【作者】 周莉；

【导师】 朱汉雄；

【作者基本信息】 武汉理工大学 ， 外国语言学及应用语言学， 2008， 硕士

【摘要】 词汇的重要性,正如Wilkins的名言所说:“没有语法,很多东西无法表达;没有词汇,什么也无法表达”(Wilkins,1978:109-111)。第二语言词汇习得在近年来逐渐受到国内外众多研究学者和学习者的重视。随着研究的不断深入和理论的逐步深化,研究学者普遍认为词汇知识已不再是单维的,而是一个多维的概念框架,各种形式各异却又互为补充的词汇知识框架体系在此基础上应运而生,并被广泛应用于词汇测试当中。改革开放以来,我国英语界对词汇习得的研究显著,但令人遗憾的是,将词汇知识与词汇测试联系起来分析国内中学生词汇习得的研究却很少有研究者涉及。而我国高中英语新课程标准明确规定词汇教学是英语教学中的一个重要组成部分,并指出要有计划地向学生传授英语词汇方面的知识;学生至少要掌握3000个单词和一定数量的习惯用语。而作为我国规模最大,影响力最为深远的大学英语入学考试,其词汇试题测试了考生何种的词汇知识并未为研究者所涉及。这存在两种可能性:要么被认为是理所当然的,要么被忽视了。所以针对这一点进行探究是很有必要。本研究是基于Qian(2002)提出的词汇知识框架从词汇的宽度和深度两个维度对NMET词汇试题(2002-2007)的同期效度进行实证研究。本文运用了四种研究工具:MC(多项选择词汇测试)、VLT(词汇水平测试)、VKS(词汇知识量表)和WAT(词汇联想测试)。其中,VKS和WAT被整合为一套词汇知识深度测试工具。这里的MC是从2002到2007年NMET的语法和词汇部分中抽取的,由15个分立的词汇题目组成。随后,这些题目中的15个正确答案被转化为VKS和WAT测试的中心词(目标词)。其中,VLT、VKS和WAT分别被选用为准则测试,其成绩与NMET词汇试题成绩一同作为原始数据,经皮尔逊相关分析得到相应结果并进行深入讨论。本研究将围绕以下三个问题开展:1)目前NMET中的词汇试题能否充分反映测试者对所测词汇的掌握程度?2)NMET词汇试题与词汇知识宽度的相关性如何?3)NMET词汇试题与词汇知识深度的相关性如何?全文有六章组成。第一章是绪论,从整体上对本文要研究的问题进行了介绍,其中包括研究目的,研究意义和对本文结构的解释。第二章是对词汇知识框架,词汇测试的知识进行了理论综述。第三章则对NMET及其词汇试题以及效度知识进行了阐述。第四和第五章是全文的主体,作者通过实证研究,从词汇广度和词汇深度两个方面探讨了词汇知识与NMET的关系,即分析了NMET的同期效度问题。第六章总结了研究发现,并且对本试验研究进一步深化,NMET词汇试题部分的改进以及二语词汇教学提出了建议。共有132名武汉工业学院工商学院的学生参与了此项研究。他们参加的三次测试(VLT,DVK和MC)的分数结果都被收集。本研究以学生的三次考试成绩为原始数据,采用SPSS 13.0以词汇广度知识和词汇深度知识的成绩为自变量,以NMET词汇成绩为因变量进行了皮尔逊相关分析和多元回归分析。在数据统计分析的基础上,我们可以得出以下结论:1)NMET词汇试题在词汇宽度知识和深度知识两个层面呈正相关关系。2)词汇宽度知识和NMET词汇试题呈高度正相关关系,说明NMET词汇试题在词汇宽度知识维度上具有很高的同期效度。3)将词汇深度知识的两个维度—意义和搭配分开来考虑,NMET词汇试题在某种程度上并不能有效地反映学习者对词汇意义的把握程度。4)NMET词汇试题和词汇的联想知识和和搭配知识之间的相关性很低。5)而(3)和(4)两方面是词汇深度知识的重要组成部分,这就表明NMET词汇试题与词汇知识深度的相关性低。在这一点上,NMET词汇试题不能充分反映受试者的词汇知识深度,说明NMET词汇试题在词汇知识深度维度上具有比较低的同期效度。最后,针对NMET词汇试题提出了一些建议和看法,同时也提及了本次实证研究的局限性。更多还原

