高中生英语定语从句的习得研究
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摘要
限制性定语从句因其句法结构的独特性、存在的普遍性和日常交际中使用的高频率,一直是语言学者研究的重点和热点。对定语从句的研究主要从三个方面展开:对他们的结构的研究;对他们的认知处理的心理语言学研究以及对他们的(第一语言和第二语言)的习得研究。定语从句的习得研究主要从纯语言学和语言教学两个角度切入,研究者们对英语定语从句的可学性及L1和L2习得过程中表现出的难度层阶进行了丰富的探讨,并提出了不同的假设,其中最著名的是Keenan和Comrie提出的可及性递进阶假设。但是仍然存在一些不足:被研究的定语从句类型较少;研究方法比较单一;目前研究对象涉及中国学习者的不多,涉及中国综合高中学习者的更是屈指可数。
为了进一步推动定语从句的习得研究,本论文将以中国综合高中学生为研究对象,验证可及性递进阶假设;并且看他们在Keenan和Comrie的可及性递进阶的指导下习得英语定语从句是否学习效率会更高,从而推动高中英语定语从句的教学。本研究通过句子合并和合乎语法性判断从产出和理解两个方面首先验证Keenan和Comrie提出的可及性递进阶假设,看其预测的难度阶层是否与高中学习者习得过程中表现一致。通过对各项任务的正确率的分析进行。然后,用前测确定学生们对定语从句的掌握程度。按照可及性递进阶假设理论对实验班进行限制性定语从句的讲授、目的性训练、阶段性测试,而对对照班则按常规教学进行,最后通过实验后测试以及跟踪测试对所得数据进行平均成绩和标准差的对比分析。
结果发现学生们在验证性测验中完成各种包含定语从句的句子的正确率的顺序与可及性递进阶假设基本一致。句子合并任务的正确率趋势是从主语类定语从句到直接宾语类大幅下降的,而语法判断任务的下降幅度要平缓一些。在基于可及性递进阶假设的教学实验中,实验班与对照班内的成绩变化既有相似性又有差异性。两个班的相似之处在于实验后的成绩都显著高于实验前的成绩。差异在于实验班在实验后和四周半后的测试中的成绩均显著高于对照班的成绩;实验班在四周半后的跟踪测试中与实验后测试相比并无显著下降,而对照班成绩与实验后的成绩相比有明显回落。
本项研究表明中国学生,尤其是低水平的综合高中学生对英语限制性定语从句的掌握情况与可及性递进阶假设的预测基本一致,以可及性递进阶假设理论作为指导教授定语从句是有效的。可以得到的启示是学习者学习目标结构时必须处于准备状态。在教学中要明确教授学生们常常回避运用的语法结构,如IO,Gen,Oprep和OComp类型的定语从句;比较英语与汉语的异同点,同时如何省时、省力、高效率的教授语法,也是有待本人和同行们进一步研究的。
本项研究局限性在于虽然基于可及性递进阶假设理论的限制性定语从句的教学实验的两种教学的可比性取决于同样的输入材料和时间量,但是由此断定基于可及性递进阶假设进行的语言教学比常规教学好还为时过早。基于可及性递进阶假设进行的教学,其效果延续至四周半后并不能表明可以延续至半年或者更长时间,更不能断定被研究的十二种限制性定语从句已经被习得。还有待进一步研究。另外,本实验过程还存在一些缺陷,诸如实验样本有限;实验时间不够长;教师在教学中一再强调限制性定语从句在英语学习中的重要性并且监控整个学习过程可能会影响实验的结果。本人期待进一步验证用可及性递进阶假设理论来教授限制性定语从句的可行性和效果。
The restrictive attributive clauses have been the study empasis of language experts because of their unique syntactic structures, universal existence and the high frequency used in. daily communication. The study of the restrictive attributive clauses are from three aspects: the study of their structure; the psycho-linguistic study of their cognitive processing ang the acquiring study of Language1 and Language2. The acquiring study of the restrictive attributive clauses is focusing on pure linguistics and language teaching. The researchers have researched into the feature of the clauses which can be learned and the difficulty hierarchy the Language1 and Language2 learners show. They also put forward lots of hypotheses. And the Accessibility Hierarchy of Keenan and Comrie is the best-known. At present, there are still some weaknesses of the study. Firstly, although there are over forty types of restrictive attributive clauses, only part of them have been studied. Secondly, the research methods are not enough. Last but not least, there are not many researches studying Chinese, even less studying Chinese high school students.
