臺灣外籍華語文學習者解讀漢字之傾向

Preferential Use of Sublexical Cues in Interpreting Chinese Characters among Alphabetic Readers in Taiwan

本研究探究臺灣外籍華語文學習者以意符或聲符解讀漢字的傾向。研究設計14題假字選擇任務，每題有三個假字，分別為有用意符加無關聲符、有用聲符加無關意符、無關意符加無關聲符構成。21名以拼音文字為母語的華語文學習者，聽完實驗者描述新物件後，從中選出最能代表新物件的假字。結果顯示受試者選擇帶有用聲符或有用意符假字的比率達98%，選擇傾向與題序有交互作用，有用聲符假字的選擇率，前三題顯著高於後三題，但有用意符假字的選擇率並無隨題序改變。此外，識字能力愈高者，愈不會選擇由無關意符加無關聲符構成的假字，但識字能力與有用聲符或用意符解字的傾向無關。本研究顯示：華語文學習者只要有基本識字能力，就能迅速掌握漢字指意指音並非絕對的特性，交互運用聲符或意符來解字。

The study investigated preferential use of sublexical cues in decoding Chinese characters among learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL) with alphabetic L1 literacy backgrounds. Twenty-one adult CSL learners chose from three pseudocharacters the one that best represented an invented object with a novel name. Each pseudocharacter was composed of a semantic radical and a phonetic radical. In two pseudocharacters， one radical conveyed relevant information and the other irrelevant. In the third， both radicals were irrelevant. Results showed that 98% of the pseudocharacters chosen by CSL learners contained either a relevant semantic or a relevant phonetic radical. There was an interaction effect between choice of phonetic radicals and item order. Choice of pseudocharacters comprising relevant phonetic radicals was significantly higher in the first three test items than in the last three test items; the effect of item order was not significant in the choice of pseudocharacters comprising relevant semantic radicals. While Chinese character reading ability was inversely related with choice of pseudocharacters comprising irrelevant radicals， it was not related with the participants’ preference for phonetic or semantic radicals. These results suggest that though Chinese phonetic and semantic radicals are not always compatible in their cueing functions， CSL learners with basic character reading skills are able to apply sublexical cues to interpret Chinese characters flexibly and adaptively in attuning to the nature of the task.