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BriefAnalysisofChineseStudents’ErrorsinEnglishReadingLVLing-yunAbstract:Onthebasisofthetheoriesofpsycholinguisticperspectiveinlanguageteachingandcommunicativeapproachinlanguagelearning,thispaperanalysesbrieflysometangibleerrorsfortheChinesestudentsintheirreadinginlinewiththeauthor’sownteachingexperiences.Thepaperisanattemptatovercomingtheobstaclesexistingbetweenthetextwritersandthetextreadersandenablingthelattertobecomeeffectivereaders.Keywords:psycholinguistic,communicative,errors,readingcomprehensionEnglishreadinghasalwaysbeenconsideredoneofthemostimportantpartsofforeignlanguagelearning.Withoutreading,nothingcanbedoneinthedevelopmentofthecompetenceinlistening,speaking,writingandtranslating.Readingcourses,orrather,intensivereadingones,fillupalargecomponentofthecurricula.Obviously,studentsandteachershouldpaygreatattentiontotheimportanceofreadingcourses.Andwhatisreading?HowcanChinesestudentsachieveproficientreading?1.TheoryofpsycholinguisticperspectiveandcommunicativeapproachAsweknow,thepsycholinguisticmodelofEFTisameaning-basedmodelproposedbyGoodman(1967)andSmith(1971).Goodmanthinksthatinthereadingprocessthe“readerreconstructs,asbestashecan,amessagewhichhasbeenencodedbyawriterasagraphicdisplay”(Goodman1973).Smithsays“···skillinreadingactuallydependsonusingtheeyesaslittleaspossible,···aswebecomefluentreaderswelearntorelymoreonwhatwealreadyknow,onwhatisbehindtheeyeballs,andlessontheprintonthepageinfrontofus”(1978).Thepsycholinguistsassumethatifthereaderhastheabilitytoselecttheproductivelanguagecues,hecandecode,throughhispsycholinguisticprocessing,themessageinthetext,andsharemuchofinformationwhichthewriterintendstoconvey.[1]ThecommunicativeapproachofEFL,WhichprevailsafterWorldWarⅡ,holdsthat“Theprimarygoalofmostforeignlanguagelearningistodeveloptheabilitytouserealandappropriatelanguagetocommunicateandinteractwithothers,andthegoalofforeignlanguageteachingistoextendtherangeofcommunicativesituationinwhichthelearnerscanperformwithfocusonmeaningwithoutbeinghinderedbytheattentionhemustpaytolinguisticform.”(Littlewood,1981).Incommunicativeteachingmodel,theclassisstudents-centred,andcommunicativeactivitiesareperformedbetweenstudentsandtheteachers,studentsandstudents.Butefficientcommunicationstilldependsonsuccessfuldecodingofthe“meaning”ofthediscourses,thatis,alistenermustinstantlymakeoutwhataspeakerwantstogetacross.Andcommunicativeefficiencymeansthatstudentsshouldbeabletodoefficientlyinallofthefourskills.Soreadingcompetence,whichcanbeconsideredasacommunicationbetweenreadersandwriters,shouldalsobebroughtintofullconsideration.ThereshouldbesomethingincommonwithboththepsycholinguisticperspectiveofEFTandcommunicativeapproachofEFL:reading(andlistening)shouldberegardedasanactivepsycholinguisticprocess;atext(ordiscourse)isassumedtohaveitspotentialmeaning;andit’srealmeaningdependsonthereader’s(orlistener’s)interactionwiththetext(ordiscourse).Therelationshipbetweenawriterandareadermayberepresentedinthissimpleflowchart:Writerorspeaker→Textordiscourse(withmessageormeaning)→ReaderorlistenerThisproceedingclearlyshowsthatthepurposeofreadingistotrytogetoutofatextasmuchaspossiblethemessagethatthewriterhastriedtoputintoit.However,wemayfinditvulnerable:theresultofthereaders’interactionwillvaryfromonetoanother,andareaderdoesnotnecessarilyachievewhatthewriterexpects.Thereismuchthatremainstobeexploredwithinthespanbetweenthewriterandthereader:whatconstraintspreventthereaderfromsharingthemessage(meaning)withthewriter?Ateacher’srole,Ithink,istobridgethegapandhelpthestudentsbecomeefficientreaders.2.SomeTangibleErrorsinReadingComprehensionTheChineselanguageistotallydifferentfromtheEnglishlanguage.TheformerbelongstotheSino-TibetanlanguagefamilyandthelattertotheIndo-Europeanlanguagefamily.Therefore,WhenChineselearnersattempttounderstandatextinEnglish,theyfacelinguisticproblemsinvariousrespects:spelling,gender,verbforms,tensesandwordorder.Inadditiontothese,I’dliketodiscusssomeotherobstaclesbetweenwritersandreaders.2.1Lexicalandsyntacticalerrors.Wordssuchas“imaginative”and“imaginary”and“respectable”areoftenmisunderstoodandmisusedbyChineselearnersasintheirmothertonguewordshavevirtuallynoinflexions.Inmyclassroom,however,Ihavefoundmystudentsmoreliabletostumbleoverarticlesandprepositions.IbelievethereasonisthattheseparticlesareneverusedintheChineselanguageandhencedifficulttohandle.Forexample,theymayfinditdifficulttounderstandthesetwosentences:Iamneveratalossforaword,andheisneveratalossfortheword.Awomanwithoutamanislikeafishwithoutabicycle.Thefirstspeakeraimsat“his”proficiencyofwordingand“my”casualchoiceofwords,andthesecondspeakerwantstotellthatamanisnomorenecessarytoawomanthanabicycletoafish.TheChinesestudentmightfeelatalossforthemeaningbecauseheorsheoftenoverlookstheconfusing“smallwords”suchasarticlesandprepositions.Studentsmaybeaskedtodistinguishvariedshadesofmeaningswhenparticlesareusedbeforetheteacheroffershishelp.Chineseisananalyticlanguageandtherelationshipbetweenthedifferentpartsofasentenceisbasedonreasoning.English,however,isasyntheticlanguagean