L1 Thinking in Reading Process of Chinese College Students at Different Levels of English Proficiency

Abstract

The paper adopts think-aloud method to record the thinking process of Chinese college students of different levels when they are reading English materials. The think-aloud protocols are transcribed, and the L1 thinking in their reading process is analyzed. The results are as follows: Readers at different levels apply L1 thinking in their L2 reading process to deal with vocabulary and sentence in different ways. Readers in low-level and intermediate-level group rely heavily on L1 to deal with word meaning because of the limitation of their vocabulary yet readers in advanced-level group tend to use more L1 to associate semantic meaning in the process of L2 reading. Participants in advanced-level group usually read several of sentences and skim or scan information which is regard as not useful and import while participants in low-level and intermediate-level group usually read almost all the sentences and try to comprehend all of them regardless of their importance. In light of the findings generated by the study, teachers may have different perspectives while dealing with students’ reading activities. Since L1 thinking generally exists in the process of L2 reading, we should pay more attention to how to guide students to utilize L1 facilitating reading according to different students.