台灣英語系學生的英文寫作修辭認知：一個大學英文寫作課程的個案

Taiwanese English Majors’ Rhetorical Awareness in English Writing: The Case of a College English Writing Program

本研究旨在調查台灣大學生的英文寫作修辭認知，也檢視大一、大二、大三學生在此認知上是否有顯著性的差異和他們面臨的寫作困難。此外，本研究想了解是否英文寫作課程教學能夠提升學生的修辭認知。共計249位中部某所私立大學修習大一、大二、大三英文寫作課程的英文系學生參與此研究：101名大一生、75名大二生、73名大三生。他們填寫一份檢視學生英文寫作修辭認知和寫作困難的李克特五點量表問卷。依據敘述性統計和成對樣本T檢定分析結果，本研究顯示學生對於英文寫作的結構和主旨的明確表達上有相當高的認知。然而，他們似乎不大了解英文寫作並不鼓勵經常使用成語或諺語；對於要用自己的話語來表達想法，無需訴諸傳統和權威的認知也不高。本研究亦發現大一和大二學生、大一和大三學生在英文修辭認知上都有顯著差異，此結果顯示學生在英文寫作課程的時間對寫作認知有正面成效，儘管如此，學生仍面臨的寫作困難，包括提出具體細節來支持論點、寫主題句和主旨句、和避免文法錯誤。

This study investigated Taiwanese college students’ rhetorical awareness in English academic writing. It also examined the differences in rhetorical awareness among first-year, second-year, and third-year college students and their writing difficulties. Furthermore, it sought to discover if more exposure to English writing instruction would increase students’ rhetorical awareness. To achieve the purpose, this study involved 249 Chinese-speaking English majors (101 freshmen; 75 sophomores; 73 juniors) in a three-year English academic writing program at a private university in central Taiwan. They filled out a 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire that examined students’ self-rated degrees of rhetorical awareness in English academic writing and self-reported writing difficulties in organization and content. Descriptive statistical analysis and paired sample t-tests were performed on the data collected for the study. The results showed that the students were highly aware of English organizational patterns and explicit expressions of main ideas. However, they did not seem to be aware that a frequent use of sayings, proverbs, and set phrases is generally not encouraged in English writing and that they need to express ideas in their own words without resorting to traditions and authorities. In addition, this study found significant differences between freshmen and sophomores in their rhetorical awareness, so as between freshmen and juniors. The results suggest that the length of time spent in the English writing program may have had positive effects on students’ rhetorical awareness in English writing. However, the students still reported difficulties in providing concrete supporting details, giving clear topic sentences, and thesis statements, and avoiding grammatical errors.