1 Introduction

Education promotes knowledge acquisition and problem-solving through academic reading, and understanding the macro structure of academic discourse is crucial for improving learning efficiency and academic literacy. Second language readers face challenges in understanding academic terminology at a macro level and need to extract, summarize, and grasp the overall context. Existing research often uses genre analysis to explore discourse structural features, while academic reading research explores reading strategies through methods such as questionnaires and interviews. This article aims to explore in depth how readers perceive and process discourse structure, and provide insights for academic English reading teaching.

Concept and Importance of Macro Structure

In the 1960s and 1970s, the field of discourse analysis underwent a transition from formalism to functionalism. Dutch linguist van Dijk proposed the concept of macrostructure, emphasizing the hierarchical semantic structure of discourse. Macrostructure is a summary of microstructure, composed of a network of propositions, and is the overall meaning structure of discourse. Macro structure is abstract and needs to be extracted based on the content of the discourse, usually not appearing directly in the discourse. Van Dijk collaborated with psychologist Kintsch to combine discourse linguistics with discourse processing psychology and found that participants had better recall of macro structures, while details were easily forgotten. Macro structure refers to the structure in which language users organize information and form discourse representations in their memory. It is subjective and influenced by factors such as language and cognition, and different readers may form different macro structures. Macrostructure plays a crucial role in organizing micro information and reducing complex information in language comprehension, and is essential for cognitive tasks such as information processing, storage, learning, and recall. Van Dijk proposed that discourse comprehension is a cyclic transformation process from microstructure to macrostructure, involving the application of macro rules. He further introduced the concepts of strategic processing and psychological models, emphasizing the subjectivity and coherent processing mechanisms of macro structures. The macro structural concept has had a profound impact on later reading research, emphasizing the structure and hierarchy of discourse meaning, the role of memory representation, and the interaction between automation and strategic processing. There are many theoretical introductions and discussions on macro structure in China's foreign language community, but empirical research is relatively lacking.

3 Empirical research paradigms for constructing macro structures

Macrostructure has a high level of activation in the discourse proposition hierarchy, which is crucial for readers to remember and extract information. Early empirical research evaluated readers' understanding and memory of macro structures by comparing reader overviews with discourse analysis. In second language reading, constructing macro structures is more challenging than in native language reading. Kozminsky U0026 Graetz (1986) found that high-level English learners pay more attention to the word level when reading English discourse, while they pay more attention to paragraph structure when reading their native language. An overview of discourse content can help understand information storage, but is limited by language generation ability. Van Dijk (1980) pointed out that stored content may not necessarily be fully expressed, and the information expressed is only indirect evidence of information extracted from memory. More real-time research methods are needed for the processing of macroscopic structures. Researchers measure the processing time of topic sentences to examine how readers identify important topics and establish relational representations. Lorch et al. (1985; 1987) found that processing topic sentences is slower than interpreting and expanding content, reflecting the need for readers to activate new information. When a new topic is related to the previous topic, the processing of the topic sentence is faster, indicating that readers need more cognitive resources to encode new information and integrate it with the knowledge framework to form a new structural representation, namely the "topic switching effect". When rereading an article, the topic switching effect disappears, and the processing of topic sentences is faster than that of non topic sentences, indicating that the topic structure representation has been established during the first reading. This type of research demonstrates readers' online processing of macro structures, but is limited in presenting materials at a self paced pace, presenting only one sentence at a time, limiting backtracking, and not quite in line with natural reading contexts. The development of eye tracking technology enables researchers to observe information attention, search, or integration in real-time during relatively natural reading processes. Hy ö n ä et al. (2002) classified Finnish university readers into four types based on eye movement indicators for reading long explanatory texts: fast line type, slow line type, topic structure processing type, and non selective review type. Theme structure processing type readers have the highest working memory capacity and the best summary scores. Prichard u0026 Atkins (2018) found that among Japanese English learners, readers who engage in selective attention tend to have better summary scores. Current research on second language processing eye movements mainly focuses on words, phrases, or short stories, with less emphasis on macro level processing of long discourse. The grasp of macro structure begins with dynamic cognitive processing and ends with static memory representation. Combining the advantages of multiple methods and analyzing the process and results of reading comprehension from different perspectives, explaining the correlation between macro structural processing and memory representation, is an important research trend in the field of second language reading.

The main influencing factors of macro structural construction

The construction of macro structure is influenced by both reader factors and textual factors. Reader factors include working memory, background knowledge, and reading strategies/skills. The working memory capacity limits the overall coherence and representation ability of language, and background knowledge affects discourse comprehension. Effective use of reading strategies helps to construct macro structures. Text factors such as genre and coherence affect text processing patterns, with different genres leading to different processing patterns, and coherence affecting readers' active understanding and processing. Discourse comprehension is the psychological representation formed by the interaction between readers' information resources and the content of reading materials. Understanding these factors helps to find the best path to promote reading comprehension.

5 inspirations for academic English reading teaching

In academic English reading teaching, students often neglect the overall understanding of the article due to being busy with dictionary lookup and translation. Teaching should focus on cultivating macro processing strategies, including establishing information connections, utilizing background knowledge, understanding discourse structure, and constructing discourse meaning. Teachers should teach semantic relationship markers, assign preview tasks, combine genre teaching, and guide students to pay attention to the author's discourse style. By summarizing tasks and practicing mind maps, students can improve their ability to organize and selectively focus on information. At the same time, strengthen basic decoding abilities such as vocabulary and grammar to provide cognitive resources for advanced macro processing.

6 Conclusion

Academic English reading requires a macro perspective to understand articles in order to promote learning, criticism, and innovation. Studying how Chinese learners construct macro structures in different academic contexts is of great significance for both theory and practice. Future research should combine theory and empirical evidence to promote the development of academic English reading.