Effect of Background Music on Chinese and English Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Abstract: The current study examined the effect of background music with different tempo（slow/faster）and timber（voice/piano）on English（experiment 1）and Chinese（experiment 2） reading comprehension of Chinese college students. The results show that there was a negative effect of background music on both Chinese and English reading comprehension. The tempo of music have various effects on English and Chinese reading performance, the faster the background music is, the slower the English reading speed is. On the contrary, under faster background music, Chinese reading speed is faster. There is an obvious effect of timber, both English and Chinese reading performance under background music with voice is better than under background music with piano.

Key words: background music, English reading, Chinese reading, tempo, timber.

摘要： 分别探讨了不同速度（慢速、快速）和不同音色（人声、钢琴）的音乐对英文阅读（实验1）和中文阅读（实验2）的影响效应。结果显示：（1）无论在英文阅读和中文阅读条件下，都表现出有背景音乐下的阅读效率低于无背景音乐下的阅读效率；（2）在英文阅读条件下，快速音乐下的阅读效率低于慢速音乐下的阅读效率，在中文阅读条件下，结果正好相反；（3）在英文阅读和中文阅读条件下，都表现出人声音乐下的阅读效率高于钢琴音乐下的阅读效率。

关键词: 背景音乐, 中文阅读, 英文阅读, 音速, 音色。

CLC Number:

B842.5

Ma Xie, Liu Jia, Liu Yan, Tao Yun, Zhang Qiuyue, Chen Rui. Effect of Background Music on Chinese and English Reading Comprehension[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2015, 13(4): 472-478.

马谐, 刘佳, 刘艳, 陶云, 张秋月, 陈睿. 背景音乐对中—英文阅读理解的影响效应[J]. 心理与行为研究, 2015, 13(4): 472-478.

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