An Analysis on Vowel Substitution in Spelling Errors by Junior High School Students

國立政治大學英國語文學系在職碩士班 碩士論文提要 論文名稱：國中生拼音錯誤中母音字母代換分析 指導教授：尤雪瑛 研究生：胡明玉 論文提要內容： 本研究旨在探討國中生母音字母的拼字錯誤，試圖在其看似混亂，毫無根據錯誤中，尋找隱藏其中共通的原則或模式。 本研究以實驗方式實際進行國中學生在拼字錯誤母音字母替代上表現的觀察。實驗分兩階段， 第一階段收集學生語料，探討拼字錯誤中隱藏共通的原則或模式。第二階段設計實驗，進一步印證第一階段所得的發現。 研究結果顯示拼字錯誤和學生的發音有極大的關係。在母音字母替代的表現上，以下列四類最為顯著：（一）字母a取代其他字母；（二）字母e取代其他字母；（三）字母i取代其他字母；（四）字母o取代其他字母。其原因在於：（一）相近音的混淆，例如對舌位相近的/e/、 /Q/、 /E/產生混淆；（二）母語的影響，例如對鬆緊母音的混淆；（三）對不同系統代表符號的混淆，例如對音標和字母的混淆。 本研究在最後一個章節提出教學之建議，及未來進一步研究可行之方向。ABSTRACT This study investigates Chinese subjects’ vowel letter substitution found in spelling errors. An empirical experiment designed in two stages is conducted to collect data from junior high school students. The first stage of experiment is to find hidden patterns behind the misspellings. Then data from the second stage serve to confirm the finding in the first stage. Data collected from the investigation shows that pronunciation plays a significant role in students’ spelling errors. In fact, spelling errors indicate subjects’ development in spelling ability; they are not random and groundless, and on the contrary, most of them are phonetically plausible. Major patterns found in vowel substitution include: (1) Substitute letter a, (2) Substitute letter e, (3) Substitute letter o, and (4) Substitute letter i. There are three main reasons for the substitution: (1) confusion of similar sounds, which may result from nearby tongue positions, (2) L1 transfer, such as the lack of awareness of tense and lax vowels, (3) confusion of different representing systems, such as the confusion of letter names and letter sounds and the confusion of alphabet forms and phonetic symbols. Finally, pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research are provided