- 學位論文
臺灣高中生英語相似詞錯誤探討
Cross-Linguistic Near-Synonym Errors by High School Students in Taiwan
摘要
過去十幾年來，相較於傳統（字序）文法，詞彙文法未受到重視。雖然傳統文法能產出文法正確的句子，但即使文法正確的句子，經常可能不自然或突兀。這種現象使得近年來的研究重心從傳統文法轉向詞彙文法。因此，越來越多探討詞彙文法，譬如學習者的字詞搭配能力之缺乏。眾多研究顯示：字詞搭配能力是母語人士程度和非母語人士程度差異的關鍵因素。結果就是：中等程度的學生對於英語相似詞其中分野毫無認知，因之極可能遇到學習停滯的瓶頸，亦即在翻譯或書寫英文時出現怪異的字詞搭配，所以近年來學者紛紛將研究重心都移到字詞搭配上。細查學習者諸多英文字詞搭配的錯誤，可發現從中文而來的「移花接木」現象最嚴重，因之以中文翻譯來解釋英語相似詞的教學方法應要格外小心。然而目前鮮少文獻探討英語相似詞與中文負面轉移之間的關係。本論文審視台灣學生基於中文翻譯將英語相似詞組互相替換使用的習慣。研究方法為：從大學考試中心所公佈的高中英語七千單字中抽出英語近似詞、依據大學學測的翻譯題型來設計測試。本論文的目標在於測試學生對於英語相似詞的使用能力，並探討最容易受到中文負面干擾的英文相似詞組。最後，將這些學生最容易混淆的英語相似詞組以英國語料庫、牛津搭配詞字典和本論文所提出的四項標準加以分析。希望藉以提升由中文翻譯學習所造成英語相似詞錯誤用法的意識。本論文強調兩點：（1）教導英語相似詞組應該通過其適當的語境與用法；（2）重申詞彙文法的重要性。
並列摘要
Over the past decades, in the field of English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) pedagogy, traditional grammar instruction has taken precedence over lexical grammar instruction. Even though the former allows students to produce grammatically accurate sentences, those sentences may be perceived as being awkward and unnatural by native speakers (NSs). This has resulted in a current shift of the research focus from traditional grammar to lexical grammar, which has produced a proliferation of research concerning collocations in EFL contexts. There is a consensus among scholars that collocation competence is one of the key factors that reveals the differences in production between native speakers and non-native speakers (NNs) or second language (L2) learners. This research indicates that most intermediate-level students cannot make significant progress because they have reached a plateau due to insufficient knowledge of English near-synonyms. In light of the importance of collocations, scholars are now placing more emphasis on collocations in their research. Among the factors that cause errors in collocation, negative transfer plays the most significant role. However, there has rarely been any literature written pertaining to this issue, i.e., the interrelationship between negative transfer and cross-linguistic near-synonyms. In Taiwan, the traditional practice of explaining the meanings of English words to learners by offering their Chinese translations should be undertaken with great caution. This thesis hypothesizes that Chinese-speaking students merge pairs of English near-synonyms under the assumption that English near-synonyms are semantically interchangeable. In order to conduct this research, targeted pairs of English near-synonyms were extracted from the list of 7,000 essential vocabulary words selected by the College Entrance Examination Center (CEEC). The test questions used in this study are also in the same format as those on the current General Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT). This thesis aims to unveil the serious problem of negative transfer of cross-linguistic near-synonym errors through a specially designed test. The most common near-synonym problems that students often encountered when producing sentences were selected and analyzed. The analysis was conducted based on the Key Word in Context (KWIC) function of the British National Corpus (BNC) and the four criteria provided in this thesis, including propositional, stylistic, expressive, as well as structural variation. This thesis aims to determine whether students’ awareness of these near-synonyms errors in English caused by negative transfer of Chinese can be raised. It is suggested that pairs of English near-synonyms should be introduced with proper contexts and usages. As such, a renaissance of lexical grammar is proclaimed in this thesis.