高中英文衍生字尾知識之研究

A Study on Taiwanese Senior High School Students' Knowledge of English Derivational Suffixes

林郁良(Yu-liang Lin)

指導教授 ： 程玉秀博士

國立臺灣師範大學/文學院/英語學系在職進修碩士班/碩士(2012年)

摘要

本研究旨在調查台灣高三學生對英文衍生字尾的產出性知識(productive knowledge)與認識性知識(receptive knowledge)，依照正確產出與認識的英文衍生字尾排出順序，並計算產出性知識與認識性知識分別和受試者的字彙量及整體英文程度的相關性。
受試者為170名某完全中學的高三生。研究者從學校方面取得其學測英文成績，據以判定其整體英文程度。為檢測其字彙量，受試者需接受字彙程度測驗(VLT)。此外，產出性衍生字尾測驗(PT)用以評估其對衍生字尾的產出性知識，認識性衍生字尾測驗(RT)則是衡量其對衍生字尾的認識性知識。在產出性衍生字尾測驗中，針對20個字根受試者需依4種詞性（名詞、形容詞、動詞、副詞）寫出合適的衍生字。在認識性衍生字尾測驗中，受試者會見到同樣的20個字根，但不同的是，其後會有一列可能與其連用的字尾，受試者需將能和這些字根連用的字尾圈出來。
產出性衍生字尾測驗的結果顯示，前五個最常被使用到的名詞字尾是-ion/-tion、-ation、-er/-or、-ity、-ic，最常被使用到的形容詞字尾是-ive、-al、-able/-ible、-ic和-ful。總共只有3個動詞衍生字尾(-ize、-fy、-ate)、僅有1個副詞衍生字尾(-ly)被所有170名受試者使用到。若不論詞性，則-ly、-able/-ible、-er/-or和-al是最多受試者答案中用到的字尾。而出現次數最多的，則是-ion/-tion、-ly和-ive。從認識性衍生字尾測驗的結果，可排列出正確認識率由高至低的字尾： -ship > -ary > -ure > -ity > -ize > -ic > -fy > -ful > -ation > -ly > -less > -ion > -ive > -al > -able > -er/-or。就產出性衍生字尾測驗和認識性衍生字尾測驗來說，受試者在前者的表現顯著低於後者。而對受試者的字彙量、整體英文程度、衍生性字尾的產出性知識、衍生性字尾的認識性知識四者的相關性研究顯示，這四者彼此之間呈現顯著正相關。
由於本研究結果發現，衍生字尾和學測英文成績及整體英文程度關係密切，故對高中生來說，英文衍生字尾知識應是重要且適合的教學目標。為幫助學生學習英文衍生字尾，教師首先可根據Nation的「字尾次序表」，由常見且高頻率的衍生字尾開始，將字尾介紹給學生，讓學生認識字彙中出現的衍生字尾並且瞭解其意義；教師也應教導學生衍生字尾所代表的詞性。此外，在教導新單字時，教師可連同其字族一併教給學生，以幫助學生處理字義難理解的單字，並使學生注意到字彙形成的規則及過程，俾使學生逐漸養成字首、字尾、複合字的概念。高中生應被教導如何產出字根或字尾的拼法出現改變的衍生字。至於字尾可跟哪些字根連用的限制，這種知識則不要教給一般程度的台灣高中生，但可教給程度較好的學生，如英語資優生。

關鍵字

衍生字尾 ； 產出性知識 ； 認識性知識

並列摘要

The present study aimed to investigate Taiwanese twelfth graders’ productive and receptive English derivational suffix knowledge. The accuracy orders of English derivational suffix production and recognition were established; the correlations between both suffix knowledge and vocabulary size as well as general English proficiency were calculated.
The subjects were 170 twelfth graders from a complete school. From the school authorities the researcher obtained the subjects’ SAET scores, which were gathered to determine their general English proficiency. Then the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) was administered to measure the subjects’ vocabulary size while the Productive Derivational Suffix Test (PT) and the Receptive Derivational Suffix Test (RT) were designed to assess their productive and receptive suffix knowledge. In the PT, the subjects were given twenty prompt words and required to produce appropriate derivatives corresponding to four word classes, namely noun, adjective, verb, and adverb. In the RT, the test items were the same as those in the PT, except that a list of possible suffixes followed each prompt, from which allowable suffixes were to be circled.
The results of the PT show that the top five productive suffixes in noun were -ion/-tion, -ation, -er/-or, -ity, and -ic, whereas those in adjective were -ive, -al, -able/-ible, -ic, and -ful. However, simply three verbal derivational suffixes (-ize, -fy, and -ate) were supplied by all the subjects and only one adverbial suffix, -ly, contributed to the formation of adverbs. Irrespective of parts of speech, -ly, -able/-ible, -er/-or, and -al were the most productive suffixes in terms of variety. In terms of frequency, the most productive suffixes became -ion/-tion, followed by -ly and -ive. The findings of the RT helped to establish an accuracy order of derivational suffix recognition: -ship > -ary > -ure > -ity > -ize > -ic > -fy > -ful > -ation > -ly > -less > -ion > -ive > -al > -able > -er/-or. The subjects’ performance in the PT was significantly worse than that in the RT. The correlation results among vocabulary size, general English proficiency, productive suffix knowledge, and receptive suffix knowledge show that the four measures were positively and significantly correlated with one another.
The findings of the current study suggest that derivational suffixes might be an important and appropriate target of instruction for senior high school students because of its close relationship with the SAET score and general English ability. To help students learn the derivational suffixes, a selected number of derivational suffixes should first be introduced to students and Nation’s (2001) Sequenced List provides a useful set of learning goals. The teaching and learning of derivational suffixes should start from the widely-attached, frequently-occurring ones. Next, learners should be taught to recognize the suffixes in words and to learn the meanings of these suffixes. Time and effort should also be devoted to the teaching of suffixes’ syntactic functions, especially the word class of the suffix. English teachers could consider including other members of the same word family in the teaching plan when introducing new words, which may assist students in dealing with semantically opaque words. Besides, teaching word families may attract students’ attention to word formation regularities and processes, which can develop the concepts of prefixed words and compounds along with those of suffixed words. High school students should also be specifically instructed to produce derivatives whose stem or suffix undergoes orthographic changes. However, it is advised to provide distributional knowledge only for Taiwanese senior high school students of a higher level of proficiency in English, such as the gifted and talented students.

並列關鍵字

derivational suffix ； productive knowledge ； receptive knowledge

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