台灣南部醫療人員台語使用與能力之社會語言學調查

A Sociolinguistic Study on Medical Professionals' Use of Taiwanese in Southern Taiwan

本研究透過問卷，以南部三個醫療單位的醫師與護理人員為對象，探討影響其自評台語能力以及和父母講台語頻率的相關因素為何？主要發現與論點如下：（1）年齡是決定台語能力與和父母講台語頻率的關鍵因素，而性別又強過職類；（2）職類與醫療層級二因素實乃反應年齡、性別、與家庭社經背景；（3）基層女護可能因為工作與場域屬性引發的「台語相對不道地感」而有低估自身台語能力之傾向，女醫則可能因為崇附當代新興價值（關注本土、實踐多元文化與病人為主的精神）而有高估台語能力之趨勢。不論低估或高估，此兩種語言不安全感現象皆反映了女護與女醫對醫用台語於南台灣顯性價值之認同。最後，我們認為，南部青世代醫療人員因身處年長者慣用台語的環境而提升台語能力，此意味各種高齡友善場域，例如長照，是促進青世代台語人口成長的契機。

With questionnaires, this study investigated factors affecting medical professionals' self-report of their Taiwanese proficiency and its use with their parents. Three main findings were shown based on responses by 1,149 physicians and nurses from three healthcare units in Southern Taiwan. Age is the most important factor for Taiwanese proficiency and frequency of use with parents, and gender a more important one than profession category. Profession category and the level of healthcare units are reflective of age, gender, and socioeconomic factors. Female nurses in healthcare stations tend to underestimate their Taiwanese proficiency while female physicians tend to overestimate. The former is related to nurses' “relative sense of Taiwanese non-authenticity” from their working environment, and the latter to physicians' acknowledgement of the rising value of “speaking Taiwanese as being advocates of multilingualism and patient-centeredness.” This linguistic insecurity observed in the two female groups reflects their alignment with the value of Taiwanese in Southern Taiwan. These findings suggest that language demand in geriatric long-term care might be the solution to reboot Taiwanese vitality.