（英语语言文学专业论文）外语学能的实证研究——以中国大学英语学生为例.pdf

ma thesis ningbo university 外语学能的实证研究 以中国大学英语学生为例 摘摘 要要 随着认知心理学理论的蓬勃发展，西方国家对外语学能的研究日臻成熟。研究者 通过各种外语学能测试手段主要开展了外语学能的预测性研究、外语学能的诊断性研 究、外语学能与学习环境的研究以及外语学能内在能力因子研究。然而，学术界对于 外语学能的本质、内在构成、测量手段、测量的准确性和可信度仍存在分歧。外语学 能该如何定义？外语学能的本质是天生的还是认知的结果？外语学能的构成因素是什 么？外语学能是否能够被精确测量？目前的外语学能测试题中的各项测试手段是否真 正测量了外语学能的各种因素？以上问题尚待深入探究。在中国，外语教学界对外语 学能一直未进行深入研究。目前我国有关外语学能的文献仅限于对国外外语学能理论 和研究的介绍。通过对国内 cnki 全文期刊网,万方学位论文网及万方数字期刊网的检 索，尚未发现一例具有外语学能研究方案，测试工具，明确的研究对象，并产生最终 研究成果的外语学能研究。因此，在中国开展外语学能的研究对验证国际研究的发现 和结论，丰富我们对外语学能的认识意义重大。 本文旨在研究外语学能理论对中国大学英语学生的适用效度。通过对 174 名大学 英语学生的外语学能测试成绩与英语水平成绩进行比较，验证外语学能概念的科学性 和有效性。本研究首先综述前人对外语学能的各种定义、讨论外语学能的构成因素， 进而通过分析外语学能的构成因素来探究外语学能的本质，归纳分析外语学能内在构 成研究中存在的问题，重新审视外语学能的定义及内在构成，从而构建本研究的理论 框架。通过分析外语学能测量手段的研究成果及存在的问题，结合对外语学能的理论 综述，提出适合中国学生的外语学能测试方法。在此基础上，参照国外最具影响力的 现代语言学能测试题及皮姆斯勒语言学能测试题集，组合设计出一套适合中 国大学英语学生的外语学能测试题。然后，使用该测试题测试宁波大学 174 名大学英 语学生的外语学能，并对被试的期末英语考试成绩、期末英语口试成绩、高考英语成 ma thesis ningbo university 绩、外语学能成绩和性别等进行了数据收集。数据分析借助 spss 统计软件，通过运用 描述统计、t 检验、相关分析等统计手段，揭示了外语学能与英语水平成绩的关系。其 研究结果如下： （1）外语学能与英语成绩呈中等程度的正相关，说明外语学能对英语成绩有较好 的预测能力。（2）英语成绩与语音意识及语法敏感性呈较强的正相关，与语音短时记 忆能力及语言推理能力相关性较弱。（3）英语高分者在外语学能得分上比英语低分者 高 34.5%。（4）性别在外语学能上没有显著差异，说明性别因素并不是影响外语学能的 一个重要变量，两性之间产生的学习效果应由其它因素产生。（5）尽管学能高分者与 低分者在外语学能总体上存在差异，但反映在口语成绩上没有显著差异。 作者就本研究结果，结合前人的研究进行了比较和讨论， 并对我国英语教育提出 几点建议：（1）我国的教育政策在注重全民学英语的同时，因根据学生的不同外语学 能提出不同的培养目标和教学要求。对于外语学能中成绩严重偏低的学生，应提供政 策上和学业上的选择性。（2） 在选拔性考试中，应增加对学生外语学能的测试与评 估，以便更准确地预测学生的英语水平。（3） 根据外语学能在不同阶段不同的发展 情况，对大中小学阶段的外语学能进行挖掘、培养、利用和引导。（4） 教师应及时 了解并熟悉学生不同的外语学能及可能的学能倾向，并在教学中做出适应性安排和教 学策略的调整，更好地体现个性化的教学。 本研究尚存一些不足之处。例如：由于时间、经费等原因，样本量不够大；只对其 中四个重要变量进行了测试，还有其它外语学能构成因素尚需验证等等。本研究还有 很大的实验、理论研究空间，有关研究将从不同角度进一步完善。 关键词：外语学能； 外语学能构成； 外语学能测试手段； 有效性 关键词：外语学能； 外语学能构成； 外语学能测试手段； 有效性 ma thesis ningbo university foreign language aptitude: a myth or a fact abstract in the past few decades, foreign language aptitude has remained to be a heated topic in foreign language learning research. studies on foreign language aptitude mainly focus on the research of the prognostic function of foreign language aptitude, the diagnostic function of foreign language aptitude, the relationship between foreign language aptitude and language learning environment, and the aptitude-interaction treatment because of different propensities of foreign language learning. nevertheless, foreign language aptitude is still arguable. the basic role of foreign language aptitude has not been determined yet. what is foreign language aptitude? what is its nature? what are the components of foreign language aptitude? different theorists give different answers. these disputes obscure the nature of foreign language aptitude, which hinders the application of the research findings on foreign language aptitude. in china, little research has been made on foreign language aptitude, not to mention its application and adaptation. thus, empirical studies on foreign language aptitude among chinese efl learners will not only enrich the theoretical findings on foreign language aptitude, but also shed new light on the study of the learner factors in china. the present study examines the validity of foreign language aptitude for chinese efl learners. its basic purpose is to examine whether foreign language aptitude is a scientific variable that determines the outcome of foreign language learning among non-english major students in china. if it does, the paper will discuss how we shall apply the concept and its findings to the foreign language education and pedagogy in the chinese context. the study first probes into the nature of foreign language aptitude by exploring the nature of foreign language aptitude components. analyzing from cognitive perspectives, this paper tries to give a new definition of foreign language aptitude as well as the components of foreign language aptitude. on the basis of those previous findings, the study discusses the existing measures of foreign language aptitude either for good or for bad. a new foreign language aptitude test is modeled after the samples of the two influential foreign language ma thesis ningbo university aptitude tests, the modern language aptitude test and the pimsleur language aptitude battery. 