Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks
Published on: September 5, 2019
Anaphoric Interpretation Among Chinese EFL Learners: Evidence from a Text-Based Approach
Leyi Qian1, Rongrong Huang2, Yan Cheng2
1School of Foreign Studies, Hefei University of Technology, No. 485, Danxia Road, Hefei, 230601, Anhui, China. qianleyi@hfut.edu.cn.
None:
The aim of this study is to refresh the extant literature regarding anaphoric interpretation from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), a text-based approach that has been long missing in the prior studies. Within an SFL-oriented model of cohesion-driven anaphoric relations, a total of 132 participants participated in two tasks examining how Chinese EFL learners interpreted six anaphora subcategories-reference (coreference), ellipsis & substitution, repetition, synonymy, hyponymy and collocation (non-coreference or associative anaphora)-both at inter- and intra-sentential levels in two narratives. Results indicated low accuracy across multiple anaphoric relations. Proficiency did not explain variance in performance, whereas statistically significant within-genre topic effects were reported. In addition, these findings have implications for instructors, learners, and researchers.
Related Concept Videos
Language and Cognition
Group Design
Framing Effects