臺灣博碩士論文加值系統

有鑑於英語在科技、商業、教育及其它領域的重要影響力，英語成為世界各國人民最為普遍教學及學習的第二外語。在學習英語的過程中，單字記憶似乎是帶給許多第二外語學習者挫折的普遍問題，因而阻礙了他們的學習成果。最常見到的情況就是當學生學習新單字時，先前所學的單字亦快速被遺忘。被遺忘的單字或許是因缺乏不斷複習及使用而造成的，這亦是語言耗損(language attrition)長久以來所關注的一項議題及研究。
本研究的設計是擬照Kees de Bot (2004) 研究中，假定被遺忘的舊單字比起後來學習的新單字更能被快速重新學習的「節省法」。研究目的在於檢視科技大學非英語系大一新生重新學習國、高中英文單字的效果。研究者設計了一套單字顯示程式來檢視被遺忘的記憶及探討先前所學的單字記憶是否確實比新學習的單字來的好。研究對象是來自南台灣一所國立科技大學通識英語課第一級的30位大一新生，各分為15位工學院生及15位管理學院生。依照該校通識英語課的英語能力分級，共分為四級, 第一級為最低級，第四級則為最高級。
本研究的資料分析是採用MANOVA(多因子變異數分析)為統計方法。主要是分析有關於三項研究問題 (1)受測者是否在舊單字學習上比新單字更有效益？(2)管院生於單字上的學習是否比工院生更有效益?　(3)受測者於四個不同的受測時間下是否學習成就有所不同？等結果。
實驗結果顯示，(1)舊單字(即大一新生已學過但被遺忘之單字)之平均分數比新單字(即大一新生不熟悉或尚未學習過的單字)之平均分數高，這支持了剩餘單字記憶的觀點且提供方法喚回看似被遺忘的單字。 (2)管院生之平均分數亦比工院生之平均分數高。(3)兩週前經過第一次單字記憶複習後的後測分數比前測分數高，即各院學生在單字記憶複習後之效果都比較好。透過電腦螢幕顯示每組單字(共60組單字)8秒的時間，學生是可以喚回部份單字記憶的，舊單字比新單字喚回的更多。兩週過後，到了第二週前測，學生在未經過單字複習的情況下又受測了一次，發現分數較兩週前後測低，表示學生並不太記得兩週前後測的單字，然而，兩週前經過每組單字8秒的複習，兩週後仍有記憶效果存在。

由此可見，我們的研究結果證實了「節省法」的假設：「一旦學習過的單字，其實並沒有完全被遺忘」。「節省法」確實提供了因遺忘一些英文單字記憶卻想要喚回這些單字記憶的語言學習者希望。

