華語學習者詞彙廣度與深度知識測試的設計

Abstract

在詞彙知識研究的領域中，無論在詞彙知識本身的研究還是在詞彙知識與語言綜合能力相關性的研究，至今仍以針對英語學習者的詞彙知識居多，而且相關研究通常會採取由專家設計的標準化詞彙知識測試工具(Qian, 2000，2002；白麗梅、陳艷玲，2005；李曉，2007；王申，2010；王子穎，2014)。由於缺乏標準化的詞彙知識測試工具，華語詞彙知識研究的發展也因此落後於英語相關研究。有鑑於此，本研究以英語詞彙知識測試工具為參考基準，試圖設計華語詞彙知識的測試工具，以填補華語詞彙知識研究中的一個空缺。 本研究以屬於《現代漢語語料庫詞頻統計》4000詞頻帶的詞彙為選詞範圍，參考英語Vocabulary Level Test (VLT)以及Word Associates Test (WAT)的測試形式，設計華語詞彙廣度、深度知識的測試工具。除了具有高信度與效度之外，測試工具的特點還包括：能準確(95%信賴水準)地估計學習者的詞彙量、區分四個不同程度學習者的詞彙知識、減低學習者成功隨機猜測的機率、描述詞彙廣度與深度知識的關聯性與測量各地學習者的詞彙知識。 整體而言，本研究得出以下發現：(一)華語詞彙廣度、深度知識間具有高正相關(r = 0.952)，而且廣度對深度知識也具有高預測力(90.6%)；(二)詞彙知識對閱讀能力具有相當高的正相關(廣度、深度知識與閱讀能力的相關係數分別為0.591與0.614)以及一定程度的預測力(雖然廣度知識僅使得預測力增強0.3%，但深度知識的預測力已達到37.7%)。因此，可以透過提升華語學習者的詞彙深度知識達到加強他們閱讀能力的目標，而提升詞彙深度知識必須從習得大量新詞彙做起，也顯示詞彙為語言核心成分的重要性。

So far, most previous studies of vocabulary knowledge have primarily focused on English learners’ vocabulary knowledge, with standardized English vocabulary knowledge test instruments employed as main research tools (Qian, 2000, 2002; Bai& Chen, 2005; Li, 2007; Wang, 2010; Wang, 2014). Meanwhile, the lack of standardized vocabulary knowledge test remains as one problem that lead to the falling behind of Chinese vocabulary knowledge research. In view of this, present study aims to fill the gap by designing test of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge for Chinese learners. The test design is based on English Vocabulary Level Test (VLT) and Word Associates Test (WAT), with target words selected from 4000 word band of “Xiandaihanyu yuliao ku ci pin tongji [Word Frequency Statistics of Modern Chinese Corpus]”. Besides of its high reliability and validity, the instrument also able to accurately (95% confidence level) estimate vocabulary size, distinguish four different proficiency levels, reduce the probability of successful random guessing, describe the correlation between breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge, and measure vocabulary knowledge of Chinese learners from various regions. Overall, results of this study are: (1) Chinese breadth of vocabulary knowledge showed a high positive correlation (r = 0.952) with depth of vocabulary knowledge, while also significantly contributed to the prediction (90.6%) of depth knowledge; (2) Breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge showed a moderate positive correlation (with coefficient of 0.591 and 0.614 respectively) with reading comprehension, while also fairly contributed to the prediction of reading comprehension. Though breadth knowledge’s contribution of 0.3% additional explained variance was insignificant, depth knowledge already accounted for 37.7% variance in reading comprehension. Therefore, to achieve the goal of strengthening Chinese learners’ reading comprehension, an effort should be put forth to improve their depth of vocabulary knowledge, something that should begin with expanding their vocabulary size, hence indicates the importance of vocabulary as a core component of language.