Longitudinal Analysis of the Ways of Enlightenment Education in the Foreign Language Environment_英语论文

摘要

本文从形式-意义联结和年龄效应的角度，进一步解释“音-意匹配优先假说”，并基于这一假说，通过问卷纵向探究外语启蒙教育方式（“音-意匹配优先”和“形-意匹配优先”）对儿童二语习得的影响。结果表明，“音-意匹配优先”与“形-意匹配优先”对儿童学习者英语发展存在长期影响，“音-意匹配优先”学习者比“形-意匹配优先”学习者英语发展更好，尤其在听解方面更具优势。

关键词：构式语法  外语启蒙教育  形式-意义联结  音-意匹配优先假说

Abstract

From the perspectives of form-meaning connections and age effects, this thesis further illustrates the Sound-Meaning Matching Prioritizing Hypothesis, as well as explores the different effects of the ways of foreign language enlightenment education—“sound-meaning mapping prioritization” and “form-meaning mapping prioritization”—on child second language acquisition based on the hypothesis through the questionnaire of longitudinal analysis. The results show long-term effects of the two ways of education on the English development of child learners; learners of sound-meaning mapping prioritization achieve a better English proficiency than those of form-meaning mapping prioritization, with a special advantage in listening comprehension.

Key words: construction grammar  foreign language enlightenment education form-meaning connections  Sound-Meaning Matching Prioritizing Hypothesis   

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1  Purpose of This Thesis 1

1.2  Significance of This Thesis 2

1.3  Structure of This Thesis 3

Chapter Two  Research Background 4

2.1  Introduction 4

2.2  Construction Grammar (CxG) 4

2.2.1 Form-Meaning Connections 4

2.2.2 The Connections between “Sound”, “Form” and “Meaning” 6

2.3  Foreign Language Enlightenment Education 7

2.4  Sound-Meaning Matching Prioritizing Hypothesis 11

2.5  Comment 12

Chapter Three  Research Methodology 13

3.1  Introduction 13

3.2  Research Questions 13

3.3  Subjects 13

3.4  Instruments 14

Chapter Four  Results and Discussion 16

4.1  Introduction 16

4.2  Results and Analysis 16

4.2.1 Distribution of Gender, Major and Grade 16

4.2.2 Composition of the Two Groups 16

4.2.3 English Test Scores of the Two Groups 17

4.2.4 Listening and Speaking Ability and Daily Learning Style 19

4.2.5 Grammatical Knowledge Level of the Two Groups 20

4.3  Discussion 21

4.3.1 Different Effects of Sound-Meaning Acquisition and Form-Meaning Acquisition 21

4.3.2 Prioritization of Sound-Meaning Acquisition 23

Chapter Five  Conclusion 25

Bibliography

Appendix

Acknowledgements