Learning in English
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Date
2002-10-??
Authors
何炳德
Journal Title
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Publisher
國立台灣師範大學英語學系
Department of English, NTNU
Department of English, NTNU
Abstract
在香港的中學當中，四分之一的學校使用英語來教授課程，學校宣稱這樣的方式可以使學生在不犧牲課常理解度的情況下也可以獲得良好的英語能力。但事實上，許 多學生在理解課本內容時常常有許多困難，而學生往往必須靠著臆測來了宗課本的內容。這篇論文觀察兩位接受英語教育的學生其中之一是個程度較佳的讀者，另一 個是程度較弱的讀者。在研究的過程中，當這兩位學生遇到他們不懂的字彙時，比較他們所選擇使用的閱讀技巧(策略)。從這比較的過程中可得知他們在閱讀文章 時於遇到困難字彙時的理解方式。閱讀能力較為優秀的讀者較常使用前後文的邏輯模式來推敲不懂的字彙。這樣的閱讀優秀的閱讀方式是在預料之中的。因為他的閱 讀方式對於一個使用第二語言的人來說，是個典型優良讀者所使用的方法。譬如說，他勇於跳過他所不熟悉的字彙，並在讀完一段之後回頭看過字彙此時對於文章就 有一個較為全面性的概念，且在閱讀的過程中獲得更多的信心。無論如何，這篇研究顯示出程度較差的學生所擁有的字彙量居然超過研究者所預期的，但這樣的結果 其實是由其他原因所導致的，例如文法上的疏忽、不注意連接詞的使用和過度依靠猜測的方式，便成為這些學生唯一的『生存之道』。最後，對於學習英文來說，擁 有大量字彙便可學好英文的看法並不是毋庸置疑的。尤其是在香港。然而，以相互比較方式的觀點來檢視學生可以在透過中文和英文的學習中是否可以達到相同的效 果。
One quarter of Hong Kong high schools use English as t he language of instruction. It is claimed that this enables students to acquire English proficiency without sacrificing understanding. In fact, many students have difficulty making sense of their textbooks and tend to rely on guessing. This study compares the strategies of a proficient and a poor reader in an EMI school for dealing with unknown vocabulary. The subjects thought aloud is mother tongue as they read English texts and tried to decipher the meaning. As anticipated, the proficient reader used more context-based strategies than the poor reader and his reading style was typical of good readers of L2, i.e. he showed willingness to skip unknown words and return to them later. The proficient reader also used a global approach and had greater confidence in reading. However, the study also revealed that the poor reader had a larger vocabulary t than expected, and that his poorer comprehension was due to other factors, including unfamiliarity with sentence forms, ignorance of syntax and over-reliance on 'survival' strategies.
One quarter of Hong Kong high schools use English as t he language of instruction. It is claimed that this enables students to acquire English proficiency without sacrificing understanding. In fact, many students have difficulty making sense of their textbooks and tend to rely on guessing. This study compares the strategies of a proficient and a poor reader in an EMI school for dealing with unknown vocabulary. The subjects thought aloud is mother tongue as they read English texts and tried to decipher the meaning. As anticipated, the proficient reader used more context-based strategies than the poor reader and his reading style was typical of good readers of L2, i.e. he showed willingness to skip unknown words and return to them later. The proficient reader also used a global approach and had greater confidence in reading. However, the study also revealed that the poor reader had a larger vocabulary t than expected, and that his poorer comprehension was due to other factors, including unfamiliarity with sentence forms, ignorance of syntax and over-reliance on 'survival' strategies.