密集句型剖析聽力訓練對於第二語言聽力理解影響之研究

Abstract

學者研究指出，為了增進學生的外語聽力理解程度，同時著重「由上而下」以及「由下而上」技巧的平衡教學是有必要的。但是，當(1) 學生缺乏特定主題的背景知識，或(2) 聽力的細部內容和學生所認知的背景知識並不完全相同時，學生必須透過使用較多「由下而上」的聽力技巧來協助他們理解聽力的內容。也就是說，在上述的兩個情況發生時，「由下而上」的技巧比「由上而下」的技巧更為重要。目前許多有關「由下而上」技巧的研究，多是著重在如何透過音韻以及字彙上的知識來幫助學生增進外語聽力理解程度，較少側重在研究句法和聽力理解之間的關係。因此，本研究旨在探討「密集句型剖析聽力訓練」如何影響學生的(1)整體外語聽力理解程度，(2) 特定句型內容之理解，以及(3) 速度不同的內容之理解。34位大學生在2周之內接受了4堂的聽力訓練課程，以培養出能夠直覺地剖析帶有不同種類嵌入句(名詞子句、副詞子句、形容詞子句、關係副詞子句) 的句子的能力。在前測以及後測時，參加者同時接受兩種測驗，一為標準化的多益聽力測驗，一為撥放速度有快慢之分的聽力測驗。所得到的資料則是透過「成對樣本T檢定」來檢測「密集句型剖析聽力訓練」所帶來的效果。結果顯示，透過多益聽力測驗所衡量的整體聽力理解程度進步顯著。更精確來說，原本聽力程度屬於中級的參加者進步最為顯著。針對句型的部分，參加者對於帶有(1) 名詞子句 (2) 副詞子句的句子，聽力理解程度進步顯著。針對播放速度的部分，在接受此訓練之後，參加者對於快版和慢板的內容，聽力理解程度皆進步顯著。此結果代表訓練「由下而上」的技巧能夠增進學生的聽力理解程度。更精確地說，訓練學生剖析帶有不同類型嵌入句的句子，似乎是一種可以增進聽力理解程度的有效教學模式。

Researchers have suggested a balanced instruction which focuses on training both learners’ bottom-up and top-down skills. However, when (1) listeners lack the background knowledge for the topic they listen to, or (2) when listeners’ prior knowledge does not match the information in the listening texts, they need to rely more on their linguistic knowledge to construct meanings; bottom-up skills would outweigh top-down skills under these two scenarios. While many studies that examined bottom-up skills focused on how prosodic, phonological and lexical knowledge may contribute to listening comprehension, few examined the relationship between syntax and listening comprehension. This study attempts to investigate whether intensive auditory parsing training enhances EFL learners’ (1) general listening comprehension, (2) comprehension of input with different types of syntactic structures, and (3) comprehension of input with varying speech rates. Thirty four participants from colleges in Taiwan received four training sessions in two weeks to build their automaticity in parsing sentences with various embedded clauses (noun clauses, adverb clauses, relative adjective clauses, and relative adverb clauses). Participants received standardized TOEIC listening comprehension test and another listening comprehension test of texts with varying speech rates in both pretest and posttest. Paired sample t-test was utilized to examine the effect of the treatment. Results suggested that participants’ overall listening comprehension as measured by TOEIC significantly improved after the training. More specifically, intermediate listeners made evident improvement. For specific syntactic structures, listeners’ comprehension of (1) sentences with noun clauses, and (2) sentences with adverb clauses improved significantly. For speech rates, listeners’ comprehension of texts with both fast and slow speeds also improved significantly. These results suggest that building students’ bottom-up skills is an effective approach. More specifically, training students’ parsing skills based on the unit of clause seems to be a promising approach to enhance their listening comprehension.