起點年齡與臺灣大學生英語成就

Abstract

本研究主要探討學習起點年齡及幾個相關因素對大學生英語能力的影響。研究資料是來自國立台灣大學一年級學生參加全民英檢中高級初試的成績及測驗後填寫的個人英語學習歷程問卷。扣除曾居住國外六個月以上的學生，共有2320 位學生的數據納入分析。主要的發現是：以起點年齡來說，提前於國中之前學習英語的學生，他們的聽力與閱讀的成績比在國中開始的好。不過提前的時間點是在幼稚園或是小一至小三之間，對成績並無影響。迴歸分析顯示，英語學習總時數與英語學習成就的關係最為密切。此外分析結果也顯示出城鄉差異：都會區學生的英語成績比非都會區的好，聽力與閱讀皆然。

This study examines the effect of onset age on the English proficiency university students in Taiwan. Two thousand three hundred and twenty students from National Taiwan University participated in this research. Their test scores on high-intermediate level listening and reading comprehension tests of GEPT as well as their English learning history were analyzed. Results indicate that university students who started learning English in primary school performed better than thosestarted in junior high school. However, there are no differences between those who started in kindergarten and those who started in the first three years of primary school. Results from multiple regression analyses show that the total time of English learning contributes most to the learning outcome. Besides, it is found that students from metropolitan areas did better than those who were not both in reading and listening comprehension.