【作者】 黄怀飞；

【导师】 李荣宝；

【作者基本信息】 福建师范大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2004， 硕士

【摘要】 自从20世纪60年代以来，第二语言习得的研究成了一个热门话题。此前对第二语言学习的研究主要侧重于语言的教学过程，于是各种教学方法相继出现，似乎每一种方法都有其优点，但是没一种教学方法是万能的。当考虑到学习者的个体差异时，外语教学的一些理论问题还有待解决，所以许多学者的研究视角从教学的过程转移到学习的过程。30多年来，对二语习得的研究已经超出传统语言学的领域，延伸到各种相关学科，如神经心理学，心理语言学，教育学和统计学，至今它已发展成为一个跨学科的研究领域。 本文试图探讨在二语习得中，习得者的起始年龄与相关成就之间的关系。习得者成功程度不同使得研究者们更关注于对学习者的个体差异(Individual Differences)的研究。其中，年龄较小的学习者在二语习得的某些方面呈现出比年龄较大学习者更大的优势，引起学术界对语言习得的关键期假说(Critical Period Hypothesis)的争论。联系当前外语学习的低龄化趋势，我们觉得很有必要研究外语学习者不同的起始年龄及其相关的成绩，这样我们可以更好地了解不同的起始年龄与他们的学习成就之间的关系。本文借助调查问卷，分别对大学英语专业学生，非英语专业学生和2003届高中毕业生(共630人)进行调查，区分出他们不同的英语学习起始年龄，查阅其高考英语成绩，英语专业四级考试成绩以及大学英语四级考试成绩作为原始数据，利用SPSS进行统计和分析。结果表明，英语学习者的起始年龄与高考成绩，大学英语成绩存在显著相关性，起始年龄的不同导致英语成绩在某些方面存在显著差异，尤其在口语和听力方面。这一结果对于确定英语学习的起始时间和早期英语教学的内容有一定的参考价值。更多还原

【Abstract】 Second language acquisition has been a hot research topicsince the 1960s. But in the early approaches, much was emphasized onhow second language was taught, as a result, various teaching methodswere proposed and put into practice .It seemed that all the methods weregood to some extent but no method was good in all circumstances. Manytheoretical problems had to be solved in teaching when learners’individual differences were taken into consideration. So researchers’attention was shifted from the teaching process to the learning process. Inthe past three decades, the study in this field has surpassed thetraditional linguistics approach, it has extended into almost all therelevant fields of language such as neuropsychology, psycholinguistics,pedagogy and statistics, it has become a trans-research field.This thesis sets out to explore the relationship between the age onset of second language acquisition and its relative achievements. Because of the differential success of the second language learners, more was attracted to the study of the learners’ individual differences. The superiority of the younger learners to the older learners in the second language acquisition finds its explanation from Critical Period Hypothesis, but the arguments from proponent and opponent side never lead to anyagreeable conclusion. Personally, relating the current tendency to start English learning/teaching at lower age, we feel a great necessity to make comparison and analysis about the different age onset of the learners and their relative achievements so that we may have a better understanding of the relationship between learners of different age onset and their learning results.438 students in Quanzhou Teachers College (including English majors and non-English majors), and 192 senior school students in Guoguang Middle School participated in our study. An investigation was made through a questionnaire to identify the subjects’ age onset of English learning, and then an archival study was performed to compare the achievements of the learners with different age onset. The original scores of the subjects’ College Entrance Examination, Test for English Majors (Band-4) and College English Test (Band -4) were taken as raw data for statistics and analysis. The results indicated that there was significant difference between the types with different age onset and the achievements of second language acquisition, particularly in the aspect of Listening and Speaking. The results are of some significance in deciding the age onset for a child to learn a foreign language.更多还原