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    28 January 2017, Volume 17 Issue 01 Previous Issue    Next Issue
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    The Mechanisms of Masked Priming
    QIAO Xiaomei, ZHANG Xinwen
    2017, 17 (01):  1-4.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2017.01.001
    Abstract ( 1294 )   PDF (731KB) ( 397 )  
    Masked priming technique has been widely applied for many years. However, research into the mechanisms of masked priming is very limited. This article systematically investigates masked priming from its origin, major types of priming, the working mechanisms, and the interpretations of the effect by the dominant models, so as to reveal the essence and characteristics of masked priming, and advance its applications in research.
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    The Parafoveal-fovel Effects of Word Frequency and Complexity during Chinese Silent and Oral Reading
    ZHANG Manman, ZHANG Xinru, FU Ying, DU Hong, ZANG Chuanli
    2017, 17 (01):  5-11.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2017.01.002
    Abstract ( 383 )   PDF (1091KB) ( 590 )  
    Previous studies showed that eye movements characteristics during Chinese silent reading was different from that in Chinese oral reading. Chinese readers tended to placing more reliance on parafoveal previews in silent reading than in oral reading; however, whether it is the same or not about how parafoveal previews affecting foveal processing during the two reading modes is unclear. Thus, the present experiment compared the difference of foveal processing between silent and oral reading by recording eye movements of 40 undergraduates while reading normal sentence of which the parafoveal words varied from frequency (high, low) and stroke (less, more). The results showed that on single fixation duration, frequency and strokes of parafoveal words had different effects on foveal word processing in silent reading from that in oral reading, showing an interacted and positive parafoveal-foveal effect of word frequency and word strokes in silent reading rather than oral reading. That is, single fixation duration on foveal words was shorter when parafoveal words were high frequency and had less strokes than words of high frequency and more strokes. Meanwhile, on gaze duration, there was word frequency parafoveal-fovel effect both in silent and oral reading, with shorter gaze duration on foveal words when parafoveal words were high frequency than when those were low frequency. The results were in consistent with the issues of the parallel graded attention models of reading.
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    Effects of Noise on English Listening Comprehension among Chinese College Students
    YANG Xiaohu, ZHAO Yong, XU Lilong, TANG Wenting, ZHU Xinyu, BAO Andi, ZHAO Zongwan
    2017, 17 (01):  12-17.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2017.01.003
    Abstract ( 502 )   PDF (1064KB) ( 103 )  
    This paper presents a study on the effects of different types of noise on English listening comprehension among Chinese college students. A total of 96 sophomores listened to English conversations presented in quiet and in white noise, Chinese 2-talker babble, and English 2-talker babble at a fixed SNR respectively. The results showed that Chinese students' performance in listening comprehension tasks varied according to the types of noise. Specifically, they had significantly lower scores in all types of noise than their scores in quiet. They performed similarly in Chinese 2-talker babble and English 2-talker babble, and were significantly better in white noise. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between their performance in quiet and that in noise, which varied with the types of noise. In addition, compared with students with lower scores in quiet, students with higher scores suffered a larger performance deficit due to the energetic and informational masking effects of noise.
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    “The Third Place” and Intercultural Competence Development
    LI Jingmei, WANG Xiaodong
    2017, 17 (01):  25-28.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2017.01.005
    Abstract ( 475 )   PDF (1012KB) ( 103 )  
    Intercultural foreign language teaching methodology emphasizes a process which involves developing a third place between the learner's native linguaculture and target linguaculture, between self and other. The ideal learning outcome is to be able to communicate in the third place with people from different linguacultures freely and successfully. Based on current situation of English teaching and learning in China, this paper discusses some prerequisites for realizing the third place exploration from three fundamental aspects: the teaching of a linguaculture, the comparison between Chinese linguaculture and English linguaculture, and intercultural exploration, with a view to informing the development of Chinese students' intercultural competence.
