故事內含字母拼讀教學與直接字母拼讀教學對於台灣幼稚園學童音韻覺識發展與字彙學習的成效影響

Abstract

閱讀，一向被視為外語學習的重要資源，台灣教育部也於九年一貫英語課能力指標中，明確指出閱讀是初級階段便需要開始培養的能力。字母拼讀法(Phonics)經常被用於幫助學童閱讀能力的培養，台灣教育部也將字母拼讀法列為初階英語能力養成指標之一，並闡述學童必須具備看字念音的能力，進而發展英語閱讀技能。雖然目前台灣教育當局仍禁止幼稚園階段實施英語教學，但相關研究卻指出約有三分之一的公立幼稚園，以及將近97.2百分比的私立幼稚園，提供各類英文學習活動，讓幼稚園孩童有接觸英文學習的機會 (Lin & Johnson, 2016)。然而，鮮少相關研究有系統地探究學齡前幼稚園階段的有效早期閱讀教學方法。 此準實驗研究旨在探究兩種字母拼讀法: 故事內含字母拼讀教學(Embedded Phonics instruction)與直接字母拼讀教學(Direct Phonics instruction)，對於台灣幼稚園學童音韻覺識發展與字彙學習的成效影響。本實驗為期五週，分兩階段進行，共五十四位幼稚園大班學童與一位中籍英文老師參與。 學童以班級為單位隨意分配為故事內含字母拼讀教學組與直接字母拼讀教學組。第一階段，兩組學童分別接受每週兩次，每次40分鐘的字母拼讀法教學。其中，故事內含字母拼讀教學組的字母拼讀教學法整合於故事閱讀活動中進行；直接字母拼讀教學組則以直接、不包含故事閱讀的方式直接進行字母拼讀法教學。第二階段，兩組學童皆分別參與一對一學習成效測驗，用以收集數據比較兩組幼稚園學童對於尾韻辨識(rhyme recognition)、中間母音運用(medial vowel application) 、 聲音解碼(sound decoding)，以及字彙學習(word learning)的學習成效。研究資料包括幼稚園學童的前測與後測成績，並以獨立樣本t檢定(independent-sample t -tests)與配對樣本t檢定(pair-sample t -tests)來分別檢定兩組幼稚園學童在實驗前的先備知識以及實驗後的進步程度，並以多變量變異數分析(MANOVA)對兩組之間的學習成效進行比較。分析結果顯示，故事內含字母拼讀教學與直接字母拼讀教學對台灣幼稚園學童的尾韻辨識、中間母音運用、聲音解碼、以及字彙學習皆有顯著的教學成效；然而兩組在尾韻辨識、中間母音運用、聲音解碼並無顯著的組間差異，唯獨在字彙學習項目上，故事內含字母拼讀教學明顯比直接字母拼讀教學更有成效。 本研究建議，閱讀教學應該將字母拼讀法、字彙學習以及閱讀視為一整體的學習。字母拼讀法必須搭配有意義脈絡的閱讀活動進行，讓孩童真實的運用字母拼讀法來閱讀；字彙學習也建議有上下文情境的配合，以便讓學童不僅只學習字彙的意思，也理解字彙在文中的運用。

Reading has been seen as a valuable resource for learning a foreign language. The Ministry of Education in Taiwan has also stated in the Grade 1–9 Curriculum Guidelines that students should develop English reading skills at the initial stage of English learning. Although Taiwanese officials still prohibits English teaching in kindergartens, research has shown that about one third of the public kindergartens and nearly 97.2% of private kindergartens provide diverse English learning activities that engage children with English learning (Lin & Johnson, 2016). Nonetheless, little research has systematically investigate methods to effective early reading instruction at kindergarten level. Phonics is often seen as a method used to facilitate early reading development. Taiwanese officials have also stipulated phonics as a learning objective in the initial stage of English learning. Students are expected to be able to sound out words using phonics knowledge, and further develop English reading skills. This quasi-experimental study aimed at comparing the effects of two phonics instructional approaches: Direct Phonics instruction (DI) and Embedded Phonics instruction (EP) on Taiwanese kindergarten children’s learning of phonological awareness and words. The experiment lasted for five weeks; 54 kindergarten children aged from 6 to 7 and one Chinese-speaking English teacher participated in this study. Each class was assigned to either the DI group or the EP group randomly. The children of both groups received instruction on phonics rules twice a week, 40 minutes each time. The EP group learned phonics in the course of storytelling activities, whereas the DI group learned phonics directly without the story context. Before and after the respective phonics instruction, each child received one-on-one pre- and posttest on their knowledge of rhyme recognition, medial vowel application, sound decoding, and word learning to compare the effectiveness of the two phonics instructions. The data for analyses included the kindergarteners’ pretest and posttest results; independent-sample t -tests and pair-sample t -tests were used to inspect the kindergarteners’ prior knowledge and the extent of improvement after the intervention. A multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was employed to compare the learning outcome of the two groups. The results showed that both EP and DI resulted in significant improvement on the kindergarteners’ learning of rhyme recognition, medial vowel application, sound decoding and word learning. There were no significant differences between the two groups on the learning of rhyme recognition, medial vowel application, and sound decoding. However, the children in the EP group were found to have better word learning outcomes. The study provided pedagogical implications that phonics instruction, word learning, and real reading should be integrated in the early reading program to facilitate children’s reading development. Phonics instruction should be carried out with reading activities to allow the use of phonics in real reading; and words should be taught within context for children to learn not only the meaning but also the usages in context.