成人英語學習者在單詞認讀策略上之比較：字與音的對比

COMPARISON OF WORD RECOGNITION STRATEGIES IN EFL ADULT LEARNERS: ORTHOGRAPHY VS. PHONOLOGY

本研究藉由測試已參加過多益測驗之大學生的單詞認讀，試圖比較不同程度的成人英語學習者在單詞認讀策略上，是否會有偏重拼字或語音的差異？結果顯示，閱讀能力高者在「非單詞認讀」與「單詞認讀」二項測驗的準確度與反應時間上，皆顯著優於閱讀能力低者；此外，在「押韻辨識」——判斷二個單音節單詞是否押韻的測驗，前者雖在整體準確度上顯著優於後者，但其整體之反應時間卻無明顯差異。然而，在進一步將押韻辨識裡的字詞依照拼字與字音之變數區分後發現：若是該組字詞屬於拼字相似且押韻，這二組受試者在準確性上的表現相當；但是當該組字詞屬於拼字相似但卻不押韻，後者的表現明顯劣於前者；此結果顯示閱讀能力低者明顯在押韻辨識項目上多依賴拼字做決定。相對的，閱讀能力高者在押韻辨識項目的反應皆快於閱讀能力低者，唯有在詞組的拼字不同但押韻的項目上，前者的表現與後者相當；此一結果顯示前者在此一項目上多依賴字音做決定，可能由於拼字雖不同但是字音卻相同的矛盾，造成其反應時間變慢。總述以上數點，閱讀能力低者在語音解碼能力上與英語單詞字音充分不足，這些可能是造成其在單詞認讀策略上過分依賴拼字的原因。

In an attempt to compare how orthography and phonology interact in EFL learners with different reading abilities, online measures were administered in this study to two groups of university learners, indexed by their reading scores on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC). In terms of accuracy, the less-skilled learners performed significantly more poorly than the skilled learners in Nonword Reading, Word Reading, and Rhyme Detection. With regard to reaction times, the less-skilled learners also responded significantly more slowly while they read nonwords and vocabulary words. Nevertheless, both groups performed comparably on Rhyme Detection when asked to decide whether word pairs varied in their orthographic (O) and phonological (P) similarity (S) or difference (D). A further investigation on the test items revealed that the two groups performed comparably in accuracy only when a pair of words was orthographically similar and phonologically similar (OSPS). Intriguingly, the most significant between-group difference occurred when a pair of words was orthographically similar but phonologically different (OSPD), suggesting that orthography played a bigger role in word recognition among less-skilled learners. In contrast, the two groups performed non-differentially in reaction times only when a pair of words was orthographically different but phonological similar (ODPS), suggesting that the skilled learners relied more on phonology in word recognition and might have slowed down as a consequence. Taken together, the results seem to suggest that the less-skilled learners had significantly weaker word recognition skills and phonological representations of English words, which might be attributed to their over-reliance on orthography during word recognition processes.