Abstract    Reading is an effective method to help readers to acquire language information and to strengthen their linguistic knowledge. Through reading comprehension, readers could obtain necessary linguistic input so that they could realize their goals of expanding their vocabulary and finally promoting the linguistic competence. For the past few decades, scholars have done large number of researches on reading comprehension and teaching of it from different perspectives such as cognitive linguistics, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics etc. 58547

    Relevance theory, a pragmatic theory about communication and cognition, was raised by Sperber and Wilson in 1986 in their works. The relevance principle, based on the cognitive laws and communication characteristics, is helpful for readers to properly judge the cognitive environment and understand the real intention of the author. This thesis analyzes the process of reading comprehension under the framework of relevance theory. It believes that if relevance theory could be well mastered and properly used in the practice of reading comprehension, readers could greatly improve their reading comprehension.

Keywords: Relevance Theory; English reading comprehension; cognitive inference; teaching of English reading 

关联理论指导下的英语阅读理解过程研究

摘要    阅读是帮助读者获取语言信息、巩固语言知识的一种有效途径。借助阅读理解，读者可以获得必要的语言输入，从而实现扩充词汇量、提高英语水平的目的。近年来，学者们从认知语言学、社会语言学及心理语言学等不同视角对阅读理解与教学作了大量研究。

语言交际是一个认知推理的过程，阅读理解是一项复杂的语言认知活动，因此，本文尝试在关联理论的框架下，对阅读过程进行研究。关联原则下的语用认知规律和交际特征有助于读者对作者的认知环境做出正确推断，有助于读者通过构建新的认知语境推断意义，分析所读语料的意义关联与逻辑关联，最终了解原作者真实交际意图。本研究使人们对阅读理解这一过程有进一步的认知和理解，将对阅读实践提供一定的借鉴和指导作用。 

毕业论文关键词：关联理论；阅读理解；认知推理；英语阅读教学

Contents

Abstract in English I

Abstract in Chinese II

I. Introduction 1

II. Literature Review 3

2.1 The Present Situation of the Teaching of English Reading 3

2.2 Review of Research on English Reading Comprehension 4

Ⅲ. Theoretical Framework：Relevance Theory 6

3.1 Review of Relevance Theory 6

3.2 Main Points of Relevance Theory 7

3.2.1 Ostensive-Inferential Communication 7

3.2.2 Maximal Relevance and Optimal Relevance 8

3.2.3 Context 10

IV. English Reading Comprehension Process Based on Relevance Theory 11

4.1 Feasibility of Applying Relevance Theory to Reading Comprehension 11

4.2 English Reading Comprehension Process Based on Relevance Theory 11

4.2.1 Reading as an Ostensive-inferential Making Process 12

4.2.2 Reading as an Optimal Relevance-seeking Process 13

4.2.3 Reading as a Contextualization Process