真實聽力教材的內容分析:以英語電視新聞為例

Abstract

第二外語習得理論強調真實教材的重要性，以幫助語言習得。其中英語聽力理解研究探討造成理解困難的原因，以幫助學習者有效地學習語言。早期傳播研究理論側重新聞內容的可讀性及可聽性，主要幫助閱聽人理解新聞內容。本研究結合兩種理論，試圖建立分析英語電視新聞的類目，用以分辨不同新聞題材的難易度。本研究採內容分析法，以watch教材為研究母體，共建立十三個類目。研究結果顯示，統計每篇報導的平均速度及每句平均字數等項目，在標準範圍內，可聽性很高。此外，報導方式以陳述式為主，類型則為硬性及軟性新聞兼具，整體而言，教材適合中等(及以上)程度學習者使用。就教材難易度而言，統計每卷七項類目加總排名，主題難易度依序排列為﹕環保最容易理解，其次是文化，商業及健康並列第三，最難是創新。最後本研究的類目並提供教師教學及自我進修者選用新聞教材的參考。 To help learners to transfer what they have learned in class to the outside world, authentic materials have been widely used in English classes. Research of listening comprehension investigated what caused the difficulty in comprehending authentic materials so as to help learners acquire the language. In addition to second language acquisition theories, mass communication research also has long focused on news comprehension to make news stories easily understood by the audience. This study intends to combine these two fields by adopting content analysis methodology to classify English TV news stories into different categories and rate different segments of stories accordingly from easy to difficult to comprehend. Results show the speed of a TV news report and the average numbers of words in one sentence are within standard which contribute to high listenability. The different news stories rated from easy to difficult to understand are topics related to earth, culture, business & health, and with the most difficult being innovation. Some suggestions based on results are made for addressing problems regarding classifications and categories.