明新科技大學 校內專題研究計畫成果報告
計畫類別： 整合型計畫
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計畫編號：MUST-97-語教-01
執行期間： 97 年 1 月 1 日 至 97 年 9 月 30 日
計畫主持人：解文玉
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執行單位：明新科技應用外語系
中 華 民 國
97 年
9 月 30
日
專業英文閱讀與字彙習得
摘要 本研究調查工科研究生對閱讀專業英文文章時，所遇到之困難處及文章內對生字 之處理策略及該策略對字彙之學習成效。受測者為工學院之十八位研究生，並依 其英文學業學年成績分三組。受測者於聆聽專業演講後，閱讀相關文章，並與研 究者以個別之結構訪談方式指出閱讀困難處，及文內生字處理策略並填寫字彙知 識量表來得知字彙學習成效。本研究結果顯示字彙量之不足，為閱讀專業英文文 章之障礙。同學亦無法利用所具有之相關專業知識背景來流利閱讀文章。對於不 認識的單字大都以查自典來得知其字義。猜字策略所使用比例偏低。這兩種策略 於字彙之學習成效上，並無顯著之差異。本研究亦針對研究結果對專業英文閱讀 與字彙習得提出建言。 英文關鍵詞:專業英文閱讀，生字處理策略，字彙習得 Abstract
This study investigates the reading difficulty encountered when engineering majors read articles in their specific domain. After listening to several topic-related speeches, the participants with well-equipped background knowledge read an article, pointed out the most difficulty area while reading, named the lexical processing strategies that they applied to each unknown vocabulary word in the article during the post-reading structured interviews. The results revealed that inadequate vocabulary constituted the most difficulty that these participants faced when reading. Most readers employed dictionary consultation strategy to deal with the known words and obtained meanings. Though guessing strategy was scarcely found in this study, the impact of dictionary consultation and guessing on vocabulary retention revealed no significant differences. Suggestions have been made to improve the reading fluency and vocabulary learning to make reading and vocabulary retention more effective.
專業英文閱讀與字彙習得
Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Learning
in English for Specific Purposes
解文玉
Wenyuh Shieh
明新科技大學應用外語系 一、前言 因為通訊與交通工具之發展，大幅縮短了全球各地連絡與來往之時間，也使 得地球村的想法漸趨實現。英語無庸置疑的是世界上最重要的語言之一，它是最 重要的第二語言，也是國際化中最主要之語言。而在語言之使用上，具有特定目 的之語言是非常普遍的情況，如科學技術之溝通與商業經濟之締約。而且此種具 有特定目的之語言使用，其對內容瞭解之精確性通常也較為重要。在強調英語能 力重要性之過程中，除了一般之英語能力之加強外，專業英語之學習與教學也漸 受到重視。 在台灣的大學教育中，一般大學教育中，教師使用專業相關之英語文章來增 加教學內容乃十分普遍之現象。對多數的科技大學學生而言，這是相當辛苦的挑 戰。學生常常抱怨文章太難、看不懂，進而無法學習到文中之專業知識，更遑論 英文之學習。這看不懂英文專業文章之現象，究竟是專業知識不足所造成、或是 英文閱讀能力，尤以專業字彙之不足所造成？對於文內所遇到之生字又是用何腫 策略來處理之，其策略對生字之習得成效又為何?本研究乃針對同學們閱讀專業 英文文章之困難處做一探討，並藉由專業文章之閱讀來研究專業英文字彙學習之 成效。 二、文獻回顧 1. 專業英文之緣起與目的:2
本實驗乃針對專業英文與字彙學習為研究主題。與一般英文不同處是:當專 業英文閱讀時，讀者需具備與主題相關之背景知識。因此，實驗文章之選擇需以 全部受詴者接具備之專業知識為主。因受詴同學皆曾參加過系上三場有關「再生 能源」之演講，此三場演講亦皆以中文進行，因此這十八位受詴者對「再生能源」 之相關知識，應已不陌生。研究者在取得三場演講之資料後，以維基百科英文網 站之資料及科技英文與產業(蔡，2006) 一書中有關「再生能源」文章改寫成本 實驗文本，文內共 450 個字。並以閱讀測驗之方式，內容以五題選擇題方式來測 驗理解度。這五題皆為文內陳述之訊息文主，並沒有引申或推論之題目(附錄一)。 為確保實驗文本之信度，採用了專家諮詢及詴作題項法。在文本選定及閱讀測驗 題項完成後，研究者將之與教授「再生能源」教師諮詢內容之可用性，與英文教 師諮商內容英文之難易度，所得到的皆是肯定之答案，顯示本篇實驗文本之適切 性。接著並請與受詴者背景相近之工學院研究生，其對再生能源亦有些瞭解，請 該生詴做並測詴。經詴做結果肯定了選用本篇文本做為研究實驗文本。 3. 實驗方法與步驟 本研究參與同學與研究者皆是以一對一之方式進行。首先研究者向參與同學 解說本研究之目的為閱讀一篇與再生能源有關之文章，文章閱畢後有五題與本文 相關之選擇題。沒有時間限制。同學們不可向別人請教，但可利用工具如字典等 來將文章看懂。研究者並未告知接下來的字彙測驗，以便利於進行「附帶生字學 習」 (incidental vocabulary learning)測驗。在參與同學閱讀完文章，準備 進行選擇題測詴時，所用之時間即是閱讀本文所需之時間。在做完選擇題後，研 究者與參與同學進行一對一之結構式訪談。其問題為(1)你認為這篇文章之難易 度為何;(2)你認為你大概看懂多少內容；(3)你覺得系上的三場再生能源演講是 否對本文內容的瞭解有幫助; (4)你在閱讀這篇文章時，覺得困難處是___;（5） 請將文內不懂之生字用螢光筆畫出，並詢問該字之義。若為查字典則在確認該字 義；若未查字典者，就請受詴者猜猜它的字義;（6）請將你剛才螢光筆畫出的單 字，填寫生字知識量表 VKS(vocabulary knowledge scale)（附錄二）。
讀之流利度因之打散。本實驗中中分組之閱讀理解成績平均雖高於高分組(未達 顯著水準)，但所用之時間則多出許多。當多數同學皆認為本文難易適中時，如 何利用所擁有之專業知識來增加閱讀之流利度及彌補文內之生字不足處，實為同 學所需學習之議題。 五、結論 本研究利用同學熟悉的專業知識內容，以再生能源為題，探究閱讀專業知識 文章時，同學們所遇到最大之困難處為文內之生字問題。在遇到單字時，字典查 詢策略仍是最普遍對生字之處理策略。對字典的依賴程度會隨著英文程度之高低 有所不同。程度較低者，對字典之依賴遠高於程度較高者。幾乎是遇到不認識的 字便查字典，故所需之閱讀時間亦較高分組高出許多。對於字彙之學習，其結果 顯示，三組於猜字所學習到的字彙與使用字典所學習到的字彙程度，並無顯著差 異。雖然英程度較高組，使用字典所習得之字彙成效高於猜字策略。其餘兩組猜 字策略對於生字習得之成效則高於查字典策略。但其差異仍未達顯著水準。 依據研究結果，對專業英語閱讀文章提出以下建言: (1) 增加專業英文文章 閱讀之份量，使同學能大量接觸並不斷重覆接觸相關字彙與內容。於英文文章之 選取上應是以同學已熟知之專業內容為主。除訓練英語字彙能力及加強專業內容 外 ， 對 閱 讀 流 利 度 亦 應 是 很 好 的 加 強 ； (2) 教 學 上 因 加 強 字 彙 之 教 學 (intentional vocabulary instruction)，對於猜字之技巧應亦強調。於閱讀時 何時該查字典，如何查字典亦需加強。如此同學對字典之依賴程度才可逐漸降低， 閱讀之速度亦可提升；(3)閱讀技巧的加強，尤以利用專業知識背景來彌補文章 中字彙之不足。如此才能提升專業閱讀與字彙學習之成效。 六、誌謝 感謝本校明新科技大學校內專題計畫對本研究之支持與補助。補助案號: MUST-97-語教-01。 七、參考書目