Therefore, in order to improve the acquiring study of this field, in this essay, I studied how Chinese comprehensive high school students acquired them. The prediction of the Accessibility Hierarchy was tested first .I would find out whether the difficulty hierarchy shown by the students was in line with the hypothesis according to the right percentages of different kinds of clauses they got. Then a teaching experiment based on the hypothesis was carried out to test whether the students would high study efficiency. As a result, the teaching effect may be better with this method.
The processing sentence combination test and the understanding grammatically judgement test were employed in the two experiments. As to the teaching experiment based on the Accessibility Hierarchy, there was a pre-test, a post-test and a following test .The pre-test was used to know the students' master degree of the restrictive attributive clauses. There was an exrerimental class and a compared class. During the experimenting period , the compared class was taught as usual, while the experimental class was taught the hypothesis, did related exercises and had stage tests. At last, the two classes had the post -test and the following test. The data were analyzed in terms of the mean score and the standard deviation.
I found the order of the right percentages of different kinds of clauses the students got in the testing test was almost in line with the hypothesis. But the tendency of their right percentages in sentence combination decreased much faster than that of the grammaticality judgement. There was a similarity and diffrences between the two classes in the experiment based on the hypothesis. The similarity was that they all got higher marks after the experiments. The diffrences were that the scores of the experimental class in the post-test and following test were obviously higher than those of the compared class. Besides, the score of the following test of the experimental class did not obviously decrease, while that of the compared class decreased.
Therefore, the conclusion that the acquisition of the Chinese students, especially low level comprehensive high school students was in line with the prediction of the hypothesis and the teaching based on the hypothesis was effective could be drawn. We could also learn that learners should be ready when studying target structures. While teaching, English teachers should clearly teach the IO, Gen, Oprep and OComp that students always avoid using and compare English and Chinese. Meanwhile, how to save time and labor to get high efficiency in teaching grammar is still a problem to study. The limitations of present study were as follows. Although the two teaching methods in the experiment based on the hypothesis could be compared because they had the same input materials and time, it may be too early to judge one was bad and the other was good. The effect of the teaching based on the hypothesis could last four and a half weeks, but it didn't show it could last half a year or even longer time, nor could we draw a conclusion that the twelve types of restrictive attributive clauses studied had been acquired. Moreover, limited samples, not long enough experimental time, the teachers emphasizing the importance of the clauses and watching the whole studying process may influence the result. So, I expect further researches into the hypothesis will be carried out.
为了进一步推动定语从句的习得研究,本论文将以中国综合高中学生为研究对象,验证可及性递进阶假设;并且看他们在Keenan和Comrie的可及性递进阶的指导下习得英语定语从句是否学习效率会更高,从而推动高中英语定语从句的教学。本研究通过句子合并和合乎语法性判断从产出和理解两个方面首先验证Keenan和Comrie提出的可及性递进阶假设,看其预测的难度阶层是否与高中学习者习得过程中表现一致。通过对各项任务的正确率的分析进行。然后,用前测确定学生们对定语从句的掌握程度。按照可及性递进阶假设理论对实验班进行限制性定语从句的讲授、目的性训练、阶段性测试,而对对照班则按常规教学进行,最后通过实验后测试以及跟踪测试对所得数据进行平均成绩和标准差的对比分析。
