臺灣大學生使用英文動詞時式及時態之研究

The Temporal System of Interlanguage of College EFL Learners in Taiwan

本研究旨在探討臺灣大學生使用英文時式及時態的情形。臺灣學生常犯英文時式及時態方面的錯誤，可能的原因之一是中文動詞沒有時式及時態字尾的變化。然而，更重要的原因可能在於中國人對時間的概念有別於英文母語使用者，以及英文時式及時態本身的複雜性。本研究以臺灣大學生所使用的英文時式及時態為分析的內容，從其形式、涵意、及功能來類歸及分析臺灣學生常犯的英文時式及時態方面的錯誤及其可能造成的原因。相關研究顯示，第二語言學習者在學習英文時式時態時常受動詞本身的含義、語用功能的變化、以及篇章功能的影響。本研究的對象包括中國文化大學大學部129位非英語系及英語系的學生。研究的方法包括三個測試：20題選擇題、20題克漏字填充、以及英文作文。分析的方法包括頻率統計（frequency count）、變異數分析（ANOVA）等。研究的結果顯示臺灣學生學習英文時式時態的困難主要來自對於英文時態的知識不足及對於英文時式時態的型式無法掌握。數據顯示學生們對於英文時式已具有相當的概念。經由母語習得的時式概念應有助於其英文時式概念的習得。另一方面，學生們在學習英文時態方面有較嚴重問題。學生常混淆進行式和非進行式的用法，而完成式的用法也造成其學習的困難。結果也顯示動詞本身的含義會影響學生們對英文時式時態的學習及使用。而學生使用英文時式時態主要用以表達時間概念，他們比較無法正確地使用不同的英文時式時態來表達其他的功能如語用變化及篇章功能。另一個重要的發現是很多受試的學生其實具有過去式的觀念，但是在使用時因為資訊處理負荷過重，在寫子句或較長的文句時他們較易使用錯誤的時式。在教學上，英文時式時態的教學應超越句子層次的文法的教學，語用時時式時態的變化應納入一般的英語課程中。更重要的是學生要能知道他們學習英文時式時態的困難，並學習自我監控所使用的英文，以期能自我校正英文時式時態的錯誤。

The study aims to investigate the interlanguage temporal system of college English learners in Taiwan. Given that English tense has been a difficult area for Chinese learners, it is important to look into the L2 data directly to understand where and how the learners’ problems arise. As English tense and aspect are interrelated, the tense and aspect in the English interlanguage temporal system of the Chinese learners were examined as an integrated whole. Various tense-aspect forms (T-A forms) were inspected in terms of their forms, meanings, and functions. Three tasks were adopted in this cross-sectional study: a cloze passage, a composition task, and a multiple-choice test. The subjects included 129 undergraduate students of Chinese Culture University, including both non-English majors and English majors. Statistical procedures employed for data analysis included frequency count, percentage, t-tests, one-way ANOVA, etc. The results of this empirical investigation showed that the adult Chinese learners’ difficulty with English tense and aspect stemmed mainly from their insufficient knowledge of English aspect and their unfamiliarity with the forms of T-A components. Most of the learners have developed a certain degree of concept of temporality in English, which might have benefited from their acquired temporal concept via L1 Mandarin. The tense of L1 Mandarin appeared to be facilitative in the learners’ acquisition of the L2 English temporal system. On the other hand, English aspect was shown to be a more serious problem for the Chinese learners. The learners tended to confuse progressive aspect with nonprogressive aspect, and they had difficulty with the perfect aspect. The results also suggested that the inherent properties of verbs affected the learners’ use of aspects to a certain extent. It was also shown that the Chinese learners’ knowledge and application of the pragmatic functions of English T-A forms were unsatisfactory. Another revealing finding was that the processing overload of the learners was one major impediment for their correct uses of the English tenses in longer stretch of sentences and discourses. Pedagogically, the teaching of English tense and aspect should go beyond the grammatical level and the pragmatic functions of English tense and aspect should be integrated into formal instructions. More importantly, the learners should be taught to self-monitor their L2 output and be aware of their problems with English T-A forms.