语音和韵律意识在汉语儿童英语单词拼写中的作用

The Roles of Prosodic Sensitivity and Phonological Awareness in Chinese EFL Children's Word-level Spelling

本研究以79名汉语儿童英语学习者为研究对象,着重考察了英语语音意识与韵律意识的相互关系及其在英语单词拼写中的作用。结论显示,在控制了非言语智力因素的影响后,语音意识中的音位和音节操作均能显著地独立解释汉语儿童英语单词的拼写;韵律意识对语音意识具有显著的预测作用,而且还通过后者的中介对英语单词拼写产生影响。结论证实了Ziegler&Goswami(2005)提出的微粒理论,即较大单元的音节意识和较小单元的音位意识是汉语儿童英语早期拼写能力发展所不可或缺的。结论给予教学的启示是:教师应注重培养儿童的韵律意识,特别是利用重音意识提升其音节加工水平以及音节中的音位识别能力,进而促进其拼写能力的发展。

This study examined the roles and interplay of English phonological awareness and prosodic sensitivity in EFL Chinese children's word spelling. Results based on 79 primary school students indicated that both phoneme-and syllable-level tasks significantly accounted for unique variance in English literacy development after controlling for general cognitive ability; prosodic sensitivity not only predicted a significant amount of variance in phonological awareness but also had indirect effects on word spelling via phonological awareness. The conclusions give support to the Psycholinguistic Grain Size Theory( Ziegler & Goswami 2005). The implications for EFL teaching are: Great emphasis should be placed on fostering children's prosodic sensitivity,with a special focus on employing their stress awareness to enhance their syllable awareness, sharpen their ability to recognize the phonemes in( un) stressed syllables,and finally facilitate the development of their literacy.