英語學術口語報告：臺灣醫學系學生之個案研究

Academic Oral Presentation in English: A Case Study of Taiwanese Medical Students

田康人(Kang-Jen Tien)

指導教授 ： 張武昌博士 ； 吳美貞博士

國立臺灣師範大學/文學院/英語學系/博士(2012年)

摘要

以社會理論觀點 (sociocultural view)為基礎，尤其以第二外語學習社會化(second language socialization)為理論主軸，本研究主要的目的在研究臺灣醫學系學生如何參與以醫學主題的語言課程，尤其聚焦在他們如何學習參與及完成英語學術口語報告，以期能成為更純熟的口語報告者。此研究採用個案研究法，研究對象為六位大二醫學系學生。透過多樣的資料收集 (multiple methods), 參與者本身的訪談及兩次的書面回饋報告 (self-reported forms)為主要分析資料，其他包括問卷，課堂觀察，實地筆記，對老師的訪談，師生間的電子信件以及相關課程文件的蒐集同時也提供交叉分析的資料，以瞭解這六位學生在為期十八周的研究中，在完成兩次口語報告的活動中可能會有的變化。
本研究主要發現: (一) 就口語報告本身而言，有兩點特徵可被歸納:在一方面，學生所參與的口語報告是一個特殊的社會化過程，因為它本身是非英語母語的參與者幫助學生進行社會化，在參與活動的互動過程中讓他們了解如何完成英文學術口語報告。另一方面，口語報告是一個參與者共構的社會活動。首先，在先前的口語研究中 (Morita, 2003, 2007; Kobayashi, 2003; Zappa-Hollman, 2007; Yang, 2010)，研究者大多檢視他們的非英語母語的學生是如何達到以英語為母語者所設定的標準(target form)，完成一場被認定是好的口語報告。但此研究並無設定學生該達到甚麼標準，相反的，根據結果顯示:參與者所認定好的口語報告標準不是事先設定的，而是透過和其他非英語母語的間接參與者(即:老師及同儕)來幫助他們了解好的口語報告標準為何。而這樣的發現擴展了Duff (2003) 對第二外語學習社會化模式的定義。(二)就此社群的參與者而言，表面看來一場口語報告似乎是報告者獨擔責任，但根據研究結果顯示:在此社群當中，所有的參與者都在不同階段扮演各自的社會合作角色來幫助報告者完成任務。更確切來說，透過老師及同儕的互相參與合作，分享學習經驗，不同的觀點及醫學專業知識，所有的參與者都共同建構了此社群的互動特色。此發現與諸多社會理論(如:Vygotskian sociocultural and activity theory) 及語言社會化 (e.g., Duff, 1995, 2002; Morita, 2000, 2004) 的主要論點不謀而合: 相信透過與其他社群成員合作能達到學習目的。然而在互動關係上，本研究卻顯示出不同的結果: 此社群成員的合作不是單方面的從專家 (expert) 傳遞知識給新手 (novice), 而是可以透過學生(即: 新手)之間的互動，建構屬於他們自己對學術口語報告的認識，進而成為更臻純熟的口語報告者。此一結果也擴大了社會文化理論中對專家及新手的二分定義 (expert-novice dichotomy).
綜觀而論，雖然參與者看似侷限在六位醫學系學生學習英語學術口語報告之過程，且課程本質較不同於其他研究的環境背景，但此聚焦的個案研究卻對第二外語的社會化過程提供了不同面向的討論，也揭櫫以醫學為主題的語言課程(medical-theme-based language course) 在教學中的實際狀況。最後，此研究透過檢視學生如何參與口語報告活動亦發現: 學習者的多向互動關係呈現出他們在此一社群中扮演的多重角色。最後，根據以上結果，研究者提出相關的研究方向及實際上的教學建議。

關鍵字

第二外語學習社會化 ； 學術口語報告 ； 主題式語言課程

並列摘要

Framed in a sociocultural view and drawing upon a second-language socialization perspective, the present study attempted to capture a holistic understanding of how Taiwanese medical students, engaging in oral presentation activities in a theme-based language class, acculturated into academic discourse and culture and how they interacted with and interpreted academic oral presentations.
This dissertation was designed to better understand the academic socialization process of six EFL second-year college medical students when acculturating to academic oral presentations. With the use of alternative multiple methods, primarily from the participants’ perspective through interviews and self-reported data, but also via supplementary sources such as questionnaires, observations, field notes, emails, and document records, several findings can be outlined.
With consideration to the oral activity, two constitutive features can be concluded from this community: first, it is a process of non-native-speaker socialization and, second, it is a co-constructed social activity. Although earlier studies (Morita, 2003, 2007; Kobayashi, 2003; Zappa-Hollman, 2007; Yang, 2010) have taken the position of examining and evaluating how their non-native English participants fulfill the standards for an effective presentation set by English-native-speakers, the present study does not hold any assumptions regarding what qualities students should develop. More specifically, according to the findings in this case, the valued qualities of completing a good oral presentation are not pre-determined; instead, students developed their own realizations of what the valued qualities of an academic presentation are through the process of being involved in the socially-constructed activity with other indirect non-native-English speaking participants: the instructor and peers. Such findings add to Duff’s (2003) second language socialization model.
Moreover, in terms of participants, despite an oral presentation task generally appearing to be performed solely by a presenter, it in fact entails multiple voices and contributions from all participants in the class and represents a social collaboration relationship among participants at different phases (i.e., before, during and after a presentation). More specifically, all participants acted in multiple roles, contributed various viewpoints, and supplied field experiences and levels of expertise within a shared repertoire, contributing to the presentation event in different ways at different stages. These findings concur with the views of context-sensitive approaches such as the Vygotskian sociocultural and activity theory (e.g., Lantolf, 2000), and language socialization (e.g., Duff, 1995, 2002; Morita, 2000, 2004), for their central spirit looks into the value and influence from social collaboration among all members in the community. However, the current study went one step further to suggest that social collaboration is not a unidirectional transmission pattern from expert to novice. Rather, in the researched context, the transmission pattern could possibly occur among novices, which is evidence of the re-constructed expert-novice dichotomy.
To conclude, despite the limited number of participants engaged and the exclusive nature of the research context, the present case study contributes significantly to further understanding second language socialization and provides a different dimension for investigating a theme-based language course. Through examination of how participants engage in oral presentations, the multifaceted inter-relationships represent students’ learning and participants’ interactions within the situated context. This perspective merits further research attention and offers new possibilities in language course construction toward discipline-specific orientations.

並列關鍵字

second language socialization ； academic oral presentation ； theme-based language course

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