizing more of the projective spatial-relations.Advanced learners did not follow exactly either of the linguistic patterns.Instead,they restructured a hybrid pattern which diverged from the L1 pattern and shifted more towards the L2 pattern,though not fully reaching a target-like performance.In terms of information organization strategies,the sequencing strategy(vs.the parallel strategy)was adopted more frequently,especially by intermediate learners,thus suggesting traces of the L2 conceptualization pattern in play.Also,54% of the L2 learners were found to use mixed or other strategies in organizing spatial-relations.The findings in this study are consistent with previous conclusions that more advanced L2 learners showed the potential to restructure new patterns that reflected target-like characteristics with some L1 influence.Theoretically,the study provides new insights into the relationship between language and thought.