Data and Materials

Syntactic processing is widely believed to aid in sentence comprehension. However, parsing often requires a prior sentence interpretation in practice. This circular logic indicates the limited role of syntactic processing in sentence understanding, raising a question of whether second language learners fully utilize parsing for sentence comprehension. This study conducts an investigation and an empirical experiment comprising five sub-experiments with statistical analysis, revealing that many Chinese speakers underutilize syntactic processing to comprehend English sentences. It elucidates three states in which parsing is utilized for sentence interpretation: utilization of syntactic processing in sentence comprehension, partial underutilization of syntactic processing in sentence comprehension, and complete underutilization of syntactic processing in sentence comprehension. Further exploration of the reasons behind partial and complete underutilization led to the identification of trial and error as a contributing factor. Consequently, this study establishes a robust foundation for the development of an innovative parsing method aimed at integrating syntactic processing into sentence comprehension. The ultimate goal is to enhance sentence comprehension skills for second language learners.