Attributes of Meaning Construction and Strategy Use among Higher- and Lower-Performing Adolescent Readers of Chinese and English

Abstract

This study examined the ways in which Taiwanese adolescent readers approached texts written in two varieties of their first language i.e., classical and contemporary literary styles of Chinese, along with a foreign language i.e., English. The construction-integration model of text comprehension (Kintsch, 1998, 2004) and reader response theory (Beach, 1993; Galda & Beach, 2001) served as the theoretical frameworks for this study. Data included semi-structured interviews and think-aloud protocols. The constant comparative method proposed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) was employed for data analyses. Overall, the data show that the text processing mechanism utilized by the bilingual readers of Chinese and English appeared to follow the procedure of the construction-integration model of reading. Lower-level processes became substantially salient as students read the texts written in classical literary styles of Chinese and contemporary English, respectively. In contrast, relatively higher-level comprehension processes were evident in students` reading of texts written in contemporary Chinese. The degree of language transfer, particularly in the employment of mental translation, indicates a `linguistic interdependent relationship` between one`s two languages, as posited by Cummins (1979).

此研究分析了台灣青少年讀者在閱讀兩種不同讀本的方式，其一是母語讀本（如：古典以及現代文體的中文），其二是外語（如：英語）。這個研究的理論架構是採用結合了文本理解(Kintsch 1998, 2004)以及讀者回應理論(Beach, 1993; Galda & Beach, 2001)的建構統整模式。研究的資料包括半結構性訪問和有聲思考記錄；而資料的分析是使用了Glaser和Strauss在1967年提議的持續比較法。大致上來說，資料顯示了雙語（中、英文）讀者所使用的文本處理機制似乎遵循了閱讀之建構統整模式的步驟。當學生們分別在閱讀古典的中文文體以及現代英文時，較低層的步驟更顯得重要；反之，當學生在閱讀現代中文的文體時，較高層的理解過程較為重要。語言轉換的程度（尤其是腦譯的運用）應證了Cummins(1979)所提倡兩個語言間的「語言互依關係」。