臺灣高中生「反事實假設」條件句學習之研究
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2004
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I
文獻探討發現，對於英文來說，要表達「反事實」的想法，英文主要是使用「回溯
時態」(backshifted tenses)，而中文並無相似的結構，但在時態、邏輯等條件的配合之下，
亦可以單句的型式，脫離上下文，表達「反事實」的思維。
本研究旨在探討臺灣中學生是否會因為中文中缺乏明確表達「反事實」
(counterfactual ) 條件句的機制而導致學習英文「反事實」條件句(counterfactual
conditionals )的困難。欲驗證的假設為：對台灣中學生來說，「可能事實假設」、「與現在
事實相反假設」、「與過去事實相反假設」依序形成由簡到難的學習難度。
本研究的受試者取樣自中部某公立高中的82 位學生。受試者依他們上學期英文科的
總成績，被分為高成就組，中上成就組與低成就組。研究工具包括：情境圖(Situation
Task)、文法判斷題(Grammaticality Judgment Task) 、及翻譯題(Elicited Translation
Task)。在研究結果方面，情境圖顯示，「與現在事實相反假設」的難度高於「與過去事
實相反假設」，而文法判斷題的結果亦顯示相同的結果。翻譯題則顯示，最困難的是「與
過去事實相反假設」。在錯誤分析方面，受試者最常犯的錯誤是忽略「回溯時態」
(backshifted tenses)的使用與「過去完成式助動詞」(past perfective modal)的使用。本論
文的結論是對於台灣中學生來說，學習英文「反事實」條件句的困難可能來自這個用
法本身的複雜性，受母語的影響並不明顯。
Research finds that, in order to express counterfactual concepts, English mainly depends on syntactical structures, namely the backshifted tenses, and thus is more likely to avoid ambiguity. In contrast, Chinese, due to its lack of overt distinctions of tenses, uses multilevel linguistic categories for the same purpose. The linguistic categories include contexts, time temporal, and internal semantic logic. This research aims to explore whether the lack of overt counterfactual linguistic categories in Chinese causes problems for Taiwanese EFL learners at senior high school level. The hypothesis to be tested is that Chinese EFL learners would show fewer errors in non-counterfactual conditionals; comparatively more errors in counterfactual conditionals (present reference) and most important of all, counterfactual conditionals (past reference) would be the most difficult one among the three ones. The subjects involved in this study are divided into three groups: high, intermediate and low achievers. The research tasks include Situation Task, Grammaticality Judgment Task and Elicited Translation Task. The outcomes from Situation Task and Grammaticality Judgment Task both indicate that the counterfactual conditional (present reference) is significantly harder than the other two structures. While the outcome from Elicited Translation Task shows that the counterfactual conditional (past reference) is the hardest among the three ones and the two sources of errors are identified: the lack of the backshifted tenses and the incomplete learning of the past perfective modal. This study concludes that the difficulty of the learning of counterfactual conditionals probably arises mainly from the complexity of the structure. L1 transference seems to exert little influence.
Research finds that, in order to express counterfactual concepts, English mainly depends on syntactical structures, namely the backshifted tenses, and thus is more likely to avoid ambiguity. In contrast, Chinese, due to its lack of overt distinctions of tenses, uses multilevel linguistic categories for the same purpose. The linguistic categories include contexts, time temporal, and internal semantic logic. This research aims to explore whether the lack of overt counterfactual linguistic categories in Chinese causes problems for Taiwanese EFL learners at senior high school level. The hypothesis to be tested is that Chinese EFL learners would show fewer errors in non-counterfactual conditionals; comparatively more errors in counterfactual conditionals (present reference) and most important of all, counterfactual conditionals (past reference) would be the most difficult one among the three ones. The subjects involved in this study are divided into three groups: high, intermediate and low achievers. The research tasks include Situation Task, Grammaticality Judgment Task and Elicited Translation Task. The outcomes from Situation Task and Grammaticality Judgment Task both indicate that the counterfactual conditional (present reference) is significantly harder than the other two structures. While the outcome from Elicited Translation Task shows that the counterfactual conditional (past reference) is the hardest among the three ones and the two sources of errors are identified: the lack of the backshifted tenses and the incomplete learning of the past perfective modal. This study concludes that the difficulty of the learning of counterfactual conditionals probably arises mainly from the complexity of the structure. L1 transference seems to exert little influence.