學術講演的開場和結尾用語與班級大小的關聯性之比較研究

Abstract

在高等教育中，學術講演(academic lectures)至今還是一種很重要的教學方式，其 不僅將專業知識傳達給學生，更能與學生交流其他課程相關的資訊(Flowerdew, 1994; Flowerdew and Miller, 1997; Thompson, 2003; Young, 1994)。就多數的學生而言，聽懂 並瞭解學術講演是他們能夠在學術上成功的一大關鍵。一般大都認為學生在聽學術講 演時必須耗費相當大的精力來消化老師的授課內容，若是遇到授課語言不是學生的母 語的情形，則對這非母語學生而言，更是造成學習的一大負擔(Flowerdew, 1994; Young, 1994)。研究也指出學術講演在語言與認知上都要很專注並投入大量的精力(Flowerdew, 1994; Flowerdew and Miller, 1997; Thompson, 2003)，所以對外語學習者而言，即使有很 好的英文能力，她也可能無法確切明暸老師上課的內容(Allison and Tauroza, 1995; Flowerdew, 1994; Flowerdew and Miller, 1996; Thompson, 1994; Young, 1994)。 學術講演的開場(openings)與結尾(endings)和內容同樣都很重要。好的開場會讓學 生有很好的第一印象，有助於引起他們的興趣與學習動機。相同的，好的結尾也會讓 學生記憶猶新。老師除了在開場時問候學生，以及在結尾時彌補在課堂中遺漏或未盡 詳細的說明之外，開場與結尾同時也是師生在較為輕鬆的互動下增進彼此瞭解的好時 機。但是至今這部份的相關研究還沒有受到重視。因此，本研究將探討學術講演的開 場與結尾的組織架構與用字遣詞上的特性，以及課堂大小對學術開場與結尾的組織架 構與用字遣詞上的影響。 本研究擬採用MICASE語料庫中所有的學術講演資料（約六十場），並分為學術講 演開場與學術講演結尾兩個語料庫，每個語料庫並依班級大小再分為大班級與小班 級，班級大小依照MICASE語料庫的分法，大班級人數為40人以上，小班及人數為40 人或是40人以下。組織架構將分為兩層，一層是階段(stage)，一層是策略或方式 (strategy)。 本研究的研究結果不僅可以使我們更加深入了解英語學術講演的開場與結尾的組 織架構與其重要的語言特色，以及班級大小對於學術講演的開場與結尾的影響。另一 方面，也希望這個計畫可以提供有用的研究資料與真實語料實例給學術聽力的老師、 學生，教材撰寫者，以及編寫教學指導手冊者參考，或是給第二語言習得、語用學， 社會語言學，言談分析，篇章分析的學者們參考

In university settings, academic lectures remain an important instruction method, and a crucial means to communicate to students the contents of the subject matter as well as other course-related issues (Flowerdew, 1994; Flowerdew and Miller, 1997; Thompson, 2003; Young, 1994). For most universtiy students, understanding lectures plays a critical role in their academic success. It is widely acknowledged that listening to lectures can present a considerable processing burden to students, particularly those who are non-native speakers (Flowerdew, 1994; Young, 1994). Research has indicated that lectures are both linguistically and cognitively demanding (Flowerdew, 1994; Flowerdew and Miller, 1997; Thompson, 2003), and that even the L2 learners with adequate English proficiency have difficulty comprehending academic lectures (Allison and Tauroza, 1995; Flowerdew, 1994; Flowerdew and Miller, 1996; Thompson, 1994; Young, 1994). The opening and closing of a lecture are as important as the body of the lecture because a good opening gives the first impression and attract students attention and motivation, and a strong lecture closing makes students remember most. Lecturers may greet students in the opening section, or they have an opportunity to make up for lapses in the body of the lecture in the closing section. These are also time periods when lecturers and students enhance their relationship in the comparatively informal interactions. However, the studies on lecture openings and closings have not received much attention. Therefore, the purpose of this study investigates the rhetorical structure and linguistic features of academic lecture openings and closings, and the impact of class size on the presentation of lecture openings and closings from the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE). Using a genre-based analytical approach, lecture openings and closings are first analyzed for rhetorical and linguistic choices, and then the data are divided into two sub-corpora (large and small classes) for further examination on the comparison of how the size of class influences the ways lecturers conduct their lecture closings. The large and small class lecture corpora are selected according to the criteria defined by the MICASE; that is, a large class lecture refers to a class consisting of more than 40 students whereas a small class lecture consists of 40 or fewer students. The rhetorical structures are identified in terms of the lecturers’ and students’ communicative purposes, and are categorized into two levels: stages and strategies. The stages and strategies are further examined to identify their sequential patterns and typical linguistic features in terms of discourse markers and lexical bundles. It is hoped that the present study can provide a fuller understanding of academic lecture discourse. Analysis of the corpora samples should be able to reveal how lecture openings and lecture closings are structured and the most salient characteristics and linguistic features. Results from this study could shed light on the teaching and learning of academic listening. In addition, results will be of interest to students, practitioners, material developers and researchers in the fields of applied linguistics, English for academic purposes, language teaching, TESOL, teacher education, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and discourse analysis.