174 non-english freshmen from 11 provinces in one university took part in the foreign language aptitude test. the scores of foreign language aptitude tests were thereafter compared with foreign language course performances represented by each students final scores in his or her foreign language course. scores of english proficiency were composed of the oral english test, the english achievement test and the national matriculation english test. personal information such as age and gender was also collected. the statistical analysis employed in the study was descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, two paired samples t-test, and pearson product-moment correlations. the findings are summarized as follows: first, moderate positive correlation is found between foreign language aptitude and english proficiency among the non-english major students, indicating that foreign language aptitude is an important predictor for the outcome of future foreign language learning. second, the study finds that both grammatical sensitivity and phonetic awareness are the two essential aptitudinal components in adult chinese learners english learning. third, the study indicates that the high english proficiency group obtains higher scores than the lower group in all aptitude components. fourth, the study shows that phonetic awareness and grammatical sensitivity are two important predictors for the development of oral english ability. fifth, the fact that no significant difference is found between the gender factor and foreign language aptitude in the study indicates that neither male nor female students have privilege or pre-wired propensities in foreign language learning. the findings of the present study provide us some useful insights. (1) learning about students foreign language aptitude will help educators to target the training of each student. proper arrangements such as training targets, teaching syllabi, curricula, teaching methodologies and textbooks can therefore be made so as to accommodate to the needs of students with different foreign language aptitude. learning about students foreign language aptitude will also help educators work out certain policies to provide accommodative services or substitution courses for those with foreign language learning disabilities because of low foreign language aptitude. (2) testing foreign language aptitude in the selective testing of english may well inform examiners of candidates current state of foreign language learning ma thesis ningbo university as well as the learning potentials. (3) educators need to discover, develop, utilize and guide students foreign language aptitude at the different stages of foreign language learning. (4) the language teacher must have a clear sense of students foreign language aptitude and different propensities of foreign language learning. accordingly, he or she can make appropriate accommodations to students with a given aptitude so as to promote the students individualized classroom learning. limitations are also discussed in the study. for instance, the sample under investigation is relatively small compared with the large number of non-english majors in china; moreover, more foreign language aptitude components are needed to add into the study. actually, the present study is only a tentative one. the results obtained in the present study leave much to be improved. it is hoped that future research will make more intensive study on foreign language aptitude in china. key words：foreign language aptitude; its components; its measures; its validity 独独 创创 性性 声声 明明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的论文是我个人在导师指导下进行的研究工 作及取得的研究成果。尽我所知，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方 外，论文中不包含其他人已经发表或撰写的研究成果，也不包含为获得 宁波大学或其他教育机构的学位或证书所使用过的材料。与我一同工作 的同志对本研究所做的任何贡献均已在论文中做了明确的说明并表示了 谢意。 签名：_ 日期：_ 关于论文使用授权的声明关于论文使用授权的声明 本人完全了解宁波大学有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，即：学校 有权保留送交论文的复印件，允许论文被查阅和借阅；学校可以公布论 文的全部或部分内容，可以采用影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存论文。 （保密的论文在解密后应遵循此规定）（保密的论文在解密后应遵循此规定） 签名：_ 导师签名：_ 日期：_ ma thesis ningbo university - 1 - 1 introduction 1.1 research background in the past score of years, second language learning researchers have shifted their attention from the teaching and the material factors to the learner factors. they have given priority to foreign language aptitude as well as affective factors, cognitive styles, learning strategies (ellis 2000). numerous empirical studies have been made on foreign language aptitude. these studies generally fall into four categories. firstly, foreign language aptitude is a strong prognostic variable for foreign language learning. measures of foreign language aptitude administered before foreign language courses strongly correlate with subsequent achievement in those courses (carroll 1990; sparks gardner et al. 1997;yoshizawa 1999;spolsky 2000; skehan 1998; 2002; silva johnson 2002). secondly, foreign language aptitude has turned out to be an effective diagnostic tool to identify learners with foreign language difficulties. researchers find out that deficiency in foreign language aptitude will lead to many students repeated failure in foreign language requirements, in spite of intensive tutoring, high academic potential, and motivation (gajar 1987;goodman, et al.1988; sparks sparks et al.1992; sparks et al. 1998; ganschow ganschow, et al. 1991; spolsky 1995, 2000; downey harley skehan 1998; harley ross, et al. 2002). thus, it is advisable to explore aptitude- treatment interactions in foreign language teaching. besides, foreign language aptitude tests were created to serve all these research purposes. these tests have also been widely used in personnel selection or in identifying learners with foreign language learning deficiency. nevertheless, some researchers are disinclined to take up foreign language aptitude perspective. one fundamental reason is that the nature of foreign language aptitude is disputable. carroll (1981) postulated that foreign language aptitude was a fixed endowment. even if the capacity to learn a foreign language was malleable, “the malleability is ma thesis ningbo university - 2 - constrained by age four” (skehan 2002:79). however, the truth is that there is simply not enough evidence to argue for the origin of foreign language aptitude with any certainty. if the origin of foreign language aptitude is open to question, its measurements are certainly doubtful. hence, all the previous research results of foreign language aptitude may lose their credibility. compared with the persistent research on foreign language aptitude and rich findings in western countries, the study on foreign language aptitude in china remains weak. only a few researchers have introduced foreign language aptitude in their literatures( gui shicun 桂诗春 1985；he guangkeng何广铿 2001,2002；jia guanjie 贾冠杰 1998; su dinfang and zhuang zhixiang 束定芳、庄智象1988; liu runqing 刘润清 2002, 2004; matin wedell and liu runqing 马丁维德尔、刘润清1996; jiang xin 江新 1999). little empirical research has been made on foreign language aptitude, not to mention its application and adaptation. thus, the ignorance of the foreign language aptitude research in china makes chinese researchers incapable of making up a dialogue with international colleagues in this domain, leaving a huge margin in research on the learner factors in china. 1.2 aims of the study the present study is undertaken to examine the validity of foreign language aptitude for chinese efl learners. its basic purpose is to examine whether foreign language aptitude is a scientific variable that determines the outcome of foreign language learning among non- english major students in china. the research questions to be addressed in the study are as follows: what is the nature of foreign language aptitude? what is foreign language aptitude composed of? what relationship exists between foreign language aptitude and english proficiency of the chinese efl learners? if the study does find its validity for chinese efl learners, the paper will discuss how we shall apply the concept and its findings to the foreign language education and pedagogy in the chinese context. in addition, we choose non-english majors as our subjects in the study simply because they make a majority of english learners in china. ma thesis ningbo university - 3 - 1.3 overview of the thesis the line of inquiry of this dissertation firstly presents the current disputes on foreign language aptitude research. these include the disputes on concepts of foreign language aptitude and on the constructs of foreign language aptitude in different foreign language aptitude tests. besides, an issue of expanding the construct of foreign language aptitude is under discussion. then, it tries to clarify these disputes and to probe into the nature of foreign language aptitude based on an intensive analysis of the researches and theories about foreign language aptitude. it also draws on the second language acquisition theories to explore the nature of foreign language aptitude. on the basis of these research findings, it