The Relationship between Chinese Reading Ability and English Reading Comprehension

Abstract

本研究旨在探究國內大學生的中文閱讀能力及其英文閱讀表現之相關性。研究目的有四：(1)了解學生一般整體的中英文閱讀能力相關性；(2)探究「語言基本能力門檻」的假設，是否存在於中英文閱讀能力的關係之中；(3)中文閱讀能力與英文單字文法能力對學生英文閱讀能力的相對影響力；(4)針對一般英文閱讀課程所著重的內容，探究在知識、理解、分析的認知層面上，中、英文閱讀能力的相關性。同時，本文亦就與研究主題相關之重要文獻作探討及分析。研究對象為252位大學一年級學生，施測英文單字文法、英文閱讀及中文閱讀共三項測驗，以了解其中、英文語言能力，並使用皮爾森相關及複回歸分析做為統計分析之工具。研究結果顯示：(1)中、英文閱讀能力呈顯著低中度相關；(2)當學生具備某種程度的英文單字文法能力，中、英文閱讀能力即呈正相關；(3)中文閱讀能力與英文單字文法能力，均為影響英文閱讀表現之顯著因素，但英文單字文法能力之影響力大於中文閱讀能力；(4)在不同的認知層面上，中英文閱讀能力均為顯著相關，但相關程度隨著認知能力之複雜程度而遞減。

This paper explores the relationship between Mandarin Chinese reading ability (L1) and English as a foreign language (FL) reading performance. Four issues are addressed: (a) the global relationship between Mandarin Chinese reading ability and English reading comprehension, (b) the existence of a language proficiency threshold, (c) the relative importance of Chinese reading ability and English proficiency on English reading performance, and (d) the influence of varying levels of cognitive complexity on the interaction of L1 and L2 reading comprehension. Two hundred and fifty-two college students participated in the study. Three tests including an English proficiency test, a Chinese reading test, and an English reading test were developed to measure students’ language abilities. Pearson Product-Moment correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to demonstrate the statistical relationships. The results showed a weak but significant relationship between L1 and L2 reading abilities, and that a certain level of L2 proficiency had to be reached before language transfer could occur. L2 proficiency was consistently the better predictor variable. Meanwhile, the strength of the correlations decreased gradually as the levels of cognitive complexity increased, though the correlations between L1 and L2 reading abilities were positively related at different cognitive levels.