2021年度博士論文 佳作獎
中文：臺灣EFL學習者於音高重音與界限聲調之呈現
英文：The Realization of Pitch Accents and Boundary Tones in Taiwan EFL Learners
得主：陳萱芳 (國立臺灣大學語言學研究所)
指導教授：馮怡蓁教授
中文摘要
以華語為母語的英語學習者之英語超音段研究實證資料甚少，目前僅有的文獻多侷限於英文單詞重音的相關聲學研究，少有以句子或篇章為單位的研究。根據「第二語言語調學習理論」(The L2 Intonation Learning theory, Mennen, 2015)，超音段學習的順序應與音段學習類似，也就是建立音韻類別先於語音之微調。本研究以臺灣英語學習者朗讀時之音高重音與界限聲調為題，驗證此一假說。
十六位臺灣英語學習者的朗讀資料，由以測驗為本之學習者口語語料庫中隨機抽出，其中八位得到該測驗之最高分(流利組)，另八位則稍低於該測驗的通過分數(普通組)。此外，本研究同時招募英語母語人士與臺灣華語母語人士作為對照組，分別進行英語與華語之錄音(華語組內容為中文翻譯)。本研究所有的語音資料皆以「聲調與界限標記系統」(Tone and Break Indices System, Beckman & Ayers, 1997) 進行標記。
研究結果發現：在界限聲調方面，若該界限有標點符號輔助，則流利組與普通組不論在界限聲調的位置或調型選擇上皆與英語母語人士無異；倘若該界限無標點符號輔助，則流利組在界限位置與調型選擇上仍與母語人士類似，但普通組則明顯有較大差異。在音高重音方面，流利組不論實詞或虛詞，其重音數量均與母語人士相近。至於重音密度和英文語調的下降幅度，母語人士與學習者之間有顯著差異，而流利組與普通組間則差異不大，顯見這些方面習得的困難度較高。
雖然各單項測量的結果或有些許出入，但臺灣英語學習者之超音段發展仍大致遵循「音韻類別之建立先於語音的微調」這個方向；不過，語音的微調並非等到音韻類別建立完成後才開始，而是兩者同時並進，只是發展的速度快慢不同。
Abstract
Empirical studies have been rare in the realization of suprasegments of Mandarin speakers’ English, and acoustic correlates of English lexical stress seemed to be the main concern for the few existing ones. In this study, the L2 Intonation Learning theory (LILt; Mennen, 2015) was introduced, which proposed that in terms of suprasegmental learning, phonological categories should be acquired prior to phonetic implementation, as found in segmental learning. To test the hypothesis, investigation of pitch accents and boundary tones in Taiwan EFL learners’ production has been conducted.
Sixteen Taiwan EFL learners’ read-aloud recordings were randomly selected from a test-based learner corpus in Taiwan. Half of them received the highest score in the test (high-proficiency L2 learners, or HL2), while the other half did not pass the exam (low-proficiency L2 learners, or LL2). Native speakers of American English and Taiwan Mandarin speakers were also recruited and recorded following the same instruction. Materials were two short English passages containing 165 words in total. The English Tone and Break Indices System was used for data labelling (Beckman & Ayers, 1997).
Results showed that in terms of boundary tones, both HL2 and LL2 speakers showed a similar preference as native speakers in the assignment of boundaries and choices of tone types when boundaries coincide with punctuation marks. However, when a boundary was covert, i.e., with no additional cue from punctuation, HL2 still behaved like native English speakers, while LL2 were less consistent in both tonal assignment and tonal choices. For pitch accents, HL2 learners also behaved more like native speakers in the number of pitch accents assigned to content and function words. However, for measures like declination and accent density, significant difference was found between natives and nonnatives, which indicated that these measures may be more difficult to learn. Although minor differences were found in some measures, Taiwan EFL learners showed better performance in phonological categorization than phonetic implementation. Finally, the LILt (2015) was further modified based on these findings. It is believed that the development of the phonological and phonetic aspects of L2 prosody should be co-occurring, rather than sequential.
研究貢獻
本研究將以往教學者憑經驗描述之EFL超音段現象，透過界限聲調及音高重音等聲學測量，進行實證資料之標記及分析，並與現行之理論架構進行比較。研究對象為臺灣英語學習者，因中、英分屬不同韻律系統，透過觀察不同程度學習者的英語產出，可歸納兩語言間是否出現交互作用。此外，本研究所使用的語料來自標準化測驗，所有評分人員均依據相同評分規範接受訓練，於評分期間亦隨時接受校準，故在學習者英語流利度的判定上具一定之公信力。研究發現未來可作為機器學習的訓練材料，以創建適合模型、精準預測臺灣英語學習者之韻律特色。
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References
Beckman, M. E., & Ayers, G. (1997). Guidelines for ToBI labelling. The OSU Research Foundation, 3, 30. (Version 3.0 ed.).
Mennen, I. (2015). Beyond segments: Beyond segments: towards an L2 intonation learning theory (LILt). In Delais-Roussarie, E., Avanzi, M., & Herment, S. (Eds.) Prosody and languages in contact: L2 acquisition, attrition, languages in multilingual situations (pp. 171-188). Berlin: Springer.