檢視聽讀對中文短文閱讀理解的影響

Examining the Effects of Reading while Listening on Reading Comprehension of Chinese Short Texts

本文探討聽讀如何影響不同母語背景的華語學習者（歐美和日本學生）與中文母語者閱讀理解中文短文，並比較他們的眼動行為，以檢視不同母語背景的讀者在閱讀中文短文時，對語音和文字即時處理歷程的差異。實驗以60位在華語文能力快篩測驗成績達中級以上的大學生為實驗組（歐美和日本學生各30人），30位中文母語的臺灣大學生為對照組，要求他們在聽讀和默讀條件下，各閱讀4篇400字長的短文，並記錄他們的閱讀理解表現和眼動行為。研究結果顯示聽讀雖然顯著地加快了歐美學生的閱讀速度，但同時也使他們的閱讀理解表現顯著地變差。日本和臺灣學生在聽讀和默讀條件下的閱讀理解表現無顯著差異，此外，日本學生的閱讀速度在兩種閱讀條件下都很一致，但臺灣學生在聽讀時的閱讀速度顯著地變慢。在篇章層次的眼動行為方面，聽讀使得歐美學生的平均凝視時間比默讀時短、凝視點數目減少、眼跳距離增加，相反地，臺灣學生在聽讀時的平均凝視時間變長、凝視點數目增多，但日本學生的眼動行為並不受閱讀條件的影響。研究結果指向，聽讀對成人華語學習者和中文母語者的閱讀理解皆無幫助，甚至讓母語與中文距離較大的歐美學生閱讀理解顯著變差，此結果與讀者在閱讀時所承受的認知負荷有關。

This study examined the impact of reading while listening (RWL) on the reading comprehension of European/U.S. (EU) and Japanese learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL), as well as Chinese native speakers, when reading short Chinese texts. The study compared their eye movements to investigate how readers with different first language backgrounds simultaneously process speech and text while reading Chinese texts. Sixty Chinese-learning university students with Chinese proficiency at or above the intermediate level of the Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL)-speedy screening test were recruited as the experimental group (30 EU and 30 Japanese students), and 30 Chinese-speaking Taiwanese university students were used as the control group. They were asked to read four 400-character short passages each under RWL and silent reading conditions, and their reading comprehension and eye movements were recorded. The results showed that although RWL significantly accelerated the reading speed of EU students, it also substantially impaired their reading comprehension performance. However, there was no significant difference in the reading comprehension performance of Japanese and Taiwanese students under the same RWL condition. In addition, Japanese students' reading speed was consistent under both reading conditions, but Taiwanese students' reading speed slowed down significantly under the RWL condition. In terms of text-level eye movements, RWL resulted in shorter fixation durations, fewer fixations, and longer saccades for EU students compared to silent reading. In contrast, Taiwanese students' mean fixation durations became longer, and their number of fixations increased under the RWL condition, but Japanese students' eye movements were not affected by the reading conditions. The results of this study indicated that RWL did not enhance the reading comprehension of both adult CSL learners and native Chinese speakers, and even impaired reading comprehension for Chinese learners whose native language was more distant from Chinese, which can be explained by the cognitive load that readers experience during reading for comprehension.