【作者】 王平；

【导师】 王茂金；

【作者基本信息】 陕西师范大学 ， 外国语言学及应用语言学， 2007， 硕士

【摘要】 词汇水平是衡量外语学习者语言习得的一个重要因素，阅读是所有学习者走向成功的一项重要技能，阅读中的词汇习得将是二者完美的结合。本文正是针对这个课题而展开的一项具有价值的实证研究：即中国英语学习者在语境中猜词状况的实证调查。扩展学生的词汇量是语言教学中师生所面对的主要挑战之一，然而关于词汇教学的最佳途径至今尚未达成一致。近来，传统的显性刻意词汇教学由于词汇附带习得猜想的流行而受到了批评。一方面，该猜想受到了许多的实证支持(e．g．，Laufer & Hulstijn，2001；Laufer，2003；Zahar，et al．2001)；另一方面，词汇附带习得猜想也存在一些明显的弊端，其中最主要的问题是：二语学习者词汇附带习得的效率太低(Nagy，1997)，而学习者的猜词能力是造成这个问题的主要因素(Gai，2003；Laufer，2003；Hulstijn，1993)。语篇是一个意义织体(Halliday & Hasan，1976；Hoey，1991)，阅读中的理解是学习者通过语篇与一切可获信息的互动而构建意义的过程(Harmon，1999)。词汇习得是一个不断的意义化阶段和巩固阶段的循环往复(Verspoor & Lowie，2003)。在第一阶段，词的形式特征和意义内容相匹配，因此，生词的正确猜测对该词的成功习得具有关键的作用，词义猜测策略的养成已经转化为词汇教学的重点。实际上，语境中的词义猜测已经是刻意词汇学习和附带词汇学习研究者所共同关注的课题(Fukkink，et al．2001；Nassaji，2006)。为了科学的评价中国外语学习者的猜词能力及猜词过程中的语境效应，同时为阅读中的词汇习得和猜词策略培训提供理论指导，本实验旨在探索中国外语学习者从语境中猜测词义的普遍能力，分析影响词义猜测差异的各种语篇因素和学习者因素以及它们与词汇猜测成绩之间的内在关系。具体的讲，本次实验将试图回答以下五个问题：1)中国英语学习者从语境中猜测词义的整体能力如何?2)语境因素对猜词有什么影响?3)语篇诸因素对猜词有什么影响?4)学习者诸因素对猜词有什么影响?5)语篇诸因素和学习者诸因素与成功猜词的相关关系如何?来自陕西师范大学的112名非英语专业的一年级学生参加了本次实验，其中10人参加了有声思维实验。10个生词被嵌于2篇不同体裁的文章中，每篇含生词5个。本次调查采用的是重复测试，整个实验过程由2个测试(无语境前测和有语境后测)、1个问卷和1个有声思维活动构成。所有的数据经过SPSS 13.0处理后，结果如下：1)在总计1020个猜词活动中，成功猜词的占49％，半成功的占205，不成功的占31％。总体来看，中国英语学习者的猜词能力令人乐观。2)无语境前测和有语境后测的实验统计数据表明：语境对成功猜词有显著的积极影响。3)配对样本t检验和单因素方差分析表明：在语篇的四个因素中，不同类型的文章体裁对猜测有显著的影响，而目标词的词性、词素的可预测性、目标词的词频对猜测没有显著的影响。4)独立样本t检验表明：在学习者的四个因素中，英语语言水平和阅读理解对猜词有显著的影响，而性别和猜测策略对猜词无显著的影响。5)关于相关关系，在语篇因素的范畴回归模型中，四个因素可以解释猜测成绩中82％的方差，词频对猜测成绩具有最强的预测力(Beta：.718)。在学习者因素的线性回归模型中，七个与学习者因素相关的变量可以解释猜测成绩67％的方差，学习者的语言水平是成功猜测的最强的预示力(Beta：.755)。本次实验是对中国英语学习者在语境中猜测词义的一个初步研究，获得了第一手的实证数据。实验结果证实了语境在词义猜测中的正面效应，在一定程度上支持了猜测能力假说，同时对中国的词汇教学，特别是阅读中的词汇习得和猜词策略培训提出了建议。更多还原