【Abstract】 The popular proverb "Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed" (Wilkins, 1978:109-111) reveals the significance of vocabulary in second language acquisition (SLA). Vocabulary acquisition began to rouse the awareness and interests of scholars and researchers. More and more researchers have realized that vocabulary knowledge as a fundamental component of second language (L2) proficiency is not a single dimension. Instead, it is a multi-dimensional construct. Many various but complementary vocabulary knowledge frameworks have been proposed, and now extended to vocabulary testing. Ever since then, a handful of studies have been done in this field both at home and broad, which have provided a reliable and scientific foundation to get an insight into L2 learners’ vocabulary knowledge. However, the researches related the vocabulary knowledge to vocabulary testing for analyzing the vocabulary acquisition of middle school students in China are relatively far from enough.While in China, newly issued Senior English Curriculum Standards also clearly argue that vocabulary teaching is one of the important parts in English instruction and that teachers should teach students some vocabulary knowledge in a planned way. Senior students are required to master at least 3,000 words in addition to a quality of useful expressions. National Matriculation English Test (NMET) is one of the most influential nation-wide college entrance language proficiency examinations, which boasts an annual testing population of millions. It exerts tremendous impacts on middle school teaching and learning in China. However, it is not clear yet to what extent the vocabulary items in NMET reflected the test-takers’ vocabulary knowledge, which might be taken for granted or might be neglected. For this reason, a detailed analysis of the correlation between the vocabulary items in NMET and vocabulary knowledge is conducted.The overall aim of the present study is to validate the vocabulary items presented in NMET, using the vocabulary knowledge framework proposed by Qian (2002) .The study applied four research instruments: Multiple-choice Vocabulary Test (MC), Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS), Word Associate Test (WAT). And VKS and WAT were modified into Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge measure (DVK) to assess the test-takers’ depth of vocabulary knowledge. MC consisted of a pool of 15 discrete multiple-choice vocabulary items from NMET Grammar and Vocabulary Section from the year of 2002 to the year of 2007. Then these 15 correct choices in MC were transformed into VKS and WAT headwords. VLT in this study adopted 2000 and 3000 word frequency levels. VLT, VKS and WAT were then utilized as criterion tests for comparison with the results of NMET.The specific research questions that the study attempts to address are:1) Do the vocabulary test items currently employed in NMET adequately reflect test-taker’s knowledge of the target words?2) What is the correlation between NMET vocabulary items and breadth of vocabulary knowledge?3) What is the correlation between NMET vocabulary items and depth of vocabulary knowledge?The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction of the study, including the rationalness and significance of the present study as well as the organization of the thesis. Chapter 2 reviews the literature of theoretical researches on vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary assessment. Chapter 3 is an illustration of validity of assessments and introduction of NMET and its requirements of vocabulary items. Chapter 4 and 5 are the main bodies of the thesis, exploring the concurrent validity of NMET vocabulary items in context of vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary tests. The final chapter draws conclusions, makes recommendations for further study on the improvement of NMET and gives some suggestions to vocabulary acquisition in L2.Altogether 132 students of Industrial & Commercial College of Wuhan Polytechnic University participated in this study. Their scores on these three measures were collected. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 13.0 was employed for Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis.On the basis of the empirical studies, we have drawn the following conclusions: Both breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge have positive correlations with NMET vocabulary items. The breadth of vocabulary knowledge significantly correlates with the NMET vocabulary items, which indicates that NMET vocabulary items have high validity in capturing one dimension of vocabulary knowledge—breadth of vocabulary knowledge. NMET vocabulary items are only correlated with the degree of familiarity with vocabulary meaning reflected in Vocabulary Knowledge Scale moderately. Moreover, there is a fairly low correlation between NMET vocabulary items and the association knowledge and collocation knowledge shown in the Word Associate Test. Since (2) and (3) aspects are key components of depth of vocabulary knowledge, we can make a conclusion that NMET vocabulary items cannot reflect the test-takers’ depth of vocabulary knowledge adequately. Therefore, NMET vocabulary items have low validity in reflecting another dimension of vocabulary knowledge—depth of vocabulary knowledge.Finally, some suggestions and implications for the vocabulary items in NMET are provided and limitations of the study are also stated.更多还原