结果发现学生们在验证性测验中完成各种包含定语从句的句子的正确率的顺序与可及性递进阶假设基本一致。句子合并任务的正确率趋势是从主语类定语从句到直接宾语类大幅下降的,而语法判断任务的下降幅度要平缓一些。在基于可及性递进阶假设的教学实验中,实验班与对照班内的成绩变化既有相似性又有差异性。两个班的相似之处在于实验后的成绩都显著高于实验前的成绩。差异在于实验班在实验后和四周半后的测试中的成绩均显著高于对照班的成绩;实验班在四周半后的跟踪测试中与实验后测试相比并无显著下降,而对照班成绩与实验后的成绩相比有明显回落。
本项研究表明中国学生,尤其是低水平的综合高中学生对英语限制性定语从句的掌握情况与可及性递进阶假设的预测基本一致,以可及性递进阶假设理论作为指导教授定语从句是有效的。可以得到的启示是学习者学习目标结构时必须处于准备状态。在教学中要明确教授学生们常常回避运用的语法结构,如IO,Gen,Oprep和OComp类型的定语从句;比较英语与汉语的异同点,同时如何省时、省力、高效率的教授语法,也是有待本人和同行们进一步研究的。
本项研究局限性在于虽然基于可及性递进阶假设理论的限制性定语从句的教学实验的两种教学的可比性取决于同样的输入材料和时间量,但是由此断定基于可及性递进阶假设进行的语言教学比常规教学好还为时过早。基于可及性递进阶假设进行的教学,其效果延续至四周半后并不能表明可以延续至半年或者更长时间,更不能断定被研究的十二种限制性定语从句已经被习得。还有待进一步研究。另外,本实验过程还存在一些缺陷,诸如实验样本有限;实验时间不够长;教师在教学中一再强调限制性定语从句在英语学习中的重要性并且监控整个学习过程可能会影响实验的结果。本人期待进一步验证用可及性递进阶假设理论来教授限制性定语从句的可行性和效果。
The restrictive attributive clauses have been the study empasis of language experts because of their unique syntactic structures, universal existence and the high frequency used in. daily communication. The study of the restrictive attributive clauses are from three aspects: the study of their structure; the psycho-linguistic study of their cognitive processing ang the acquiring study of Language1 and Language2. The acquiring study of the restrictive attributive clauses is focusing on pure linguistics and language teaching. The researchers have researched into the feature of the clauses which can be learned and the difficulty hierarchy the Language1 and Language2 learners show. They also put forward lots of hypotheses. And the Accessibility Hierarchy of Keenan and Comrie is the best-known. At present, there are still some weaknesses of the study. Firstly, although there are over forty types of restrictive attributive clauses, only part of them have been studied. Secondly, the research methods are not enough. Last but not least, there are not many researches studying Chinese, even less studying Chinese high school students.
Therefore, in order to improve the acquiring study of this field, in this essay, I studied how Chinese comprehensive high school students acquired them. The prediction of the Accessibility Hierarchy was tested first .I would find out whether the difficulty hierarchy shown by the students was in line with the hypothesis according to the right percentages of different kinds of clauses they got. Then a teaching experiment based on the hypothesis was carried out to test whether the students would high study efficiency. As a result, the teaching effect may be better with this method.
The processing sentence combination test and the understanding grammatically judgement test were employed in the two experiments. As to the teaching experiment based on the Accessibility Hierarchy, there was a pre-test, a post-test and a following test .The pre-test was used to know the students' master degree of the restrictive attributive clauses. There was an exrerimental class and a compared class. During the experimenting period , the compared class was taught as usual, while the experimental class was taught the hypothesis, did related exercises and had stage tests. At last, the two classes had the post -test and the following test. The data were analyzed in terms of the mean score and the standard deviation.
I found the order of the right percentages of different kinds of clauses the students got in the testing test was almost in line with the hypothesis. But the tendency of their right percentages in sentence combination decreased much faster than that of the grammaticality judgement. There was a similarity and diffrences between the two classes in the experiment based on the hypothesis. The similarity was that they all got higher marks after the experiments. The diffrences were that the scores of the experimental class in the post-test and following test were obviously higher than those of the compared class. Besides, the score of the following test of the experimental class did not obviously decrease, while that of the compared class decreased.
