英语动词时态呼应的认知研究的中期报告

英语动词时态呼应的认知研究的中期报告IntroductionThepurposeofthismid-termreportistopresenttheprogressmadeintheresearchprojectoncognitivecorrelationbetweenEnglishverbtenses.Theprojectaimstoexplorehowlanguagelearners,particularlyMandarin-speakinglearnersofEnglish,comprehendandproduceEnglishverbtenseformsandhowtheseprocessesareinfluencedbyworkingmemoryandcognitivefactors.BackgroundandLiteratureReviewVerbtenseisanessentialgrammaticalfeatureoflanguage,whichencodestimeandallowsspeakerstoexpressthetemporalrelationshipbetweenevents(Jin,2019;Rast,2020).Englishhas12tenseforms,includingthesimplepresent,simplepast,simplefuture,presentcontinuous,pastcontinuous,futurecontinuous,presentperfect,pastperfect,futureperfect,presentperfectcontinuous,pastperfectcontinuous,andfutureperfectcontinuous(Azar,2002).These12tenseformsareconventionallygroupedintofourcategories:simple,continuous,perfect,andcontinuousperfect(Carter&McCarthy,2015).Previousstudieshaveshownthatverbtensecomprehensionandproductionarechallengingtasksforsecondlanguagelearners(Han,2019;Liu&Cai,2019;Wang,2020).ThedifficultyliesinthefactthatEnglishverbtensesdonothaveaone-to-onecorrespondencewiththoseinotherlanguages,suchasMandarinChinese(Guo,2016;Li,2019).Learnersmustacquirethesemanticandsyntacticrulesthatgoverneachtenseandlearntousethemappropriatelyincontext(Ellis,2006;Lightbown&Spada,2006).Moreover,researchhasindicatedthatworkingmemorycapacityandcognitivefactors,suchasattention,affectverbtenseprocessing(Hopp&Grabe,2011;Jin&Zhang,2020;Kasparian,2019).Learnerswithahigherworkingmemorycapacityarebetterabletoprocesscomplexgrammaticalstructures,includingverbtenses(Laine&Lehtonen,2018;Skehan,2019).ResearchQuestionsandObjectivesThemainresearchquestionsofthisprojectareasfollows:1.WhatarethecognitiveprocessesinvolvedinEnglishverbtensecomprehensionandproductionforMandarin-speakinglearnersofEnglish?2.Docognitivefactors,suchasworkingmemorycapacityandattention,affectEnglishverbtenseprocessingforMandarin-speakinglearnersofEnglish?3.HowcanpedagogicalinterventionsbedesignedtoenhanceMandarin-speakinglearners'Englishverbtenseprocessingability?Theobjectivesofthisprojectareto:1.DevelopanexperimentaldesigntoinvestigatethecognitiveprocessesbehindEnglishverbtensecomprehensionandproductionforMandarin-speakinglearnersofEnglish.2.Analyzethedatacollectedfromtheexperimenttoidentifypossiblecorrelationsbetweenworkingmemorycapacity,attention,andEnglishverbtenseprocessing.3.DrawconclusionsandmakerecommendationsfordesigningpedagogicalinterventionstoimproveMandarin-speakinglearners'Englishverbtenseprocessingability.MethodologyThestudywillinvolvetheadministrationofseveralexperimentaltaskstoMandarin-speakinglearnersofEnglish.Participantswillbeaskedtocompleteabatteryofcognitiveteststoassesstheirworkingmemorycapacity,attention,andothercognitivefactorsrelevanttothestudy.Theexperimentaltaskswillincludeasentencecompletiontask,asentencejudgmenttask,andapicturedescriptiontask,amongothers.Thesetaskswillbedesignedtoelicittheuseofdifferenttenseformsincontext.Thedatacollectedwillbeanalyzedusingstatisticaltechniques,suchasregressionanalysis,toidentifypossiblecorrelationsbetweencognitivefactorsandEnglishverbtenseprocessing.DiscussionandFutureDirectionsThecurrentprogressoftheresearchprojectoncognitivecorrelationbetweenEnglishverbtensesisencouraging.Theprojectaimstoshedlightonhowlanguagelearners,particularlyMandarin-speakinglearnersofEnglish,comprehendandproduceEnglishverbtenseformsandhowtheseprocessesareinfluencedbyworkingmemoryandcognitivefactors.Thefindingsoftheprojectwillhaveimplicationsforlanguagepedagogy,astheywillprovideinsightsintohowtodesigneffectiveinterventionstoimproveMandarin-speakinglearners'Englishverbtenseprocessingability.Thenextstepsoftheprojectinvolvecompletingtheadministrationoftheexperimentaltaskstotheparticipants,analyzingthedatacollected,anddrawingconclusionsandmakingrecommendati