與作者對話:以「質疑作者法」教學對國中生英文閱讀後內容回憶、推論及理解之影響

Abstract

本研究主要在探究以「質疑作者法」教學對國中生英文閱讀後內容回憶、推論及理解的影響。實驗對象為台北市某國中九年級兩班共62名學生。其中一班31名學生為實驗組接受「質疑作者法」閱讀訓練，而另一班31名學生為對照組仍為傳統教師講述上課方式。 「質疑作者法」是一教學策略，強調多鼓勵讀者深入文章內容，並建構自己想法。教師在課堂討論中用問題引導重要訊息、處理困惑意見、接受深層思考以及示範思考過程。學生由於有較多機會參與意見交流，學會如何理解多又好。 教學訓練每週兩節持續五週。訓練前一週和訓練後一週以閱讀後內容回憶和簡答題，測量參與實驗者的閱讀理解能力。內容回憶用來評估質詢作者訓練在故事記憶，和三個推論層次(文本推論、讀者推論、錯誤推論)的效力。簡答題作為了解學生回答事實、詮釋、和回應三種問題在訓練後的效力。除此之外，實驗組作完一份問卷，以了解學生對此訓練之觀感。 本研究結論為：第一、在讀後回憶上，兩組並無顯著差別，實驗組沒有比對照組產生更多回憶。「質疑作者法」無法增加實驗組記憶閱讀內容的數量。第二、實驗組在衍生讀者推論上有顯著差異，此組產生較多讀者推論。「質疑作者法」有效地增加實驗組閱讀時進行以讀者為主推論的潛力。第三、實驗組於回答詮釋類問題時，表現優於對照組。此方法促進讀者對文章意義的掌握。第四、實驗組對此訓練抱持正向態度，表示此課程創造更多師生互動，及學生主動學習機會，學生期待未來有更多此類課程。 本文依據研究結果，建議將「質疑作者法」納入台灣英語教學課堂予以運用。有別以往偏向傳統單向講授法，此方法有助於引導台灣英語學習者英語閱讀時，融入個別想法或背景知識，不侷限文章框架，能建構個人意義，甚至更進一步培養具有獨立思考能力、熱愛閱讀的終生學習者。The study aims to investigate the effects of Questioning the Author on the reading comprehension of junior high school students in Taiwan. The participants were sixty-two ninth graders from two classes in one junior high school in Taipei city. One class consisting of thirty-one students formed an experimental group, receiving the Questioning the Author training while the other class, comprised of thirty-one students, was a control group provided with the traditional teacher-lecture lesson. “Questioning the Author” is a teaching strategy that encourages readers to engage with the text and construct their own ideas. Teachers use queries to highlight important information, deal with confusing ideas, invite deep thinking and model thinking process in a classroom discussion. With more idea-sharing, students learn to understand and comprehend better. The training period of Questioning the Author lasted for five weeks. Each group was presented two classes per week. “Written recall” and “Short-answer comprehension questions” were used as measures one week before and after the intervention to detect participants’ reading comprehension. “Written recall” was used to see how well subjects could retell the story and how many inferences they drew while reading. “Short-answer comprehension questions” was employed to find whether Questioning the Author was beneficial for subjects to answer factual, interpretive or responsive questions. ANCOVA analyses were applied to observe the effect on recall, inference generation and three types of questions. The Experimental Group took a questionnaire to trace their perception toward the training. The results of the study were: (1) there was no significant difference on participants’ written recall. The Experimental Group did not recall more than the Control Group; (2) concerning reader-based inference, the Experimental Group reached a significant difference. The Questioning the Author lesson was helpful in making more reader-based inferences; (3) regarding interpretive questions, a significant difference was found between the Experimental Group and the Control Group, though there was no difference in factual and responsive questions; (4) the Experimental Group expressed positive attitudes toward the training and desired more Questioning the Author lessons. Based on the findings, it is suggested that Questioning the Author, different from the traditional method, can be applied in Taiwan English-learning classrooms to lead EFL learners in Taiwan to construct meaning of the text by incorporating personal thinking or background knowledge and further to develop avid lifelong readers with independent thinking ability.