ABSTRACT
This study examined how learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) with different first language (L1) literacy experiences read in Chinese at the discourse level. We focused on one particular group of reading skills: coherence-building skills both with and without the help of discourse coherence signaling devices – connectives. English-speaking CFL learners were compared with Japanese-speaking CFL learners in reading two forms of Chinese texts: the implicit form with very few connectives and the explicit form with added connectives. It was found that English-speaking and Japanese-speaking CFL learners performed better when reading the explicit forms of Chinese sentences and texts with added connectives than they did reading the implicit-form Chinese sentences and texts with low density of connectives. It was also found that English-speaking CFL learners outperformed the Japanese-speaking CFL learners in reading the implicit form of Chinese sentences and texts. The results indicate that CFL learners whose L1 contains fewer connectives in discourse have developed a special coherence building skill and were subsequently able to transfer this skill to their L2 reading.
本文研究母语对二语语篇阅读技能的影响。研究目的是探索以英语为母语的中文学习者和以日语为母语的中文学习者在阅读中文时的不同之处以及母语是否会影响其中文阅读水平。中文连词的使用频率非常低，英语和日语连词的使用频率比中文高得多，而且日语连词的使用频率高于英语。本文对不同的母语背景的中文学习者在中文阅读中关于连词的理解进行了相关的阅读测试。阅读测试的句子和文章有两种类型：正常型（没有连词或连词很少）和修改型（添加了额外的连词以助于阅读理解）。结果发现，以英语为母语的学生和以日语为母语的学生在阅读修改型的中文句子和文章时成绩均优于阅读包含较少连词的正常型句子和文章。结果还发现，当阅读正常的中文句子和文章（包含较少连词）时，以英语为母语的学生的成绩优于以日语为母语的学生。这些结果表明，母语能帮助学生发展特殊的语篇连贯性建构技能，并且这项技能能够迁移到二语习得中。
