CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Need for the Study
1.2 Significance of the Study
1.3 Research Questions
1.4 Definition of Key Terms
1.4.1 Mental Representations
1.4.2 "Causal Path" in the Narratives
1.4.3 Story Characters
1.4.4 Story Character Goals
1.4.5 Working Memory
1.4.6 Suppression
1.5 Outline of the Book
CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Structure Building Framework
2.2.1 Three Structure Building Processes
2.2.2 Two Mechanisms in the Process of Structure Building: Suppression and Enhancement
2.2.3 Two Types of Mental Structures
2.2.4 Previous Studies on Suppression and Enhancement
2.2.5 Measures of Suppression
2.3 WM and the Capacity Constrained Comprehension Theory
2.4 The Verbal Efficiency Theory
CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH BACKGROUND
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Narrative Comprehension
3.2.1 "Causal Path" in Narrative Comprehension
3.2.2 Story Characters in Narrative Comprehension
3.2.3 Story Character Goals in Narrative Comprehension
3.2.4 Conclusion
3.3 Reading and Narrative Comprehension in L2
3.3.1 The Importance of L2 Reading and Narrative Comprehension in SLA
3.3.2 The Process of L2 Reading
3.4 Limitations of Previous Research on Narrative Comprehension
3.4.1 Limitations of Research on the Role of Story Characters in Narrative Comprehension
3.4.2 Limitations of Research on the Role of Character Goals in Narrative Comprehension
3.5 Research Questions
CHAPTER 4 EXPERIMENT ONE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Subjects
4.3 Instruments
4.3.1 English Proficiency
4.3.2 English Comprehension Skills
4.3.3 L2 WM
4.3.4 Suppression of Story Characters during L2 Narrative Comprehension
4.4 Procedure
CHAPTER 5 EXPERIMENT TWO: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 70
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Within-Subjects Design and Between-Subjects Design
5.3 Subjects
5.4 Instruments
5.4.1 English Proficiency
5.4.2 English Comprehension Skills
5.4.3 L2 WM
5.4.4 Suppression of Story Character Goals during L2 Narrative Comprehension
5.5 Procedure
CHAPTER 6 EXPERIMENT ONE: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
6.1 Introduction
6.2 The First Two Sub-questions of Research Question One: Subjects as a Random Effect
6.3 The First Two Sub-questions of Research Question One: Probe Words as a Random Effect
6.4 The Third Sub-question of Research Question One
6.5 Research Question Three
6.6 Discussion
CHAPTER 7 EXPERIMENT TWO: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Within-Subjects Design: Preliminary Analyses
7.2.1 The First Two Sub-questions of Research Question Two
7.2.2 The Third Sub-question of Research Question Two
7.2.3 Research Question Three
7.3 Between-Subjects Design: Confirmatory Analyses
7.3.1 The First Two Sub-questions of Research Question Two: Verification Latencies
7.3.2 The First Two Sub-questions of Research Question Two: Verification Errors
7.3.3 The Third Sub-question of Research Question Two
7.3.4 Research Question Three
7.3.5 Summary
7.4 Discussion
CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION
8.1 Major Findings
8.2 Implications
8.2.1 Theoretical Implications
8.2.2 Pedagogical Implications
8.3 Limitations and Suggestions
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
Appendix I : The Test of English Comprehension Skills
Appendix II : Sentences in the L2 Working Memory Test
Appendix HI : The Test of Suppression of Story Characters During L2 Narrative Comprehension
Appendix IV : The Test of Suppression of Story Character Goals During L2 Narrative Comprehension
