Chen, Qin and Janet Donin. 1997. "Discourse Processing of First and Second Language Biology Texts: Effects of Language Proficiency and Domain-Specific Knowledge." The Modern Language Journal. 81 (2): 209-227.
Qin and Donin conducted a study examining how first language texts compared with second language texts affected reader recall. They also examined how the level of a participant's background knowledge affected recall from a first language or second language text. For this study, the researchers recruited graduate students whose first language was Chinese and second language was English. For the study, the participants read an excerpt from an English biology text and one from a Chinese biology text, both of which were for undergraduate-level students. The topic in both excerpts was the same. The reading times of the participants was monitored and they were asked to recall information when they were finished reading the documents. Qin and Donin found that although reading time was slower when participants were reading a second language text, the level of recall was more influenced by the background knowledge of the participant than whether the text was first or second language.
Although this was an interesting topic for research, it does not apply to the area of study for my research project. However, the results of this study are beneficial for technical writers who are writing for the ESL (English as a Second Language) population. Plus, it definitely would be a fascinating area of further study if time were not a factor!
No comments:
Post a Comment