Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Literature Review 5
2.1 Studies of suppression and reading 6
2.2 Studies about the role of suppression in language comprehension 8
2.2.1 Suppression in L2 comprehension process 8
2.2.2 Suppression in EFL listening comprehension 9
2.2.3 Suppression in L2 reading comprehension 11
Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework 14
3.1 Theory of Structure Building 14
3.2 Enhancement and suppression 15
3.3 The role of suppression 20
3.3.1 Suppression in understanding words 20
3.3.2 Suppression in anaphoric reference 21
3.3.3 Suppression in cataphoric access 24
3.3.4 Suppression in forgetting surface information 25
3.4 The relation between the current study and Structure Building 27
Chapter 4 Research Design 28
4.1 Research questions 28
4.2 Subjects 29
4.3 Instruments 29
4.4 Procedures of research 30
English Proficiency Test 30
English Reading Test 31
Resolution of Co-referring Expression 31
Chapter 5 Data Analysis and Discussion 36
5.1 Data analysis 36
5.1.1 Correlation analysis 36
5.1.2 Path analysis 44
5.2 Theoretical explanation 54
5.2.1 Suppression and building of mental representations in L2 reading 54
5.2.2 L2 Reading and building of mental representations 55
5.2.3 L2 Language proficiency and building of mental representations 57
5.2.4 L2 Reading and L2 language proficiency 58
5.3 Integrated analysis 59
5.3.1 Correlation between L2 reading and building of mental representations 60
5.3.2 Correlation between L2 language proficiency and building of mental representations 62
5.3.3 Correlation between L2 reading and L2 language proficiency 63
5.3.4 Suppression in the correlation of the three variables 64
Chapter 6 Conclusions and Implications 67
6.1 Conclusions 67
6.2 Limitations and implications 71
References 72
English Part 72
Chinese Part 78
Appendix Ⅰ 82
Appendix Ⅱ 92
Appendix Ⅲ 116