使用引導式語料庫對大學生學習英文作文單字的影響

The Effectiveness of Guided Concordance Use on English Vocabulary Learning for Writing by Chinese-L1 Students

林嶽峙(Yueh-Chih Lin)

指導教授 ： 劉顯親

國立清華大學/人文社會學院/外國語文學系/碩士(2013年)

https://doi.org/10.6843/NTHU.2013.00104

摘要

中文摘要
隨著電腦輔助語言教學的發展，越來越的多的外語教學者和學習者肯定「語料庫學習法」用於教室教學之成效。在英文單字和寫作的學習上，採用語料庫為學習參考工具的教學方式(DDL)因能提供道地用法而備為推崇。舉例來說，有一文獻曾回顧十二種在寫作學習上的語料庫教學活動成效。其文獻指出，如能提供適當的訓練和輔助，語料庫檢索器(concordancer)可為提升句構寫作之有利工具，甚至能促進自主學習。
近年來，諸多研究學者亦探討，語料庫教材活動於第二外語寫作學習之成效。因有鑒於寫作錯誤其來有自，研究員採用大學生們「受到母語影響」之常犯錯誤於實驗教材之中，他們成功地融語料庫查詢於寫作活動之中，並且發現學生的文句能力，如搭配詞能力，能因減少來自母語的負面影響，而明顯提升。又兩研究著重分析「以中文為母語的英文學習者」(Chinese-L1 English learner)的語言使用，她們指出在學習英文時，學習者常犯的錯誤來源，例如，源於對搭配詞、動詞及物性、語意韻、近義詞等等之誤解。然而，以上這些研究尚未較精確地指出，「語料庫學習法」究竟能多有效地減少受母語影響的錯誤。此外，有鑒於語料庫查詢速度和訊息擷取過程仍可改進，本研究探討「引導式語料庫學習法」對於EFL外語系主修學生，在單字和寫作上的學習成效，其中，我們尤其關心此教學法能否確實減少受到雙語干擾的寫作錯誤。研究問題有三：
(一) 在EFL學習環境下，外語系學生的英文單字和寫作能力，是否能因「引導式語料庫學習法」而提升，甚至延續四周以上？
(二) 比起『非受母語影響的錯誤』，『受母語影響的錯誤』是否較能因「引導式語料庫學習法」而減少？
(三) 大學生對於「引導式語料庫學習法」在英文單字寫作學習上的整體看法為何？

為回答以上研究問題，我們採用「前測-實驗-後測」設計，以14位修讀「閱讀與寫作」課程之外語系學生為實驗對象，四週之後，延遲後測則用來驗證學生已習得能力是否延續。基本上，前測與後測試卷幾乎相同，包含22題選擇題、10題改錯題和10題翻譯題等以上三種符合單字測驗項目之理論。此三大題中，共包含了52個『受母語影響』和『非受母語影響』片語，受試者須從中選出至少五個片語來構成一篇段落寫作。教學設計主要引導學生深入了解字詞用法，並搭配教學活動，協助學生完成語料庫查詢練習。其查詢的過程和從BNC選出的例句皆包含目標片語之學習，以幫助學生留意英文文法、單詞使用限制、和對照中英文之差異性。最後，由23題封閉式問題和8題開放式問卷所構成的評量式問卷，用以了解學生對於語料庫學習的整體看法。
資料以無母數 Wilcoxon Signed Rank Sum Test比較前測與後側的成績，了解學生能力是否能因「引導式語料庫學習法」而提升且延續。此外，我們也比較「受母語影響」以及「非受母語影響」之錯誤率。學生對「引導式語料庫學習法」的整體態度，則由百分比和平均值排序呈現。研究結果顯示，我們所設計的「引導式語料庫學習法」確實能提升學生單字和寫作能力，已習得之能力也能夠延續四周以上。學生更能因減少受母語影響之錯誤而提升寫作能力。因此，大部分的學生對此教學法，持正面態度，並且願意持續使用語料庫。
以上，我們融合了三大特色於此教學法：視語料庫為學習工具、視學生常犯錯誤為教材、視教學活動為教法來源，因此，我們推估此三項特色為促使學習成效之主因。然而，未來研究仍須包含「控制組」於實驗設計中，以臻完善。簡而言之，「引導式語料庫學習法」其功效在於，降低英文學習者之常犯錯誤、促使學習者使用更精確語言，進而提升英文寫作品質。

關鍵字

語料庫 ； 母語影響 ； 單字學習 ； 第二語言寫作

並列摘要

Abstract
With the development of computer-assisted language learning (CALL), more and more second language (L2) instructors and learners have endorsed corpus-based approaches in classroom teaching and learning. Particularly for L2 productive language learning, data-driven learning (DDL) (Johns, 1991) has been highly recommended because the corpus and the concordancers, as a reference tool, provide authentic language models for L2 learners’ productive learning. To illustrate, a review of twelve studies focusing on the effectiveness of corpus-based activities on learning written language (Yoon, 2011) indicates that if proper training and assistance are provided, learner concordancing can be a viable tool for enhancing the linguistic aspects of L2 writing and even raising learners’ autonomy (Chang & Sun, 2009; Perez-Paredes, et al., 2011; Yoon, 2008).
Recently researchers have started to carry out the relevant experiments by incorporating corpus-based teaching materials and activities in L2 writing. For example, viewing that written errors are not made arbitrarily, some researchers capitalized on the common word errors presumably caused by L1 interference in college-level English writing courses (Chen, 2011; Gao, 2011; Liao, 2011). They successfully integrated concordance consultation with writing practices and significantly increased EFL learners’ lexical-grammar abilities, like collocational knowledge by reducing negative language transfer on L2 vocabulary learning. Two important studies which targeted at analyzing Chinese-L1 English learner corpora (Liu, 2002; Yang, 2012) provided valuable insights into the common word errors appearing in learner language. That is, word errors often result from verb-noun miscollocations (Liu, 2002) and the influences of verb transitivity, semantic prosody, and near-synonyms (Yang, 2012).
Nonetheless, these studies have not revealed precisely how effectively concordancing can reduce L1-influenced word errors; moreover, viewing that concordance users’ speed of data-mining and information-decoding still need to be accelerated, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of guided concordance use on EFL college students’ productive vocabulary learning and especially focused on its effectiveness on reducing word errors associated with cross-linguistic influence in L2 writing. Three research questions guided the current study:
(a) Can EFL college learners’ productive vocabulary performance be enhanced after a concordancing training with guidance? If so, can the effect last after four weeks?
(b) Can more L1-influenced errors (commonly caused by L1 interference) be reduced given the guided DDL, compared with errors unrelated with L1 influence?
(c) What are the learners’ perceptions of the instructional design for their productive
vocabulary learning?
To answer these research questions, a single-group pretest-posttest design was carried out on fourteen English-major sophomores in a Reading & Writing course and then a delayed-posttest was held to ensure its sustainability four weeks later. Both the pretest and the posttest1 were identical in vocabulary measures, including 22 multiple-choice items, 10 proofreading items, and 10 Chinese-English translation items, all of which were selective, embedded, and context-dependent in assessing L2 learners’ vocabulary abilities (Read & Chapelle, 2001). Additionally, a paragraph making item was included that asked the subjects to choose any five tested phrases from the previous three parts. The delayed posttest contained half of the number of the posttest for not fatiguing the students. Items in all the three tests contained fifty-two target words with some related to L1-influenced errors and the other error types by consulting findings of the corpus studies (Chen, 2011; Liao, 2011; Liu, 2002; Yang, 2012). As for instructional design, our scaffolding prompts guided the participants to work through pedagogical exercises in class with an online concordancer, TANGO. The look-up procedures and the chosen sentences which contained target phrase items instructed the learners to notice the rules of word patterns, the constraints of English words, and the discrepancy between L1 and L2 from a database, British National Corpus. An evaluation questionnaire with 23 items of 5-point Likert scales and 8 items of open-ended questions was designed to understand the subjects’ perceptions of the effects of the concordancing process.
The data collected from the pre-test and the post-test were analyzed by non-parametric Wilcoxon Signed Rank Sum Test to examine whether the students improved with guided concordance use in four weeks, and whether the effects lasted. In addition, the scores of L1-influenced words errors and non-L1-influenced word errors were compared. The participants’ perceptions of this guided concordance-based approach were presented by computing a percentage and means of each item in the evaluation questionnaire. The results showed that our concordance-based approach enhanced the college students’ overall vocabulary and writing abilities and the effects remained after four weeks. The students improved their productive vocabulary in writing by reducing word errors, especially for those influenced by L1. Most students held positive attitude toward the whole design and were willing to continue using it.
We merged three features in the instruction design: concordancers as learning tools, scaffolding prompts as guidance, and pedagogical tasks as resources of teaching materials, which may contribute to the effects as shown in the treatment performance, extended assessment, and items related to L1 interference. In conclusion, our concordance-based approach has it merits of reducing EFL learners’ word errors, leading to more accurate and appropriate word use, and finally enhancing L2 learners’ writing quality. Future research may adopt a research design which involves a control group, as it was one limitation of the current study.

並列關鍵字

concordancer ； L1 interference ； Vocabulary learning ； L2 writing

參考文獻

Lin, M. C. & Liou, H. C. (2009). Expansion of EFL academic vocabulary for writing via the

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Chambers, A., & O’Sullivan, I. (2004).Corpus consultation and advanced learners’ writing skills in French. ReCALL, 16(1), 158–172.

Chan, T. P., & Liou, H.C. (2005) Effects of web-based concordancing instruction on EFL students’ learning of verb-noun collocations. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 18(3), 231-250.