幼兒、語言與英語習得

Young Children, Language and English Language Acquisition

連文雄(Wen-Hsiung Lien)

《建國科大學報》 24卷3期 (2005/04) Pp. 29-56

https://doi.org/10.6995/JCTU.200504.0029

摘要

本文旨在透過幼兒與語言的探討，洞察國內幼兒習得英語的有效方式。首先，作者探索幼兒的潛能和心智發展的法則與需求，了解幼兒教育的特色，以及幼兒時期語言發展的迫切性。其次，作者討論人類的語言本能與世界語言的共同特質，肯定幼兒習得任何一種或多種語言的能力。接著探討第一語言與第二語言習得的理論與習得時機，認知幼兒習得英語的方式。最後本文分析語言習得環境，做為營造適合國內幼兒習得英語環境的參考。本文另一個目標在於呼籲國人掙脫傳統英語學習的束縛，接納新的英語習得認知，拋棄過去學習英語的錯誤觀念與方法，以便真正提昇英語能力。

關鍵字

幼兒 ； 語言 ； 英語習得

並列摘要

This paper aims to provide, through the study of young children and the nature of language, a real insight into the effective way the young children in Taiwan are supposed to acquire the English language. To begin with, the innate capacities of young children, the principles and needs of their development are examined to discover the nature of early childhood education and the needs of young children for language development. Next, the human linguistic instinct and the common nature of all the languages in the world are discussed to confirm young children's ability to successfully learn any language or more than any one language. Then, theories of first and second language acquisition and the optimum age for second or foreign language acquisition are explored to find out the way young children acquire their first language and a second or foreign language. Finally, the environments for second or foreign language acquisition are analyzed to help set up a favorable English language environment for young learners in Taiwan. An extra aim of this paper is to encourage language learners here to break out of the straightjacket of traditional approaches to learning English and accept new ideas about language acquisition, so that they may really gain a good command of the English language.

並列關鍵字

young children ； language ； language acquisition