Therefore, the conclusion that the acquisition of the Chinese students, especially low level comprehensive high school students was in line with the prediction of the hypothesis and the teaching based on the hypothesis was effective could be drawn. We could also learn that learners should be ready when studying target structures. While teaching, English teachers should clearly teach the IO, Gen, Oprep and OComp that students always avoid using and compare English and Chinese. Meanwhile, how to save time and labor to get high efficiency in teaching grammar is still a problem to study. The limitations of present study were as follows. Although the two teaching methods in the experiment based on the hypothesis could be compared because they had the same input materials and time, it may be too early to judge one was bad and the other was good. The effect of the teaching based on the hypothesis could last four and a half weeks, but it didn't show it could last half a year or even longer time, nor could we draw a conclusion that the twelve types of restrictive attributive clauses studied had been acquired. Moreover, limited samples, not long enough experimental time, the teachers emphasizing the importance of the clauses and watching the whole studying process may influence the result. So, I expect further researches into the hypothesis will be carried out.
引文
Aarts F., and E. Schils. Relative clauses the accessbility hierarchy and the contrastive analysis[J]. IRAL, 1995.
Diessel, H., and M. Tomasello. The development of relative clauses in spontaneous child speech [J]. Cognitive LinguisticsII, 2000,(11).
Doughty, C. Second language instruction does make a difference [J]. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 1991 ,(13).
Eckman, F.,R.Markedness and the contrastive analysis hypothesis [J].Language Learning, 1977(31).
Eckman,F.,R. Universals, typologies, and interlanguage in Rutherford, W . (Ed) . Language Universals and Second Language Acquisition[J]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins,1984.
Eckman, F.,R. Bell, & D. Nelson. On the generalization of relative clause instruction in the acquisition of English as a second language [J]. Applied Linguistics, 1988, (9).
Eisenberg, S. Interpretation of relative clauses by young children: another look [J]. Journal of Child Language, 2002, (29).
Gass, S. Language transfer and universal grammatical relations [J]. Language Learning, 1979,(29).
Gass, S.From theory to practice. In M.Hymes &W.Rutherford (Ed) .On TESOL' 81: selected papers from the fifteenth annual conference of speakers of other languages, Washington, DC: TESOL, 1983.
Hamilton, R. Is implicational generalization unidirectional and maximal? Evidence from Relativization instruction in a second language [J]. Language Learning, 1994, (44/1).
Hawkins, J. A performance theory of order and constituency[M]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994 .
Hyltenstam,K. The use of typological markedness conditions as predictors in second language acquisition: Thecase of pronomenal copies in relative clauses[A]. In R.Anderson(eds). Second Languages: A Crosslinguistic Perspective[C]. Rowley, Mass: Newbury House, 1984.
Izumi, S. Processing difficulty in comprehension and production of relative clause by learners of English as a second language[J].Language Learning,2003,(53/2).
Keenan,E.& B.Comrie.Noun phrase accessibility and universal grammar[J].Linguistic Inquiry,1977,(8).
Keenan,E.& B.Comrie.Noun phrase accessibility revisited[J].Language,1979,(55/3).
Kidd,E.Relative clause comprehension revisited:ommentary on Eisenberg(2002)[J].Journal of Child Language,2003,(30).
Kuno,S.The position of relative clauses and conjunctions[J].Linguistic Inquiry,1974(5).
Larsen-Freeman,D& Long.An introduction to second language acquisition research[M].London:Longrnan,1991.
Pavesi.Markedness.Discoursal Modes,and relative clause formation in a formal and informal context[M].Studies in Second Language Acquisition,1986.
Prideaux,G.The processing of Japanese[J].Canadian Journal of Linguistics,1982,(27/1).
Schachter,J.An error in error analysis[J].Language Learning,1974,(24).
Sharwood Smith,M.consciousness raising and the second language learner[J].Applied Linguistics,1981,(2).
Takashima,H.Another look at the order of difficulty of relative clauses from corpus linguistic-statistical procedures:analysis and results[J].IRAL,2000,(38).
蔡金亭、吴一安.从英语关系从句的习得看可及性层级假设[J].现代外语,2006,(11).
陈月红.中国学生对英语关系从句的习得[J].外语教学与研究,1998,(4).
陈月红.中国人学英语为什么回避使用关系从句[J].福建外语,1999,(1).
高海英、戴曼纯.中国学生英语关系从句外置结构的习得——显性教学与隐性教学实证研究[J].外语教学与研究,2004,(6).
