兒童語言發展的研究

A STUDY ON THE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

林清山(Lin, Chen-shan)

《臺灣省立師範大學教育研究所集刊》 9輯 (1966/12) Pp. 296-139

https://doi.org/10.6910/BIERTNU.196612_(9).0004

摘要

本文主要目的在研究六歲以前兒童的語言發展，從理論、方法、和實際觀察等三方面着手，對此一問題作較為完整的探討。在第一章「有關兒童語言發展的理論」裹，先說明研究兒童語言發展，乃在於以研究兒童語言作為手段，來達到瞭解整個兒童為主要目的。再從兒童語言研究的歷史探尋現在一般的研究方向，知道已由過去主觀傳記式的研究方法改變而為客觀的大規模的橫斷研究。其次再研討兒童語言的功用，強調兒童說話的目的在於滿足各種需要和願望。然後，就生理基礎、心理基礎、和社會基礎說明兒童本身正常的發展以及父母教師等人的協力對兒童語言發展的重要性。最後，討論兒童語言發展的階段，並分析各種影響語言發展的因素，知道兒童語言發展與其他方面的發展一樣，乃是循序漸進的過程，而且在此過程中，受各種因素交互作用所影響。在第二章「兒童語言發展的研究方法」裹，對觀察兒童語言行為的方法及步驟等作綜合的介紹，例如：受試的取樣、語言樣本的記錄、觀察情境的控制、語言資料的整理與分析統計、以及語彙測驗的編製等各種細節，均予以詳細討論。第三章「兒童語言行為的實際觀察」，實際上就是筆者所作研究的主要部分；此項研究係比較救濟機構兒童與一般家庭兒童語言反應的差異情形。因此乃利用18名（男女各半）四至六歲救濟機構兒童與18名（也男女各半）同年齡的一般家庭兒童，就實際年齡和性別予以配對，然後觀察這兩組兒童在圖畫情境（與觀察者說話）和在玩具情境（與其同伴說話）時的語言反應。分析時，係就總字數、平均句長、相異字、生字率、詞類百分比、以及語句種類和複雜性等六方面，來比較（1）兩組不同社經水準兒童之間的差異、（2）兩個不同情境之間的差異、和（3）男女性別之間的語言反應的差異。結果，除發現兒童語言反應因情境和男女性別之不同而有所差異外，證實救濟機構兒童的語言發展遠較一般家庭兒童爲落後。惟因本研究未對智慧因素加以控制，此種差異究竟是否純由環境造成，則須待進一步研究。

並列摘要

This paper consists of three parts. In Part One, theories concerning the language development of young children are carefully discussed. In Part Two, methods generally used in language development studies are briefly introduced. To test some main points mentioned in these two parts, experimental observations are conducted under controlled conditions, as reported in Part Three. Thirty six preschool children, 18 drawn from an orphanage and another 18 selected from families of higher socio-economic levels, matched in sex and age, are used as subjects. Their language responses are observed under two different situations; the child-child situation, in which the subject is playing toys with another child, and adult-child situation, in which the subject is conversing with the experimenter. Fifty consecutive verbal responses are recorded in each situation for each child, Data thus obtained are subjected to analysis to determine (1) the total number of words, (2) the mean length of sentence, (3) the total number of different words, (4) type-token ratio, (5) the percentage of the different parts of speech, and (6) kinds and complexity of sentences. By employing techniques of the analysis of variance and t-test, it is found that there are several significant differences: (1) between the language spoken by orphanage children and that by children of upper classes, (2) between the language spoken in child-child situation and that in adult-child situation, and (3) between the language spoken by boys and that by girls. The results support the hypothesis that because of lack of contact with others, the institutional children do not have as many reinforced speech responses as compared to the privileged home children and, therefore, the former is inferior to the latter in their language development.