puts forward a new definition of foreign language aptitude and its constructs. a foreign language aptitude test paper is then created in accordance with these findings. an empirical study is conducted by administering the foreign language aptitude test to 174 college students at ningbo university so as to work out the correlation between foreign language aptitude and english proficiency of the chinese efl learners. finally, it presents, based on the research outcomes, a pedagogical discussion on the implications and applications of foreign language aptitude on english education policies and teaching methodologies in china. ma thesis ningbo university - 4 - 2 review of the literature 2.1 a critical survey of concepts of foreign language aptitude what is foreign language aptitude? the basic question is difficult to answer. traditional dictionary definitions say that aptitude is a natural tendency or inclination. thus, foreign language aptitude1 must be inferred as abilities with special and potential characteristics in foreign language learning. gardner and macintyre compared foreign language aptitude to “a type of cognitive sponge”(1992:215). they suggested that if “a given ability is appropriate to a new skill being learned, that skill will be attracted to that ability” (1992:215). foreign language aptitude here is regarded as a fixed ability with specific characteristics. when individuals well develop such ability, they will acquire the skill being learned quickly; if not, they need more time to acquire the skill as part of their ability. carroll further probed into the nature of foreign language aptitude and defined foreign language aptitude as “the individuals initial state of readiness and capacity for learning in a foreign language, and probably degree of facility in doing so”(1981:86). in carrolls view, the formation of the “initial state of readiness and capacity” can be dated back to both the genetic factors and propensities developed from prior learning especially with early exposure to linguistic environment. such capacity is specific to tasks and depends on possession of certain characteristics by the learner. “the degree of facility”, on the other hand, can be approximately measured by the length of time. in carrolls perspective, individuals typically differ not in whether they can learn a foreign language or not, but rather in the length of time it takes them to learn a foreign language or to reach a given degree of competency. namely, providing that maximum learning time under the best teaching condition is permitted, the shorter the learning time is，the higher the inferred aptitude will be. if an individual with a low foreign language aptitude is confronted with a difficult task, learning time may be indefinitely long. carroll makes a profound interpretation of foreign language aptitude, but his research on foreign language aptitude focuses only on learning foreign languages in the context where 1 generally, aptitude is classified into general aptitude and specific aptitude(aiken 艾肯 2002; wang xiaoying zhang min 王小英 张明2002). general aptitude refers to possibilities of obtaining general ability prerequisite for all activities. intelligence is regarded as general aptitude. specific aptitude refers to possibilities of obtaining specific ability prerequisite for specific activities. music aptitude, art aptitude, mechanical aptitude and foreign language aptitude are regarded as specific aptitude. ma thesis ningbo university - 5 - relatively formal instruction is accessible. “ it should be made clear, however, that i am speaking of aptitude for learning languages other than ones native languages in the context of some sort of more or less formal instruction such as a school course, and intensive language learning program, or even self-study in which the individual makes a deliberate effort to learn a foreign language using instructional materials that he or she deems appropriate for this purpose”(carroll 1981:83). some researchers note that carrolls research on foreign language aptitude does not reflect current knowledge in the field of cognitive psychology (oxford 1990; stansfield 1990). as the advent of the communicative teaching methods, oxford asserted that “no theory of (foreign language) aptitude, nor any actual measure of (foreign language) aptitude, should be considered adequate unless it somehow predicts communicative competence in a b