大學生對英語口音態度之教學實驗研究

An Empirical Study of University Students' Attitude Toward English Accent

近年來， 以英語為國際共通語言（ English as a lingua franca for international communication）成為英語教育學者的熱門議題。雖然學者們強調學生在日常生活中使用英語口說能力的重要性，但卻質疑學生學習以英語為母語人士口音的必要性。本研究為一教學實驗研究，有鑒於學生往往執著於英語發音須標準而不敢開口說英語，因而對南部兩所科技大學兩班共85 名大一新生進行研究，研究目的在瞭解學生對於英語發音的態度為何？透過教學實驗後，學生對於英語發音的態度是否有所改變？而不同主修與不同性別的學生是否會有不同的態度回應？在一學期之英語聽講課程實驗教學中，學生接觸多元英語口音教材，並錄製小組英語對話影片，由跨校同儕互評。質、量化研究分析結果指出：實驗前後學生對於英美本土人士的口音均最能接受，但教學實驗後，學生對其他口音的接受度變高；此外，學生認為發音標準很重要的看法明顯降低，且認為自己英語口說能力良好、及有信心開口說英語的學生則明顯增加，而這些態度並不因主修或性別不同而有所差異。

English as a lingua franca (ELF) for international communication has become a heated issue for discussions among educators of English in recent years. As scholars find it essential for teachers to encourage their students to acquire the ability of using English in real-life conversations, they also wonder about the necessity of requiring students to speak in an accent approximate to that of native speakers of English. With the purpose of encouraging non-English majors at technological universities to speak English and directing English majors' attention to things other than the so-called ‘standard norms of English accent,' this study involved 85 freshmen from two technological universities at southern Taiwan. The researchers ask the following questions: What are the students' attitudes toward native speaker norms of English? After a semester of teaching interventions, do the students' attitudes change? Do the students' majors affect their attitudes? Do the students' genders affect their attitudes? The teaching interventions included providing students with teaching materials covering varieties of spoken English and assisting students to prepare three threeminute group conversation video clips. The results gained from both quantitative and qualitative methods indicate that the students appreciated the accent of the native speakers most. However, after the interventions, the students could appreciate other accents as well. Moreover, the students did not find it so important to speak like a native speaker, and their self-evaluation of English speaking ability and confidence in speaking English with others were significantly boosted after the implementation of the project.