Considering the influence of English in technology, commerce, education, and other fields, English has become the most popular foreign language taught and learned by people around the world. In the process of learning English, vocabulary retention seems to be a widespread problem that brings frustration to many EFL learners, thus impeding their learning outcomes. A commonly seen situation is when students learn new vocabulary and then quickly forget it, perhaps due to the lack of reviewing and practicing the vocabulary they previously learned. This is one important issue that studies on language attrition have been concerned with.
The current study replicates and extends Kees de Bot et al.’s (2004) study involving the savings method, which posits that forgotten vocabulary can be relearned more quickly than new vocabulary can be acquired. The savings is seen as supporting the view that residual or sub-threshold knowledge of vocabulary can be demonstrated even though subjects may not be able to recall the meaning of L2 words on demand. Results show that attrition in the area of vocabulary can be reversed.
In order to assess non-English major freshmen’s relearning of English vocabulary that they learned during their secondary school years, a vocabulary display program was designed to test for forgotten knowledge and to investigate whether “old” words were indeed learned at a higher rate than “new” words. The researcher recruited 30 Chinese-speaking freshmen studying Level 1 General English courses at one national university of science and technology in southern Taiwan. Two groups of 15 students from engineering majors and 15 students from business majors participated in the main study. Level 1 is the lowest proficiency level of the four levels in the university’s General English program.
MANOVA (Multi-variance ANOVA) was used as the statistical paradigm for analyzing the results of the study to answer research questions about 1) Will subjects perform significantly better on old words than new words? 2) Will Business Majors or Engineering Majors perform significantly better than the other group? 3) Will subjects perform significantly different at four different points of time?
The findings show (1) mean scores for retention of old words (words that seem to have been forgotten) are higher than for new words (words never learned before by the freshmen). This supports the view of residual vocabulary knowledge and suggests a way to revive apparently forgotten vocabulary. Thus, after only 8 seconds of presentation of an English-Chinese word pair on the computer screen (a total of 60 words) in the learning phase, subjects were able to retain some of the words and their L1 (Chinese) equivalent, and more of the old words than the new words. After two weeks, the mean scores in a delayed post-test are lower than post-test 1, meaning they had not retained all of the words the first post-test shows. Nevertheless, they still remembered more of the old words than the new ones showing that the previous 8 second exposure led to greater old word retention even two weeks later. The findings also show that the mean scores for business majors are higher than for engineering majors.
In conclusion, the above results support the assumption of the savings method that words, once learned, are never totally lost. In other words, there is residual vocabulary knowledge that can be reactivated (de Bot & Stoessel, 2004, p. 375). It was also found that a mere 8 seconds of exposure per word in the learning phase resulted in the revival and subsequent retention of vocabulary. The savings method offers hope to language learners who have ostensibly forgotten some of their English vocabulary and who want to recover it.

Chinese Abstract iii
English Abstract vi
Table of Contents ix
List of Tables and Figures xii
Acknowledgements xiii
Abbreviations xvi
Chapter 1 1
Introduction 1
1.1 Background and Motivation 1
1.1.1 The Current State of English Learning in Taiwan 3
1.1.2 Language Attrition 4
1.2 Statement of the Problem 6
1.2.1 English Educational Policy–Overemphasis on Exams 6
1.2.2 Inconsistency of English Textbook Publishers’ Vocabulary Lists 11
1.3 Research Questions 14
1.4 Summary 14
1.5 Definitions of Terms 16
Chapter 2 21
Literature Review 21
2.1 Importance of Vocabulary Learning 21
2.2 Definitions of Second Language Attrition 23
2.3 Findings and Issues in Second Language Attrition 26
2.3.1 Age 26
2.3.2 Proficiency Level 34
2.3.3 Attitudes and Motivation 43
2.4 Studies on Relearning Second Language Vocabulary 46
2.5 Summary 54
Chapter 3 57
Methodology 57
3.1 Subject Selection 59
3.1.1 Subjects’ Language Background 59
3.1.2 Selecting Subjects for Main Study 60
3.2 Pilot Study 64
3.3 Word Selection for the Savings Test 65
3.3.1 Source of the Wordlist for This Study 72
3.3.2 Source of Old Words 73
3.3.3 Source of New Words 76
3.3.4 Source of 120 Words for Pretest 1 78
3.3.5 L1 Translations Selection 79
3.4 Testing Procedures for the Main Study 83
3.4.1 Session 1 84
3.4.2 Session 2 96
3.5 Data Analysis 97
3.6 Functional Specifications for Savings Test Program 97
Chapter 4 102
Findings 102
4.1 Mean scores for Word Types, Majors, and Time 103
4.2 Analysis of Research Question 1 105
4.3 Analysis of Research Question 2 110
4.4 Analysis of Research Question 3 112
4.5 Summary 116
Chapter 5 119
Conclusion and Implications 119
5.1 Summary of Study Findings and Discussion 119
5.2 Challenges Encountered and Overcome 128
5.3 Pedagogical Implications and Future Directions 130
5.4 Conclusion 132
References 134
Appendix A Recruitment Form (Chinese Version) 139
Appendix B Recruitment Form (English Version) 140
Appendix C Background Survey (Chinese Version) 141
Appendix D Background Survey (English Version) 142
Appendix E Consent Form (Chinese Version) 143
Appendix F Functional Specifications for Display Program 145
Appendix G Procedures for doing Sudoku 164

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