高中生英文字彙量與閱讀表現之關聯

Abstract

本研究旨在探討台灣高中生之字彙量與大學學測英文閱讀測驗表現之間的關聯。同時，希望藉此了解學測英文閱讀測驗字彙量的需求，以幫助高中生訂定字彙學習目標。參與本研究者為三百零六位就讀北台灣兩所高中二年級的學生。本研究以Nation (2007) 的字彙量測驗(Vocabulary Size Test)前五個等級，對參與者進行字彙量程度測量，並且施行一份學測相關閱讀測驗以評估其閱讀理解能力。根據兩項測驗成績結果，分析高中生字彙量對英文閱讀表現之影響。本研究所採用的字彙量測驗，係Nation根據其所編的BNC字族表(BNC Word Family List)製作，而BNC字族表是依據英國國家語料庫（British National Corpus）彙編而成。與過去研究工具相較，本研究所用之字族表及字彙量測驗，具有反映英語字彙使用現況的優勢。 本研究的主要結果如下： 一、本研究受試學生之字彙量與閱讀表現之間的關係達顯著相關(r=.624**)。擁有較多字彙量的受試學生在閱讀測驗的表現顯著優於字彙量較少的受試學生。 二、本研究以BNC字族表分析學測英文閱讀測驗選文，平均而言，BNC字族表上的前三千個高頻率字族(high frequency word families)提供近百分之九十二的文章覆蓋率(text coverage)，若將專有名詞計入，則三千字族涵蓋近百分之九十五的學測閱讀測驗選文字彙，達到Laufer (1988)所建議之基本閱讀理解字彙需求：95%文章覆蓋率。此外比較不同字彙量受試學生的閱讀表現，結果也顯示三千字族在高中生學測英文閱讀測驗表現上極具重要性。 三、本研究的受試高二學生之字彙量差異性極大，且大部份的受試者字彙量程度未足三千字族，亦即未達到學測英文閱讀測驗字彙量需求。 基於字彙量與閱讀表現之高度相關，以及充足的字彙量對高中生在學測閱讀測驗表現的重要影響力，本研究建議高中英文教師應協助學生持續增進字彙能力。教學上，教師須先了解學生實際字彙能力，而後對於不同字彙量程度的學生，選取適切的教學方法，以切合學習者不同字彙發展階段的需求。對於低字彙量程度的學生，以有效、快速地增加字彙量為學習目標，尤其應重視高頻率字彙優先學習；對於已具備高字彙量的學生，教師可鼓勵學生廣泛閱讀，以進一步提升其字彙能力及英文閱讀實力。

This study investigates how vocabulary size correlates with reading performance, specifically, how Taiwanese senior high school students’ receptive vocabulary size influences their reading comprehension in Taiwan’s college entrance examination. This study also aims to estimate the number of word families needed for the reading texts of the Scholastic Aptitude English Test (SAET) and to suggest a reasonable vocabulary learning goal for Taiwanese senior high school students. The subjects were 306 2nd-year students from two senior high schools in northern Taiwan. A reading test sampled from the SAET was administrated to assess the subjects’ reading comprehension. This study made use of the first five levels of Nation’s Vocabulary Size Test (Nation, 2007) to measure the subjects’ receptive vocabulary size. The Vocabulary Size Test is based on the BNC Word Family List, which was developed from the British National Corpus. It is believed that the BNC Word Family List can better reflect the nature of language use of typical English native speakers today and the Vocabulary Size Test may yield proper judgments on the vocabulary size of ESL/EFL learners. The major findings of the study are summarized as follows: (1) The subjects’ vocabulary sizes and their reading performances on the SAET test had a positive and significant correlation (r=.624**). (2) The first 3,000 word families of the BNC Word Family List made up approximately 92 per cent of the running words of the SAET texts on average, and if proper nouns were included, the coverage provided by the 3,000 word families reached close to the 95% text coverage recommended by Laufer (1988) for successful reading comprehension. Moreover, the most frequent 3,000 word families on the BNC Word Family List were found to have a critical effect on students’ reading performance. (3) There was a great variability in the second-year senior high school students’ vocabulary sizes and a high percentage of the subjects in this study encountered vocabulary deficiency in the 3,000 word families. Considering the importance of vocabulary size to reading performance, this study calls for students’ continuous development in vocabulary size and acquisition of the 3,000 high frequency word families first to facilitate their reading comprehension. English teachers in Taiwan are suggested to be aware of individual student’s vocabulary competence first and then provide proper assistance to students’ vocabulary growth. For students whose vocabulary sizes still fall short of the size requirement, the vocabulary learning goal is to build larger vocabulary size and an explicit, intentional learning through intensive reading is the most effective way to enhance their vocabulary acquisition. For students whose vocabulary sizes have already achieved high level, implicit and incidental learning through extensive reading may be most beneficial to the advancement of their lexical knowledge and overall reading proficiency.