AbstractA key index to learners’ proficiency level of a second language, the comprehension speed of sentences, is a pivotal factor that determines the choice of teaching method which may suit the second language learners in their learning of specialty courses. From the representation of inner knowledge of a second language and the character of its process, some researchers describe a quickening tendency of second language process speed during the acquisition of the language. With respect to the reason why the change of process speed occurs, however, researchers have not explained the difference between a learner’s mother tongue and second language, which may be important in practice. This study explores increasing speed of foreign students’ comprehension of Chinese sentences from the perspective of inhibition of processing.In this experiment, there are four groups of subjects, twenty in each and all paid for their participation. Three groups are native English, Japanese and Korean speakers, and the other group is Mandarin Chinese speakers selected as comparison. Ten constructions of Chinese sentences are chosen as the test materials, including three subject-verb-object constructions (zhu dong bin ju), subject-verb-agent construction (shi bin ju), two topic-comment constructions, two ba constructions, bei construction, and bei-ba compound construction. The six native Mandarin Chinese speakers, who do not actually participate in the experiment, score all the sentences in the experiment in terms of grammaticality. All the sentences, which are programmed, are presented one by one at random on the screen of a Pentium IV laptop, each followed by three possible answers about the actor of the action described in the sentence. The subjects should choose one answer among the three as accurately and quickly as possible by pressing a certain key on the keyboard. There are some sentences for pretesting before the formal experiment. In the formal experiment, reaction time and subject’s answer of each sentence are self-recorded. Reaction time and percent correct for each construction of Chinese sentences is calculated after the experiment. The post hoc multiple comparison tests are performed for the reaction time of each construction of Chinese sentences separately.SPSS analysis shows that: (1) there is a highly significant difference (P≈0.000﹤0.001) between all the groups of foreign students and the native Chinese speakers in the comprehension of all ten constructions of Chinese sentences except one of the topic-comment constructions (zhu ling ju) (P=0.018). (2) there is a significant difference (P﹤0.05) between the native English speakers and the native Japanese or Korean speakers in comprehending seven of the ten constructions of Chinese sentences.Compared the comprehension speed of sentences of foreign students when their Chinese knowledge is at the intermediate level with the primary level, the conclusions of this research are as follows:Firstly, the foreign students require to inhibit less and less inapposite knowledge in comprehending Chinese sentences with their improvement in Chinese knowledge, but they are less skilled than the Chinese students even if their Chinese knowledge is at the intermediate level; there is significant difference between the foreign students and the Chinese students. These results suggest that, even if foreign students’ Chinese ability reaches the intermediate level, they also require a separate organization to study. The effect would not be good if they were put together with native Chinese students to study professional courses.Secondly, when the foreign students are at the intermediate level of Chinese knowledge, their inhibition of inapposite knowledge is also related to their native languages in different typologies; there is significant difference between the students whose native language is English and those whose native languages are Japanese and Korean. But the difference between the two different categories students are diminished when their Chinese knowledge is at the intermediate level. These results suggest that, when the foreign students have a high level of Chinese, they could be organized to teach according to their actual differences, teaching content should be targeted for specific learners. The teacher should strengthen the grammar rules which are difficult for specific learners, increase the frequency of language input and practice.
The role of formal experiment design in hypersonic flight system technology development