Literature-Review(样本)

LiteratureReview1.TheimportanceofreadinginEnglishlearningInlanguagelearning,readingisregardedasamajorsourceofinput,andformanyEFLlearnersitisthemostimportantskillinanacademiccontext（Grabe1991).Inaddition,readingcanhelplearnersextendtheirgeneralknowledgeoftheworld.InthecontextofChina,asChineseEFLlearnersarelearningthetargetlanguageinanacquisition-poorenvironment,theyneedallthemoretodependonreadingforlanguageandcultureimmersion.And,whatismore,thereisanothernecessitytoChineseEFLlearners—readingforexaminations(Zhou2003).ItisobviousthatreadingmakesupalargeproportionofthetotalscoresinimportantEnglishProficiencyTestsatvariouslevelssuchasTestofEnglishasaForeignLanguage(TOEFL),InternationalEnglishLanguageTestingSystem(IELTS),CollegeEnglishTestBand4(CET-4),CollegeEnglishTestBand6(CET-6),TestforEnglishMajorsBand4(TEM-4),TestforEnglishMajorsBand8(TEM-8)(Pu2006).Therefore,readingisconsideredanessentialandprerequisiteabilityonthepartofEnglishmajors.2.Thereadingprocess2.1ThenatureofreadingReadingcomprehensionbeginsatthesmallestandsimplestlanguageunitsandeachsingleword,sentenceandpassagecarriesitsownmeaningindependentlywhichhasnodirectlinkwiththereader(ChomskycitedinZhang&Guo2005).Itistheprocessofacquiringinformationfromawrittenorprintedtext.Sotoreadatextsuccessfullyistoknowthemeaningofthetext.(Eskey2002,citedinYu2005).Anotherviewaboutreadingisthatreadingisa“psycholinguisticguessinggame”(Goodman1967,citedinZhang2006)duringwhichthereadercanmakepredictionsaboutthecontentofapassageaccordingtothetextualclues,hispriorknowledgeandexperience.Ifhispredictionsareconfirmed,thereadercontinues,otherwise,herevisesthosepredictions(Goodman1967;Smith1971,citedinSilberstein2002:6).Fromthisperspective,readingcanbetakenasaninteractiveactivity(Eskey1988;Grabe1993,citedinHedge2002:188)whichcanbeunderstoodtobeacomplexcognitiveprocessinwhichthereaderandthetextinteractto(re)createmeaningfuldiscourse(Silberstein2002:x).Itisinatleasttwoways.Firstly,thevariousprocessesinvolvedinreadingarecarriedoutsimultaneously.Secondly,itisinteractiveinthesensethatlinguisticinformationfromthetextinteractswithinformationactivatedbythereaderfromhislong-termmemory,asbackgroundknowledge(Grabe&Stoller2005:18).Atthispoint,readingcanalsobedescribedasakindofdialoguebetweenthereaderandthetext,orevenbetweenthereaderandtheauthor(Widdowson1979a,citedinHedge2002:188).Meanwhile,readingisacomplexprocess.Itinvolvesprocessingideasgeneratedbyothersthataretransmittedthroughlanguageandinvolveshighlycomplexcognitiveprocessingoperations(Nunan1999,citedinYu2005).Andmanyprocessingskillsarecoordinatedinveryefficientcombinations(Grabe&Stoller2005:4).Furthermore,readingisapurposefulprocess.Wecandividethepurposeintodifferentcategories:readingforpleasureorreadingforinformationinordertofindoutsomethingordosomethingwiththeinformationyouget(Grellet2000:4):togetinformation,toresponsetocuriosityaboutatopic;tofollowinstructionstoperformatask;forpleasure,amusement,andpersonalenjoyment;tokeepintouchwithfriendsandcolleagues;toknowwhatishappeningintheworld;andtofindoutwhenandwherethingsare(RiversandTemperley1978:187,citedinHedge2002:195).Besidesthese,readingisacriticalprocess.Criticalreadingviewsreadingasasocialengagement(Kress1985,citedinHedge2002:197).Formthisviewpoint,textsareorganizedincertainwaysbywriterstoshapetheperceptionsofreaderstowardsacceptanceoftheunderlyingideologyofthetext(Hedge2002:197).Soitistheprocessforthereaderstoevaluatethewriters’attitudesorviewpoints.2.2Threecomponentsofreading2.2.1LanguagecompetenceManyresearchershavepointedoutthatL2learnersmustreachacertainlevelofsecondlanguagecompetencebeforetheycansmoothlyreadinthetargetlanguage(seeGrabe&Stoller2005).Anefficientreadercanrecognizeanddecodethewords,grammaticalstructuresandotherlinguisticfeaturesquickly,accurately,andautomatically.Obviously,sometimessecondlanguagereadershavedifficultiesinprocessingtextswhichcontainunfamiliarelementsoftheEnglishlanguagesuchasthecohesivedevices(Hedge2002:192).JustasBerman(1984,citedinHedge2002:193)suggests,deletion,anothercohesivedevice,canmakeatext‘opaque’tothereader.Itseemstoconfirmthehypothesisthatforeignlanguagereadersarepartlydependentonprocessingsyntacticstructuressuccessfullytogetaccesstomeaning(Hedge2002:193).Anothermajordifficultyliesinvocabulary.Languagelearnersexperiencedifficultywithvocabulary,butthedegreeofdifficultyvarieswiththedemandsofthetext,thepriorknowledgeofthereader,thedegreeofautomaticityalearnerhasachievedingeneralwordrecognition,anyspecialistlexicalknowledgeastudentmighthave,andthelearner’sfirstlanguage(Hedge2002:193).2.2.2BackgroundknowledgeBackgroundknowledgeisone’spreviouslyacquiredcomprehensiveknowledgeorworldknowledgeandone’sspecialknowledgeoncertainsubjects(Zhang&Guo2005).Inlanguagelearning,especiallyforreadingcomprehension,thefunctionofbackgroundknowledgeinreadingcomprehensionisformularizedasschematheory(Bartlett1932;Rumelhart&Ortony1977;Rumelhart1980,citedinZhang2006).Thereaderbeginswiththeperceptionofgraphiccues,butoncethesearerecognizedasfamiliar,schemataderivedfro