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附錄一: 實驗文本 Renewable Energy
Renewable energy effectively uses natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat, which may be naturally replenished. Renewable energy technologies range from solar power, wind power and hydroelectricity for
transportation. But only hydro-electric generation has been significantly utilized so far.
Hydro-electric power, using the potential energy of rivers, now supplies 19% of world electricity. Apart from a few countries with an abundance of it, hydro capacity is normally applied to peak-load demand because it is so readily stopped and started. Wind power is renewable and produces no greenhouse gases during operation. The power output is related to the wind speed. Since wind speed is not constant, areas where winds are stronger and more constant, such as offshore and high altitude sites, are preferred locations for wind farms.
Solar energy refers to energy that is collected from sunlight. The sun's energy can be trapped under glass in a greenhouse or within solar panels that heat water. It can also be concentrated in a trough or parabolic collector. Although economical, it is unreliable, hard to transport, and difficult to operate.
Harnessing the tide could be achieved in certain other areas where there is a large tidal range. The sea water trapped in a bay or estuary at high tide can be released down to turn turbines for electricity generation. A few tidal energy projects have been built, but this form of energy production is expensive and remains largely
experimental.
Like tidal energy, geothermal energy is produced by continuous natural processes. Geo-thermal energy takes advantage of hot water trapped deep inside the earth to produce electricity or heat for homes and industry. In certain parts of the world such as New Zealand, USA, Philippines and Italy, underground water can be pumped to very hot regions of the earth’s crust and heated to produce steam. Then, the steam will be tapped and brought to the surface for electricity generation.
In general, renewable energy sources emit no carbon dioxide or other air pollutants, but they tend to be dispersed and more expensive to collect. While most renewable energy sources do not produce pollution directly, the materials, industrial processes, and construction equipment used to create them may generate waste and pollution. Some renewable energy systems actually create environmental problems. In addition, many of them, such as wind and solar energy, are intermittent in nature, making energy storage or distributed production systems necessary. If some
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In short, while currently renewable energy sources only supply a fraction of current energy use, there is much potential that could be exploited in the future.
Name: _____________________
Starting time: ______________ Ending time:______________ 1. Which type of renewable energy has been most widely used?
(a) wind power (b) water power (c) solar energy (d) geothermal energy
2. To make renewable energy widely and readily available, what do scientists and engineers need to improve?
(a) power storage (b) increasing manpower (c) total cost (d) waste control
3. Which type of energy is obtained from kilometers deep into the Earth's crust? (a) wind power (b) water power
(c) solar energy (d) geothermal energy 4. Where is a good site for setting up wind turbine?
(a) forests (b) open hilly areas (c) desserts (d) metropolis
5. According to the article, which statement is NOT true?
(a) Renewable energy may indirectly be harmful to environment. (b) Renewable energy is widely used because of its reliability. (c) Renewable energy is from natural resources and will not run out.
(d) Renewable energy will be getting more importance in use of power generation than it is now.
