視域融合在外語教學的應用－跨文化觀

10.6349/JEL.200804.0151

彭雅卿(Ya-Ching Peng)

詮釋學 ； 視域融合 ； Sapir-Whorf假說 ； H.-G Gadamer ； henneneutic ； fusion of horizons ； Sapir-Whorf Hypothsis

歐洲語文學報

創刊號（2008 / 04 / 01）

151 - 175

繁體中文

修習外國語常會出現理解不對稱（understanding asymmetry）的問題。問題的產生，固然是因對語詞、語意、語境及語法上運用的不理解；然深入研究，隱藏在這些不理解的背後因素又為何？實為值得進一步探討的議題。藉由教學經驗瞭解，出現上述問題，大多是因學習者從自己母語的觀點來認識學習中的外語，才會出現辭不達意的情況。此一情況反映了Sapir-Whorf假說中的弱假說（weak hypothesis），即Kramsch（1998）稱之的語言相對論（linguistic relatiivity）問題。語言相對論係說明不同的語言有不同的文化載體，可以用來觀察、思考自己周圍的世界，誠如Wittgenstein（1961, section 5. 6）說的：我的語言界限指明了我的世界界限（The limits of my language indicate the limits of my world.）。外語教學若脫離了語言與文化的內在生命聯繫，理解不對稱的問題似難消除。為了消除理解不對稱的問題，Gadamer（1975）在《真理與方法－哲學詮釋學的基本特徵》（Wahrheit und Methode-Grundzüge einer philosophischenHermeneutik）乙書中提出了視域融合（Horizontverschmelzung）理論，藉由視域融合架構起共同理解的基礎。本文擬結合Sapir-Whorf假說及Gadamer視域融合的理論，為外語教學找出可供形成共同理解的理論基礎，進而消除理解不對稱的問題。

Understanding asymmetry, is an obstacle for students when they learn foreign language. Obstacle may come from the confusion of using vocabulary, sentence, syntactic structures, and context of situation. What are the major factors to cause this phenomenon? Maybe, it is an interesting lssue to inquire.From the experience of teaching, students always use mother tongue and native way to organize the context about foreign language. It may be a problem in regard to the weak hypothesis or be called the linguistic relativity of Sapir-Whorf Hypothsis (Kramsch, 1998).The linguistic relativity interprets that every language plays as a carrier of its own culture, in other words, as what Wittgenstein (1961 , section 5.6) says: The limits of my language indicate the limits of my world.For the purpose of describing the process of understanding, this paper tries to explain what is the base of understanding in common against the understanding asymmetry by using the theory of the fusion of horizons which had been mentioned by Gadamer in his work: 《Wahrheit und Methode-Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik》, and attempts to combine the theory of the fusion of horizons with Sapir-Whorf weak hypothesis to build a framework of cross culture of understanding for foreign language teaching and learning.