摘要
模态是指人类通过感官(如视觉、听觉等)与外部环境(如人、物件、动物等)之间的互动方式(顾曰国,2007)。作为影响学习者学习的重要因素之一,近年来对模态的研究受到广泛关注。国外有关研究主要结果并没有达成一致的认识,有学者发现了模态效应(modality effect),即信息以视听双模态同时呈现时,工作记忆的容量会得到有效增加,进而提升学习成效。也有学者发现了冗赘效应(redundancy effect),即如果将相同的信息以不同的方式同时呈现时,会发生冗赘效应,学习者可能同时处理所有信息,从而增加了认知负荷,削弱学习效果。
但是上述发现都是基于一般学习(general learning)的研究,能否同样适应于语言学习(language learning),目前尚未可知。语言学习与一般学习有共性,但也存在特殊性。在一般学习中,语言仅仅充当教学的手段或媒介。而语言之于语言学习,不但承载学习内容更是学习的目标。模态对语言学习的效果是否会因语言学习的特殊性而有不同的表现?本研究将以第二语言词汇习得为切入点对此问题进行探究,讨论不同的呈现模态对词汇习得和篇章理解的影响,试图发现:
1)不同的呈现模态是否会影响学生的词汇习得?
2)不同的呈现模态是否会影响学生对文章的理解?
3)篇章理解与词汇习得是否具有相关性?
本研究的研究对象为某大学英语专业二年级本科,探究听觉输入、视觉输入和视听输入对词汇习得产生的影响。我们将英语词汇量、英语水平和实验目标词等方面都具有可比性的被试随机分成三组,分别进行1)阅读短文;2)听短文;3)阅读并同时听短文。我们在实验处理结束后立即通过汉语回忆短文内容来考察被试文章的理解。考察被试对目标词的习得则通过改编后的Paribakht和Wesche(2001)的词汇知识量表(Vocabulary Knowledge Scale)实现。为捕捉实验给词汇习得带来的即时效应和延时效应,我们在实验结束后立即进行了即时后测,两周后进行了延时后测。控制组没有任何实验处理,仅参加了前测和两次后测。
实验结果发现:
1)即时后测中,篇章的不同呈现模态对被试的词汇习得产生了影响。三个实验组的受试在不同的输入模式下均发生了词汇习得,其中视觉输入组和视听输入组的词汇习得显著高于听觉输入组和控制组。听觉输入组习得优于控制组。视觉输入组习得优于视听输入组,但是没有达到显著性差异。延时后测中,视觉输入组显著优于听觉输入组。视听输入组优于听觉输入组,但两者之间无显著性差异。
2)篇章理解受到呈现模态的影响。视觉输入组的理解成绩显著优于另外两个实验组。视听输入组的成绩显著优于听觉输入组。
3)篇章理解与词汇习得在即时后测中呈现弱相关性;然而延时后测的分析显示篇章理解与词汇习得之间无相关性。
通过本研究可以看出篇章的呈现模态对词汇习得和语篇理解均产生影响,视觉输入在所选被试中促成的学习结果最明显;视听双模态的输入方式优于单纯的听觉输入。理解与习得呈现弱相关。
Modality refers to the information-processing channel that a learner uses to process the information (Mayer, 1997, pp. 1-2), such as audio and visual channels. Considerable amounts of studies related with modality have been carried out in general learning. Results from empirical studies are still rather inconclusive. Some researchers find modality effect, namely, enhanced learning occurs when information is presented through both visual and auditory channels. But some find redundancy effect. It occurs when presenting identical information through two channels and the elimination of one source of information is beneficial to learning. However, most of the existing studies took place in general learning and few have investigated how modality influences second language vocabulary learning, especially when comprehension is taken into account. As is clear, major differences exist between general learning and language learning. Language, for general learning, serves as the media and carrier of information. But for language learning, it is more of the object of learning. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the effect of modality on second language vocabulary learning and comprehension. The research questions of the study are:
1) Will different presentation modalities influence second language vocabulary acquisition?
2) Will different presentation modalities influence second language comprehension?
3) Will comprehension correlate to learner’s vocabulary acquisition?
100 sophomore English majors were recruited for the exploration of the effect from different input modalities (visual, audio, visual-audio) on second language vocabulary learning. Those subjects who were comparable regarding their pretreatment vocabulary size, language proficiency and target words knowledge were randomly divided into four groups. The three experimental groups were presented with three types of treatment respectively: 1) passage reading (visual); 2) passage listening (audio); and
3) simultaneous passage reading and listening (visual and audio). After the treatment, subjects were asked to recall what they have remembered from reading and/or listening in Chinese. Then a modified Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (Paribakht & Wesche, 2001) was used as the immediate vocabulary posttest. Two weeks later, all the subjects took a delayed posttest. The control group only took part in the pretest and two posttests, receiving no treatment. We found that:
1) The three types of treatment all lead to vocabulary acquisition, but with different results. Specifically, subjects with visual presentation and visual plus audio presentation performed significantly better than the audio group and control group. The audio group outperformed the control group,but no significant difference occured. In the delayed posttest, the visual group outperformed the audio group significantly. Although no significant difference was found, The visual plus audio group performed better than the audio group. It also revealed that visual group developed more in vocabulary than the visual-audio group in the immediate as well as the delayed posttest.
2) Presentation modality had an influence on comprehension. It showed that students who read the passage performed significantly better than the other two experimental groups; in addition, students under visual plus audio modality outperformed audio group significantly.
3) Comprehension has a weak positive correlation with vocabulary learning in the immediate posttest and no significant correlation in the delayed posttest.
From the study, we can see that modality exerts influence on vocabulary learning as well as comprehension. Visual modality enjoys superiority over audio or visual plus audio modalities. And visual plus audio modality turns to be effective than audio-alone modality. In addition, it is revealed that comprehension has a weak correlation to acquisition.
引文
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