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    A Content Analysis of Textbooks for Developing English Majors' Intercultural Competence in China
    YU Simin
    2017, 17 (01):  29-33.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2017.01.006
    Abstract ( 416 )   PDF (942KB) ( 142 )  
    A professional textbookplays an important role in developing students' intercultural communicative competence. This study took the cultivation of English majors' intercultural competence as a research object, and tried to analyze the content of intercultural textbooks for English majors in three different aspects: cultural knowledge, cultural consciousness, communication practice. Results showed that, the textbooks were inclined to introduce the differences of Chinese and Western culture, and they presented a lot of cases and designed many tasks, while the definition of the communication target is not clear, the instillation of the cultural consciousness is scarce,the instruction of verbal and nonverbal communication strategies and skills are not enough. This study provides insights into the future intercultural textbook construction.
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    A Corpus-based Contrastive Study of N that-cl Patterns in Research Articles by Chinese and Western Scholars
    XIAO Ruolin, WEI Naixing
    2017, 17 (01):  34-41.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2017.01.007
    Abstract ( 476 )   PDF (1154KB) ( 126 )  
    N that-cl patterns, which comprise a shell noun and a that-cl complement, frequently occur in academic written corpora. The fact that the shell nouns in the pattern are semantically unspecific and rely on the lexical realization of that-cl has aroused the attention of many researchers. Previous studies on N that-cl patterns mainly concern the discourse organizing function, stance constructing function and the pedagogical methods of the patterns, yet few has made a contrastive study of the patterns produced by Western and Chinese scholars in terms of their co-selections and functions in a specific register. In this study, we conduct a corpus-based contrastive study, on the basis of the Beijing CARE corpus, of the frequencies, co-selections and functions of 25 most frequently used N that-cl patterns in research articles by Western and Chinese scholars. The study reveals that Chinese scholars use N that-cl patterns remarkably less frequently than Western scholars, especially the Fact group, Cognitive Process group and Possibility group. Meanwhile, Chinese scholars tend to use more general N that-cl patterns like the Research group to review the literature or make reference to their own research. Moreover, the divergent usages of some N that-cl patterns reveal the unique features of Chinese and Western academic discourses. Chinese scholars give more weight to own research conclusions, while Western scholars set great store by expounding different viewpoints and logical reasoning. The study provides implications for academic discourse analysis and second language academic writing.
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    Establishing the Corpus-based China's “Law Terminology Community”-Taking translating “调解” as an Example
    PENG Chuqiu, TAO Youlan
    2017, 17 (01):  42-50.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2017.01.008
    Abstract ( 388 )   PDF (1699KB) ( 315 )  
    Focusing on the problem of terminological non-uniformity in translating Chinese law, this paper proposes a terminology management system named “Law Terminology Community” with an open, comprehensive and centralized-management term database and corpus combined with CAT to unify and standardize Chinese law terminology translation. This paper takes the translating process of a Chinese law term-“调解” as an example to summarize the general process of unifying Chinese law terminology translation through analyzing its various English expressions respectively as a noun, a verb or a constituent part of law terms, and evaluate the accuracy and standardization, based on the Chinese-English bilingual legal corpus established in MTI Translation Project Course at Fudan University, PKULAW and Westlaw China. It is also suggested that translators' terminological competence should be enhanced in Chinese law terminology construction.
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    A New Approach to Investigate the Features of the Synonyms' Semantic Prosody of the Chinese EFL Learners:A Contrast between “Affect” and “Influence”
    SUN Li
    2017, 17 (01):  57-60.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2017.01.010
    Abstract ( 622 )   PDF (745KB) ( 228 )  
    The present study aims to contrast through a new approach the semantic prosody of a pair of synonyms between the native speaker and the non-native speaker, taking “affect” and “influence as an example. We analyzed the differences of the semantic prosody of the two words in the native speaker corpus (FROWN), and the learner's corpus (CLEC), in terms of the prosodic form, prosodic polarity and prosodic strength, which are the three parameters of semantic prosody. The findings are as follows. The prosodic form and prosodic polarity of “affect” are the same in FROWN and CLEC, with the posture of [negative: be against]; but the prosodic strengths are different, it is a little stronger in CLEC than in FROWN. For the word “influence”, it is not the case. The prosodic form and prosodic polarity in the two corpora are in contrast. In FROWN, the native speakers usually indicate the posture of [positive: be for], while in CLEC, the learners tend to show the posture of [negative: be against]. Till now, investigations on semantic prosody of synonyms in terms of the above three parameters are rarely seen. The present study is an attempt which would shed light on a new approach of investigating semantic prosody and provide a new perspective of learning synonyms for Chinese learners of English.
