American and Chinese Teacher Compliments

Abstract

本研運用一分改編自Barnlund與Araki於1985年所發展的「讚美模式問卷」，計對美國與臺灣兩地教師於課堂內對學生的讚美行為進行研究。調查 的對象包含美國與臺灣各約一百名中學學生，其中男女約各半。在調查過程中，受測者寫出他們最近從老師那邊接受到的讚美以及他們的感受。本研究的結果，使讀 者對兩地教師的讚限行為異同能有進一步的瞭解：在相同處，本研究發現兩坽教師均經常表揚學生於課堂內的表現，而他們對男女學生的讚美種類也大致一樣；在相 異處，則發現美國教師對於學生的讚美種類比較多，且讚美的項目亦較為廣泛，而其用詞也較為跨張。而在學生的反應方面，本研究則美國學生比奄傾向直接接受讚 限並表達謝意，而臺灣學生則多僅止於心中感到高興，甚或沒有回應。

This study investigated teachers' compliments to their students as well as students' reactions to these compliments. The subjects included about 100 American students and 100 Taiwanese students. The instrument of measurement was a questionnaire based on Barnlund and Araki's Complimentary Mode Questionnaire (1985). Subjects were asked to explain the most recent compliments they received from their teachers and their reactions to the compliments. The results of this study can offer insight to teachers to better understand the similarities and differences between American and Chinese students. Major findings suggest that both American and Taiwanese teachers frequently praise their students' performance in classrooms. American and Chinese teachers, in general, do not discriminate among the types of compliments with regard to gender. In other words, compliments are offered to male and female students equally. However, American teachers praise more diverse types of attributes than Chinese teachers do, and their compliments are more general and exaggerated than that of the Chinese teachers. Finally, American students tend to accept teacher compliments directly by saying "thank you" more frequently than Chinese students, who often choose to just accept or not to acknowledge teacher compliments at all.