意味・音声・綴り字の3要素相互の変換能力から観た日本人英語学習者の語彙力について

抄録

A word as a fundamental unit of language consists of meaning(M), sound(S) and spelling (O:orthography). In the present study, language learners' knowledge of the word is assumed as composed of six underlying abilities to interrelate these three components, i.e. M⇄ S, S⇄O, O⇄M. By positing these six abilities, the ability required to use a word in a certain speech form, either spoken or written, or either receptive or productive, can be well described as one of the six abilities, depending on which of the three elements (M, S, O) are to be related. Under the above assumption, the attempt was made to reveal a clear and total picture of the vocabulary knowledge of Japanese learners of English by measuring and comparing the six abilities. Six kinds of tests were conducted toward fifty-one subjects. The data obtained were analyzed with the focus on the following two points: (1) how six abilities are balanced and (2) how six abilities are related to English proficiency levels of the learners. Some of the major findings are : (1) Receptive abilities (OM, SM) were superior to productive ones (MO, MS), as is often noted, and the ranking showed that, both in reception and production, the subjects better performed on the tasks involving orthography (O-input, O-output) than on the tasks involving sound (S-input, S-output), and (2) Principal components analysis including items with interactive effects showed that the subjects with high English proficiency performed better in SM and SO than the subjects with low English proficiency, suggesting that auditory accuracy and the ability to convert a phonetic code into an orthographic code seem to be an attribute for a learner to be successful in learning English in Japan.