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    The Causes for the Grammaticalizaiton of “Ranhou”: A Perspective of Philosophy of Mind
    LI Wenjing
    2017, 17 (01):  61-66.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2017.01.011
    Abstract ( 317 )   PDF (1310KB) ( 59 )  
    In modern Chinese, the grammaticalization of “Ranhou”(然后) is characterized by three main features: temporal relation > spatial relation, objectivity> subjectivity, generalization of the functions. This is a reverse process against the cognitive processes of “space> time” and “subjectivity> objectivity” in cognitive linguistics. The former studies have not given a proper illustration to this phenomenon. Based on the theory of philosophy of mind, this essay shows that the starting point of Ranhou's grammaticalization process is the intentional content focus of “relationship”. Affected by mental-physical supervenience, it is a result of the emergence of different new “relationships” between different levels under the domain of “relationship”. The grammaticalization process of Ranhou experiences three stages: (1) objective order to subjective order stage: with the mental property of “the sequence” relationship, it emerges from time relation to space relation, and then the magnitude relation; (2) the extension stage of subjective sequence: based on the first stage, the emergence of a logic relationship and objectively disordered events (parallel, comparison relations, etc. ) happens in this stage; (3) discourse marker and discourse assistance element stage: a period from objective events relation to discourse relation.
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    Further Discussion on “Oral Fossilization” in SLA from the Perspective of ELF
    PENG Cheng, BAO Zhen
    2017, 17 (01):  67-70.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2017.01.012
    Abstract ( 433 )   PDF (892KB) ( 87 )  
    As the economic globalization is deepening, there appears a tendency of “linguistic globalization”, i.e. the worldwide use of Englishes. English is not only the subject in class, not also serves as the connecting belt among the exchanges among countries. Under such circumstance, the communicative role of English is becoming more and more salient, the “comprehensibility” in communication is gradually replacing the “correctiveness” of linguistic expression which is emphasized in traditional foreign language teaching. ELF (English as lingua franca) has been the emerging “hot spot” in recent linguistic research, and it is evolving from an extensive linguistic practice into an independent research field, forming its own theory. This study will re-analyze the “Oral Fossilization” in traditional EFL (English as foreign language), from this special perspective: ELF. In the end, suggestions and implications for English teaching will be given.
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    The Effects of Comprehensive English Course Reforms on English Majors' Critical Thinking Abilities Development
    WANG Zhexi, ZHU Yifa
    2017, 17 (01):  71-78.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2017.01.013
    Abstract ( 255 )   PDF (1566KB) ( 77 )  
    In view of "absence of critical thinking" among students majoring in foreign languages in China, reforms in teaching materials, teaching methods and evaluation system have been launched in the Comprehensive English Course in our school in order to help undergraduate students develop their critical thinking abilities. With the hierarchical model of critical thinking as the theoretical framework, this study investigates the effects of these reforms on the development of the English majors' critical thinking abilities by combining the pretest-post-test with the control-experiment design. A questionnaire is used to measure the dispositional dimension and the use of cognitive skills, while a writing test is used to measure cognitive standards. In what ways the reforms are effective and in what ways they are still lacking are discussed and suggestions are given to improve the teaching of undergraduate courses of foreign languages.
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    Evolution of Canadianness in Canadian Short Stories
    LIN Yuzhen, PENG Jianhui
    2017, 17 (01):  83-88.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2017.01.015
    Abstract ( 311 )   PDF (1526KB) ( 75 )  
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