How Do Japanese EFL Readers Maintain Coherence in Narrative Memory?

• USHIRO Yuji

  Tsukuba University

• MORI Yoshinobu

  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Graduate School, University of Tsukuba

• HOSODA Masaya

  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Graduate School, University of Tsukuba

• TANAKA Natsumi

  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Graduate School, University of Tsukuba

• DOWSE Eleanor

  Graduate School, University of Tsukuba

• TADA Go

  Graduate School, University of Tsukuba

• NAKAGAWA Hiroaki

  Graduate School, University of Tsukuba

Bibliographic Information

Other Title

• 日本人英語学習者はテキスト記憶において物語文の一貫性をどのように維持 するのか

Abstract

This study examined whether and how Japanese EFL readers maintain coherent narrative comprehension in their memory representations. If readers can successfully maintain coherence in their text comprehension despite encountering coherence breaks, their text memory is enhanced, but if they fail, their text memory can suffer (Otero & Kintsch, 1992). In this study, 48 Japanese EFL university students read 8 experimental narratives and performed a recall task. In each narrative, a character performed an action (e.g., “Mary ordered a cheeseburger”) that was either consistent or inconsistent with a prior description of him or her (e.g., “Mary loved junk food” or “Mary was a vegetarian”). The results showed that participants recalled more descriptions and actions of the characters in the inconsistent texts than in the consistent texts, indicating that they selectively reprocessed the inconsistent information in order to maintain coherence. Moreover, most readers chose to edit the later character actions, rather than the preceding descriptions, by substituting the inconsistent actions with more neutral actions (e.g., “Mary ordered food”). These findings suggest that L2 readers slightly edited subsequent information in order to maintain coherence. Pedagogical implications are argued in terms of developing autonomous readers who can self-monitor coherence in their text comprehension.

Journal

• ARELE: Annual Review of English Language Education in Japan

  ARELE: Annual Review of English Language Education in Japan 27 (0), 81-96, 2016

  The Japan Society of English Language Education

Details

• CRID: 1390282680799538944
• NII Article ID: 130005549259
• DOI: 10.20581/arele.27.0_81
• ISSN: 24320412
• ISSN: 13448560
• Text Lang: en
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed