英語腔調對台灣大學生英語聽力理解及看法之影響

The Effect of English Accents on Taiwanese EFL University Students’ Listening Comprehension and Perception

莊閔琪(Min-Chi Chuang)

指導教授 ： 陳玉美

國立中正大學/文學院/英語教學研究所/碩士(2015年)

摘要

腔調在聽力理解上扮演著重要的角色。近幾年，有許多腔調與聽力的相關研究，然而大多數的研究著重在研究學生對英語腔調的觀感或態度。只有少數的研究探討到腔調對學生聽力理解的影響。其中極少數研究有納入台式英語腔調以及美式腔調除外的「英語為母語人士」的腔調（指英式與澳式英語腔調）。有鑑於這些文獻的不足，本研究的主要目的即在探索四種不同英語腔調（台式、美式、英式、及澳式）對臺灣學生聽力的影響及學生對此四種不同英語腔調的看法。
本研究，共有179名臺灣大學生作為受試者。資料分析來源為問卷調查、英語聽力測驗，以及面談。英語聽力測驗的目的旨在瞭解四種英語腔調對臺灣學生聽力理解程度的影響，題目的錄製方式分為兩種：美式、英式，以及澳式英語腔調使用「線上文字轉語音服務」的系統來錄製，而台式英語腔調則由教學經驗豐富的臺灣英語老師協助錄製。聽力測驗共分為兩個部份，20題單選題以及8題填空式聽寫句子。此外，為了深入了解學生對四種不同英語腔調的看法，共有57名受試者接受個別訪談。
研究結果顯示，不同的英語腔調在學生聽力理解方面有顯著的差別，亦即，腔調確實會影響學生的聽力理解。此外，學生的英語能力也會影響學生的聽力理解程度；高成就學生對美式英語腔調的理解程度高於中低成就的學生。同時，研究結果亦顯示「腔調的熟悉度」扮演著極重要的角色，學生比較能正確回答台式英語腔調發音的題目。雖然大部分學生偏好「英語為母語人士」的腔調，但她們對台式英語腔調抱持著正向的態度；學生們認為台式英語腔調聽起來很親切並且容易理解。
關

關鍵字

線上文字轉語音服務 ； 看法 ； 聽力理解 ； 英語腔調 ； 臺灣大學生

並列摘要

Accent plays an important role in listening comprehension. Research in accent and listening has received much attention during the past few decades. However, most of the accent studies were designed to investigate learners’ perceptions or attitudes toward different Englishes. Few studies have studied the effect of English accents on listening comprehension; even fewer have brought Taiwanese accented English and other inner circle Englishes (i.e., British and Australian English) into consideration. In view of these gaps in literature, the study is thus designed to investigate the effect of four English accents (i.e., Taiwanese, American, British and Australian) on Taiwan EFL university students’ listening comprehension and the perceptions the students hold towards these English accents.
The participants were 179 students from four departments of three universities in southern Taiwan. Data were collected from a survey questionnaire, a listening comprehension test, and interviews. The listening comprehension test, which was constructed through an online text-to-speech program and real informants, consisted of 20 multiple choice questions or statements and eight cloze-dictation sentences in order to examine the influence of accent on students’ listening comprehension. In addition, 57 students were randomly selected for follow-up interviews in order to explore their perception towards different accents.
The results show that the speakers’ English accents affected the students’ listening comprehension, and accent familiarity plays a vital role: the students comprehended Taiwanese-accented English the best out of all. In addition, high English proficiency level students understood American-accented English more than the mid and low English proficiency level students. Although most of the students remain native-speaker oriented, they possessed a positive attitude towards Taiwanese-accented English, and they considered Taiwanese-accented English intimate and easy to comprehend.

並列關鍵字

text-to-speech ； perception ； listening comprehension ； English accents ； Taiwanese university students

參考文獻

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