漢語學童以部件解字之傾向與相關因素

Chinese Children's Preferential Use of Sublexical Cuesin Interpreting Chinese Characters

過去研究顯示漢語學童能夠使用部件的訊息解字。但當部件所提供的訊息不一致時，漢語學童如何權衡不同部件的不同訊息解讀新字，我們則所知有限。本研究受試者為93 位國小四年級學童。學童聽完研究者描述一件新物品後，需從三個假字中選出一個最能代表這個新物品的假字。每個假字都由一個部首與一個聲旁構成。其中一種假字，部首提供與新物品相符的訊息，但聲旁不符；另一種假字的部首提供與新物品不符的訊息，但聲旁相符；第三種假字的部首與聲旁都與新物品不符。整體而言，四年級學童選擇第三種假字的比例很低，對部件所提供的相關訊息，並無特別的選擇傾向。但部件的選擇受到聲旁規則性與假字呈現順序的影響。此外，本研究也發現部件訊息的選擇傾向與讀字能力、詞素覺識無關。本研究結果顯示漢語學童不論其讀字能力、詞素覺識如何，似都已發展出利用不同部件解字的能力，且部件選擇的傾向相當有機動性，能隨作業需求調適，不執著於某部份的訊息。

Scholars have noted that Chinese children use sublexical cues in decoding a Chinese character when the cues convey information that is congruent with the character. However, it is not clear how Chinese children weigh sublexical cues differentially when the cues convey relevant but incongruent information. Ninety-three Chinese fourth graders took a pseudocharacter choice task, in which they chose from three pseudocharacters the one that best represented an invented object with a novel name. Each pseudocharacter was composed of a semantic radical and a phonetic radical. In two pseudocharacters, one radical conveyed relevant information and the other incongruent. In the third, both radicals were irrelevant. Overall, the fourth graders chose only the characters with relevant radicals, but they did not show preference in overriding one relevant radical in honor of the other. Their choice of pseudocharacters was affected by task factors, i.e., phonetic regularity and order of presentation, but not predicted by learner characteristics, i.e., character reading ability and morphological awareness. The results indicate that Chinese fourth graders have developed an inventory of working hypotheses in interpreting new characters, and that their preferences for radicals are quite flexible and adaptive in attuning to the nature of the task irrespective of character reading ability and morphological awareness.