An OT Analysis of Low-Proficiency Taiwanese EFL Learners' Production of Biconsonantal Codas: Focusing on "Liquid + C" Codas

從優選理論分析台灣低成就學生字尾雙子音錯誤：以流音字尾雙子音為例

洪綺吟(Chi-Yin Hong)

《立德學報》 3卷1期 (2005/12) Pp. 77-91

https://doi.org/10.7080/JLU.200512.0077

摘要

本研究以優選理論(Optimality Theory)為架構，分析台灣低成就學生字尾雙子音(biconsonantal codas)的錯誤。本篇主要研究受試者「流音＋其它子音」(”liquid +C”)的雙子音韻尾錯誤為主，並探討三個假設：(1)因在中文沒有雙子音韻尾的音節結構，受試者讀雙子音韻尾的英語單字時將遭遇困難且產生錯誤，(2)因在中文中沒有類似/r/的音但有類似/l/的音，受試者讀「/r/+子音」字尾雙子音會比讀「/l/+子音」時遭遇更多困難且犯更多錯誤，(3)由於雙子音韻尾的高困難度，受試者將採用一些策略來減低其發音困難。四十六位受試者參加實驗，而在二十三份隨機取樣的錄音帶樣本中，二十份為有效樣本。分析受試者的錄音資料時，套用優選理論來分析受試者的錯誤模式，且驗證了本研究的三個假設。最後證明在分析英語學習者的中介語變異時，優選理論比規則分析架構(rule-based framework)更能提供明確的解釋。

關鍵字

優選理論 ； 雙子音韻尾 ； 流音 ； 中介語

並列摘要

Chi-Yin Hong, MS in TESOL, University of Pennsylvania, now an instructor in the Department of English at Leader University and currently pursuing a PH.D. in the Department of English at National Kaohsiung Normal University. This paper aims to analyze low-proficiency Taiwanese EFL learners' production of word-final biconsonantal clusters within the constraint-based OT (Optimality Theory) framework. A study was conducted to elicit low-proficiency EFL learners' production of ”liquid + C” biconsonantal codas in order to explore three assumptions: 1 the subjects would have difficulty pronouncing words ending with coda consonant, 2 the subjects would have more difficulty pronouncing-/r/+C-coda clusters than pronouncing-/l/+C-coda clusters, and 3 the subjects would adopt some strategies to reduce the difficulty while they are pronouncing these words. Forty-six subjects participated in this study, and among the twenty-three randomly selected tapes, twenty valid ones were used. Then, OT framework was used to analyze learners' error patterns, and the three assumptions were confirmed. It also proved that OT offered a more explicit analysis of learners' interlanguage variations than a rule-based framework.

並列關鍵字

Optimality theory ； bicon-sonantal coda ； liquid ； interlanguage