文法錯誤分析： 以台灣大學生的英文寫作為例

Grammatical Errors in University EFL Writings in Taiwan

李維真(Wei-Jen Lee)

指導教授 ： 盧怡君

中原大學/人文與教育學院/應用外語研究所/碩士(2009年)

https://doi.org/10.6840/cycu200900756

摘要

摘要
英文是當今世界通用語，英文寫作也是國際溝通的重要工具。然而，即使台灣大學生在正式學校教育中至少都已經學過六年英文，這些大學生的英文寫作中仍然不斷重複出現文法錯誤。英文寫作一旦缺乏文法準確性，便可能造成溝通上的失敗。因此，外語習得研究者以及外語寫作教師十分關切英文寫作中的錯誤，期望找出錯誤歸因，進而幫助外語學習者發展策略並解決寫作問題。
過去數十年，許多學者研究第二外語學習者所犯的錯誤，這些分析有助於理解學習者的中介語。錯誤分析幫助外語教師了解他們的外語課程需要加強之處。再者，錯誤更是外語學習過程的訊號，故外語學習者能藉由錯誤分析去測試其目標語假說。因此，錯誤分析能夠嘉惠外語教師、外語學習者、以及外語研究者。
本研究針對英文構詞及句法層面進行錯誤分析，期盼外語教育者能藉此了解台灣大學生的文法錯誤歸因，協助他們寫出文法正確的英文作文。研究對象為中原大學應用外語系二十位二年級學生；研究資料來源則是這些學生英文寫作課的引導寫作日誌，包括三種寫作文體：記敘文、說明文、及論說文。資料分析的步驟包括：收集語料、鑑定錯誤、分類錯誤、計算錯誤類型、比較不同寫作文體間的錯誤、以及找出錯誤歸因。
本研究結果發現頻率最高的錯誤類型為動詞、名詞、詞彙、拼字、介係詞、及連接詞。錯誤歸因主要源自於階段性的錯誤，而較少錯誤歸因於母語的負面影響。再者，本研究指出不同的寫作文體並不影響錯誤的類型或數量。
根據本研究結果，台灣英文學習者於寫作時應該要注意動詞、名詞、詞彙、拼字、介係詞、及連接詞的用法，更要留意母語中不存在、但目標語中存在的文法規則。另外，英文教師應該要提供學習者大量英文寫作的機會。藉由不斷嘗試犯錯，學習者因而能夠藉此測驗他們的目標語假說。再者，由於英文學習者對部分同義詞感到困擾，英文教師應該解釋部份同義詞在不同情境的用法。最後，本研究建議未來研究能夠收集更多語料，就更多種類的寫作文體，進行錯誤分析相關研究。

關鍵字

錯誤分析 ； 英文寫作

並列摘要

ABSTRACT
EFL writing is considered one of the most important tools for communicating with the world where English is used as a lingua franca. University students in Taiwan, however, seem to repeatedly commit grammatical errors in their English academic writings though they have learned this foreign language as part of their formal education for over 6 years. The lack of accuracy in EFL writings may lead to the failure of communication. Therefore, SLA researchers as well as L2 writing instructors have been concerned with writing errors, and they attempt to find out the causes behind the errors in order to develop strategies to deal with these writing problems.
To understand learners’ interlanguage, researches on learners’ errors in the field of second or foreign language acquisition studies have been conducted for decades. Error analysis assists second or foreign language teachers in realizing what areas they need to pay attention to in their L2 instructions. Moreover, errors are valued as “signals” of L2 learning process, so error analysis can help learners test their target language hypothesis. Thus, investigating into EFL learners’ errors benefits instructors, learners, and researchers.
The thesis study thus aims to analyze the morphological and syntactic errors in EFL writings. Moreover, this study seeks to investigate the underlying factors of the grammatical errors in Taiwanese university EFL writings, attempting to help learners develop better accuracy in their EFL writings. Participants in the study are 20 sophomore students majoring in English at Chung Yuan Christian University. The research data for error analysis are collected from the writing pieces of the participants’ guided journals submitted to their English writing class. The study examines three writing genres: descriptive, expository, and argumentative essays. The procedure of data analysis includes (1) selecting corpora, (2) reviewing data to identify errors, (3) categorizing errors into types, (4) counting weightings of each type, (5) comparing errors across different writing genres, and (6) exploring possible reasons for the errors committed.
Results derived from the error analysis indicate that the most frequently occurred grammatical error types are the misuse of verbs, nouns, lexicon, spelling, prepositions, and conjunctions. Of the errors found, there are more developmental errors, which is attributed to the underdevelopment of the target language, than interlingual errors, which is caused by L1 negative transfer. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that the numbers and types of errors do not vary with writing genres.
Based on the findings, the researcher suggests that EFL learners in Taiwan should be more careful when using verbs, nouns, lexicon, spelling, prepositions, and conjunctions in their writings, especially when they encounter the grammar rules that only exist in English but not in Chinese. The researcher also suggests EFL instructors provide learners with more opportunities to write in English so that the learners can test their target language hypothesis through the trial-and-error process. Furthermore, the study recommends that EFL instructors explain to the students more about different usages of synonyms or near synonyms in different contexts. At the end of the thesis, the researcher recommends that further research can be conducted by collecting larger corpora and comparing more writing genres for the error analysis.

並列關鍵字

EFL writing ； Error analysis

參考文獻

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