外文系學生在口語故事敘述中所使用之過去式的變化

Past Tense Variability in the Oral Narratives of Learners of English as a Foreign Language

10.29737/SJFLL.200609.0002

朱杰佑(Witton-Davies Giles)

錯誤 ； 字的時態lexical aspect ； 時式 ； 變化 ； errors ； lexical aspect ； temporality ； tense ； variation

東吳外語學報

23期（2006 / 09 / 01）

21 - 52

英文

動詞型式的掌握是多數文法教學的主要目標之一。而學生也一再反覆地被教到英文動詞的時式和時態系統。然而，令英文老師感到挫折的是，中級甚至和進階程度的學生，仍無法分辨出動詞的時式或時態，以至於常用動詞原型代替。本文所探討的是二十三位外文系大一學生，在以圖片故事爲主的口語敘述中，筆者針對他們的動詞時式選擇，和維持一開始所做之該動詞時式選擇之間的一致性，而加以討論。在本研究之所有的個案中，學生的確有用到過去式。可是儘管學生都清楚知道相關的動詞過去式該怎麼寫，也知道過去式該什麼時候使用，但學生卻從未能在一整篇的故事敘述中，有一致性地使用出過去式。因此本文透過不同的分析方法，以尋找出學生對時式選擇的模式，進而瞭解爲何會發生這些變化的原因。如此一來，具爭議性的理論說明，便得以透過實際的研究，來加以驗證。據本研究發現，特別是對於程度較好的學生而言，字的時態(lexical aspect)是動詞時式選擇研究中的最佳指標：過去式最常被學生用於achievements，然後於accomplishments和activities，最後爲states。本文對於發生這些現象的可能因素，皆加以討論。

Mastery of verb forms is one of the principal aims of most English grammar teaching, and students are repeatedly taught and re-taught about the tense and aspect system of the English verb. Yet to the frustration of teachers of English as a foreign language, even at advanced levels learners often fail to mark verbs for either tense or aspect, falling back instead on unmarked forms. This paper looks at how a group of 23 first year university students produced an oral narrative based on a picture story, focusing on their choice of tense and their consistency in persevering with that initial choice. In all cases, the past tense was used, but never consistently throughout a narrative, in spite of students' evident knowledge both of the relevant past forms and of when they should be used. A variety of analyses were used to look for patterns of tense selection in order to understand why such variation in tense use occurs. In this way, competing theoretical explanations were empirically tested. Lexical aspect was found to be the best indicator of tense selection, especially for higher level students: past marking was most frequent for achievements, then accomplishments, next activities and finally states. Possible reasons for this finding are discussed.

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