【Abstract】 Vocabulary is a critical factor that determines the outcome of a learner’s foreign language acquisition. Reading is an important skill that all students need to have in order to be successful. The combination of reading and vocabulary acquisition may be a perfect marriage. Therefore, the present thesis is just concerned with this combination, and will focus on one of the most valuable aspects-Chinese learners’ inferencing of lexical meanings of unknown words through context while reading English.Expanding students’ vocabulary has always been the principal challenge of language teaching, but there is no consensus on how vocabulary should be taught. The traditional explicit and intentional vocabulary teaching is challenged by recent popularity of the incidental word learning (IWL) hypothesis (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001; Laufer, 2003; Zahar, et al. 2001). However, experiments also reveal some problems with this hypothesis, and the main problem is the low rate of vocabulary acquisition in IWL (Nagy, 1997). One of the major factors that account for the problem is just the students’ poor guessing ability (Gai, 2003; Laufer, 2003; Hulstijn, 1993).Text is a semantic network (Halliday & Hasan, 1976; Hoey, 1991). Comprehension is a process in which the reader constructs meaning while interacting with text through the combination of prior knowledge and previous experience and other possible information. The process of vocabulary acquisition can be simplified into recursive stages that are usually referred to as semantization and the consolidation (Verspoor & Lowie, 2003). At the first stage, the formal characteristics of a word are matched with semantic content. Therefore, inferencing the correct meaning of an unknown word is of great significance to the successful acquisition, and vocabulary instruction has shifted from teaching specific words to training students’ strategies in lexical inferencing. As a matter of fact, the inferencing of lexical meanings through written context has been investigated in studies of both incidental word leaming and intentional vocabulary learning (Fukkink, et al. 2001; Nassaji, 2006).In order to give a scientific evaluation on Chinese learners’ guessing ability and the effect of context in lexical inferencing, and further offer some suggestions for vocabulary acquisition through reading and the lexical inferencing strategy training in China, this study is to explore the general guessing ability of Chinese learners with English as a foreign language (EFL) through context, and analyze the effect of textual factors and learners’ factors that may influence the gains in students’ lexical inferencing as well as the relationship of various factors to learners’ performance in lexical inferencing through context.Therefore, five research questions concerning the issue of students’ inferencing of lexical meanings from context were put forward in the present research:1).How successful is the learners’ infereneing of lexical meanings of unknown words from context while reading?2) What is the effect of context on the learners’ inferencing of lexical meanings from text while reading?3) What is the effect of textual factors on the learners’ inferencing of lexical meanings from context while reading?4) What is the effect of learners’ factors on their inferencing of Iexical meanings from context while reading?5) What kind of textual factors and learners’ factors can predict the success of the learners’ infereneing of lexical meanings from context while reading respectively?112 non-English major students from Shaanxi Normal University participated in the experiment, of whom 10 students performed the think-aloud activities. 10 unknown words were embedded in two different styles of texts, with five words in each. A repeated measure was selected for this investigation. All the research questions were explored through 1 experiment, 2 tests (without-context pretest and with-context posttest), and 2 surveys (a questionnaire task and a think-aloud task).All the data were analyzed by using SPSS 13.0 and the main findings are as follows:1) Of the total 1020 inferential responses, about 49% of the responses are successful, 20% are partially successful and 31% are unsuccessful. The general guessing ability of Chinese EFL learners is rather optimistic.2) The total score on the posttest (with context) is approximately 10 times that on the pretest (without context), and the significant effect of context on lexical inferencing is obvious.3) Of the four textual factors, paired-samples t-test and one-way ANOVA indicate that significant effect only occurs on the factor of text type. There is not significant effect on part of speech, morphological predictability, and frequency of occurrence of the target words4) Of the four learners’ factors, two factors-English proficiency and reading comprehension have significant effect on gains in learners’ lexical inferencing, while sex and guessing strategies reveal no significant difference.5) Categorical regression reveals that the four textual predictors could explain 82% of the variance in the transformed inferencing scores, with frequency being the most powerful predictor (.718), followed by text type (-.079), morphological predictability (.076), and part of speech (.037).Multiple regression indicates that all the 7 variables concerning learners’ factors can predict 67% variance in the inferencing scores, with CET-4 being the most powerful predictor (.755), followed by semantic knowledge (-.313); background knowledge (.225); strategies (.221) and comprehension (.183). The other two variables concerning learners’ factors-grammatical knowledge and textual knowledge possess no predicting power at all.This study is preliminary in its exploration of issues concerning Chinese EFL learners’ inferencing of lexical meanings from context while reading, obtaining some first-hand empirical data. The results of this research lend empirical support to the guessing ability assumption as well as the positive effect of context in lexical infereneing, and offer some suggestions for teaching vocabulary (especially vocabulary acquisition through reading) and lexical inferencing strategy training in China.更多还原