What separates strong and weak ESL readers?

强 ESL 读者和弱 ESL 读者的区别是什么？

• 批准号: 1937670
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Reading
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1937670
• 关键词: What; separates; strong; weak; ESL

My proposed research sets out to address one very simple, yet equally complex question: What separates strong and weak ESL1 readers? While much of the emphasis and discussion surrounding ESL reading research hitherto appears to have focused primarily on the use of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies (e.g. Knight et al, 1985; Carrell et al, 1989; Sheorey & Mokhtari, 2001; Fung et al, 2003; Phakiti, 2003; Abbott, 2006), my proposal intends rather to use a combination of eye-tracking technology and introspective research methodologies (e.g. think-aloud and stimulated-recall interviews [Dornyei, 2007:147]), to investigate how stronger and weaker learners of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) process academic texts on a word-by-word basis, as they seek incrementally to construct meaning from the texts they engage with. I have been motivated in this idea by the several years I have spent teaching university foundation-level reading courses in China. Specifically, I have noticed that despite receiving similar instruction in ESL reading strategies (e.g. predicting content, mentally summarizing content, guessing the meaning of unknown vocabulary from context etc.), considerable differences invariably appear in the speed and ease with which strong and weak readers are able to learn to apply these strategies, and more generally to construct meaning from the texts they read.In an attempt to elucidate how ESL readers process markers of cohesion in academic texts, and the extent to which their success or failure in this endeavor influences their ability to decode those texts, this research aims to explore the following four questions:I. Is there a difference in the patterns of fixations and saccades in stronger and weaker ESL readers regarding lexical, grammatical and syntactic markers of textual cohesion?II. To what extent do processing difficulties occur at the site of markers of textual cohesion?III. To what extent can an intervention program designed to address potentially problematic markers of textual cohesion lead to improved outcomes for ESL readers?IV. To what extent can eye-tracking technology be used to investigate reading difficulties in ESL students?

我提议的研究旨在解决一个非常简单但同样复杂的问题：是什么区分了ESL1阅读器的强者和弱者？尽管迄今为止围绕ESL阅读研究的大部分重点和讨论似乎主要集中在认知和元认知阅读策略的使用上(例如Knight等人，1985；Carrell等人，1989；Sheorey和Mokhtari，2001；冯等人，2003；Phakiti，2003；Abbott，2006)，我的建议更倾向于使用眼球跟踪技术和内省研究方法(例如有声思考和刺激回忆访谈[Dornyei，2007：147])相结合，来调查学习学术英语的强者和弱者是如何逐字加工学术语篇的，因为他们试图逐步地从他们参与的语篇中构建意义。在中国教授大学基础阅读课程的几年里，我产生了这个想法。具体地说，我注意到，尽管在ESL阅读策略方面得到了相似的指导(如预测内容、对内容进行心理总结、根据上下文猜测未知词汇的含义等)，但强者和弱者学习应用这些策略的速度和难度总是有相当大的差异，更广泛地说，他们能够从他们阅读的文本中构建意义。为了阐明ESL读者如何处理学术语篇中的衔接标记，以及他们在这一努力中的成功或失败在多大程度上影响他们解码这些文本的能力，本研究旨在探讨以下四个问题：一、在词汇、语法和句法标记方面，强者和弱者的注视和扫视模式是否存在差异？二、语篇衔接标记的加工困难程度如何？三、旨在解决潜在问题的语篇衔接标记的干预计划能在多大程度上改善ESL读者的阅读结果？四、眼球跟踪技术可以在多大程度上用于调查ESL学生的阅读困难？