特定型語言障礙兒童音韻短期記憶能力之初探

Phonological Short-Term Memory in Children with Specific Language Impairment

近幾年來，英美有愈來愈多的研究嘗試找出造成特定型語言障礙兒童（children with specific language impairment, SLI）語言習得困難的原因，其中更有很多實證性資料顯示，音韻短期記憶缺陷（phonological short-term memory deficit）似乎可解釋兒童語言障礙的問題。而研究者則常以非詞複述 （nonword repetition）測量兒童的音韻短期記憶。雖然，幾乎所有研究結果都傾向支持上述論點，然而這些發現都是來自習英文特定型語言障礙兒童的研究，在解釋及推論上有其限制。因此，本研究乃以習聲調語言角度探討台灣特定型語言障礙兒童的音韻短期記憶，以期能讓我們對特定型語言障礙的共通特徵或語言學習歷程有更深一層之認識。綜合本研究結果，顯示：（1）習華語特定型語言障礙兒童的音韻短期記憶能力顯著低於同齡一般兒童。（2）習華語特定型語言障礙兒童無論是在複述二、三、四音節或五音節非詞的表現，都顯著落於一般兒童之後，且會隨音節數加長而表現更差。（3）即使將聲韻覺識能力或是音韻區辨能力控制後，習華語特定型語言障礙兒童的音韻短期憶能力仍然顯著低於同齡一般兒童。（4）特定型語言障礙兒童與一般兒童的音韻短期記憶能力與多項口語理解能力皆未有顯著相關。整體而言，本研究的結果與國外研究發現一致，支持特定型語言障兒童音韻短期記憶缺陷的論點。

Phonological short-term memory plays central roles in language processing. In the past few years, there has been an increased interest in exploring the relationship between working memory and child language impairment in SLI study. It was found that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have particular limitations in storing linguistic information. Investigators employed nonword repetition paradigm to measure these children's phonological short-term memory, and constantly found that children with SLI demonstrated poorer performances on these tasks. Although these findings have shed light on the relationship between phonological short-term memory and language impairment, most of the evidence found in the research came from English-speaking children. Mandarin-Chinese is a very different language system as compared to English in terms of its phonological system, word structure and sentence structure, which makes it a good candidate to explore this unique language impairment from a cross-linguistic perspective. Moreover, previous research did not take into account the effect of phonological awareness or phonological discrimination on nonword repetition performance in children with SLI. Therefore, the current study tried to explore the issue from a cross-linguistic perspective. Overall, it was found that Mandarin Chinese speaking children with SLI evidenced phonological short-term memory deficit as compared to their normal peers. Even taking into account the influence of phonological awareness or phonological discrimination aspects, Mandarin Chinese speaking children with SLI still performed less well on nonword repetition task. In addition, the association between phonological short-term memory and oral language comprehension was found not to be related.