花爱萍.中国英语学习者限制性定语从句的理解与产出[D].洛阳:解放军外国语学院,2005.
曲家丹.反向思维:中国学生对英语关系从句的习得[J].辽宁行政学院学报,2006,(3).
王改燕.英语关系从句的习得研究[J].外语教学,2006(2)
肖云南、吕杰.中国学生对英语关系从句习得的实证研究[J].外语教学与研究,2005.(4).
Diessel, H., and M. Tomasello. The development of relative clauses in spontaneous child speech [J]. Cognitive LinguisticsII, 2000,(11).
Doughty, C. Second language instruction does make a difference [J]. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 1991 ,(13).
Eckman, F.,R.Markedness and the contrastive analysis hypothesis [J].Language Learning, 1977(31).
Eckman,F.,R. Universals, typologies, and interlanguage in Rutherford, W . (Ed) . Language Universals and Second Language Acquisition[J]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins,1984.
Eckman, F.,R. Bell, & D. Nelson. On the generalization of relative clause instruction in the acquisition of English as a second language [J]. Applied Linguistics, 1988, (9).
Eisenberg, S. Interpretation of relative clauses by young children: another look [J]. Journal of Child Language, 2002, (29).
Gass, S. Language transfer and universal grammatical relations [J]. Language Learning, 1979,(29).
Gass, S.From theory to practice. In M.Hymes &W.Rutherford (Ed) .On TESOL' 81: selected papers from the fifteenth annual conference of speakers of other languages, Washington, DC: TESOL, 1983.
Hamilton, R. Is implicational generalization unidirectional and maximal? Evidence from Relativization instruction in a second language [J]. Language Learning, 1994, (44/1).
Hawkins, J. A performance theory of order and constituency[M]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994 .
Hyltenstam,K. The use of typological markedness conditions as predictors in second language acquisition: Thecase of pronomenal copies in relative clauses[A]. In R.Anderson(eds). Second Languages: A Crosslinguistic Perspective[C]. Rowley, Mass: Newbury House, 1984.
Izumi, S. Processing difficulty in comprehension and production of relative clause by learners of English as a second language[J].Language Learning,2003,(53/2).
Keenan,E.& B.Comrie.Noun phrase accessibility and universal grammar[J].Linguistic Inquiry,1977,(8).
Keenan,E.& B.Comrie.Noun phrase accessibility revisited[J].Language,1979,(55/3).
Kidd,E.Relative clause comprehension revisited:ommentary on Eisenberg(2002)[J].Journal of Child Language,2003,(30).
Kuno,S.The position of relative clauses and conjunctions[J].Linguistic Inquiry,1974(5).
Larsen-Freeman,D& Long.An introduction to second language acquisition research[M].London:Longrnan,1991.
Pavesi.Markedness.Discoursal Modes,and relative clause formation in a formal and informal context[M].Studies in Second Language Acquisition,1986.
Prideaux,G.The processing of Japanese[J].Canadian Journal of Linguistics,1982,(27/1).
Schachter,J.An error in error analysis[J].Language Learning,1974,(24).
Sharwood Smith,M.consciousness raising and the second language learner[J].Applied Linguistics,1981,(2).
Takashima,H.Another look at the order of difficulty of relative clauses from corpus linguistic-statistical procedures:analysis and results[J].IRAL,2000,(38).
蔡金亭、吴一安.从英语关系从句的习得看可及性层级假设[J].现代外语,2006,(11).
陈月红.中国学生对英语关系从句的习得[J].外语教学与研究,1998,(4).
陈月红.中国人学英语为什么回避使用关系从句[J].福建外语,1999,(1).
高海英、戴曼纯.中国学生英语关系从句外置结构的习得——显性教学与隐性教学实证研究[J].外语教学与研究,2004,(6).
花爱萍.中国英语学习者限制性定语从句的理解与产出[D].洛阳:解放军外国语学院,2005.
曲家丹.反向思维:中国学生对英语关系从句的习得[J].辽宁行政学院学报,2006,(3).
王改燕.英语关系从句的习得研究[J].外语教学,2006(2)
肖云南、吕杰.中国学生对英语关系从句习得的实证研究[J].外语教学与研究,2005.(4).