题名

Are Good Language Learners more Tolerant of Ambiguity?

并列篇名

好的語言學習者有較強的歧義容忍度？

作者

侯奕安(Yi-an Hou)；侯妍如(Yen-ju Hou)；鐘尉瑜(Wei-yu Chung)；鄭雪玉(Hsueh-yu Cheng)

关键词

tolerance of ambiguity ； gender difference ； foreign language learning ； 歧義容忍度 ； 性別差異 ； 外語學習

期刊名称

聯大學報

卷期/出版年月

13卷1期（2016 / 12 / 01）

页次

23 - 48

内容语文

英文
中文摘要

The study was conducted to analyze students' tolerance of ambiguity when learning English as a foreign language at tertiary level to investigate if good language learners were more tolerant of ambiguity. Subjects were 178 English major students in a private university in Taiwan, including 50 males and 128 females. They helped to fill out Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale (SLTAS) (Ely, 1995), and their English scores and English levels of College Entrance Exam were used as their English proficiency. All available data received from the returned questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics derived from SPSS 17, including item means and standard deviations, t test, ANOVA, and regression analysis. The results revealed that students' tolerance of ambiguity was negatively predictive to their English proficiency, which proved that good language learners were more tolerant of ambiguity. In addition, students were more tolerant of ambiguity in the ＂receptive＂ skills, especially in reading, and less in ＂productive＂ skills, particularly, in writing. Furthermore, females were found to have higher means in overall SLTAS, yet, the differences didn't reach a significant level. However, after an item-by-item analysis, it was found that females tended to be less tolerate of ambiguity than males in listening (p＜.01). Finally, implications derived from the study were provided for both English teachers and English learning students to be ＂a good language learner＂.
英文摘要

本研究旨在分析大專校院學生學習外語時的歧義容忍度，以探討好的語言學習者是否歧義容忍度較強。研究對象為178 位大學英文系的學生，含50 位男生，128 位女生，研究工具為「第二外語歧義容忍度量表」( Second Language Toleranceof Ambiguity Scale, SLTAS) (Ely, 1995)。此外，學生的大學入學英文成績或級數，則作為他們的英文能力之參考。有效問卷資料經SPSS統計分析，包括描述性統計，T 檢定，ANOVA，和迴歸分析，結果顯示：學生的歧異容忍度確實會影響他們的英文能力，歧義容忍度越高者，英文能力越好，反之，亦然。此外，在「英語為外語」(English as a foreign language, EFL)的學習環境中，學生較強的外語歧義容忍度是在「接受性能力」(receptive skills)，尤其閱讀方面(reading)，而較弱的是在「產生性能力」(productive skills)，特別是寫作方面(writing)。而就性別差異而言，本研究中男生的大學英文成績和級數都比女生高，對外語的歧義容忍度也較女生強，雖然並未達顯著性差異，然而經由個別題數(item-by-item)的分析後，發現女生在聽力方面的歧義容忍度顯著性地比男生弱(p＜.01)。本研究希望能提供英文老師和學生一些成為「好的語言學習者」(a good language learner)的參考。
主题分类 人文學 > 人文學綜合
人文學 > 歷史學
基礎與應用科學 > 基礎與應用科學綜合
社會科學 > 社會科學綜合
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