Assessing Taiwan English Majors’ Knowledge of Cultural Literacy through American Cartoons

[[abstract]]常言道：「一圖勝過千言萬語」，然而，唯有了解圖片中的語言以及其文化背景的讀者才能夠理解圖片所欲表達之意義。因此，本篇論文主要探討的焦點著重於，美國及世界主要英語系國家通俗文化中的文化語彙。 以《The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy : What Every American Needs to Know》的目錄為依據，本研究另設立五項新的類目，其分別為「美國歷史與節慶」、「英語」、「流行文化」、「西方古典文學」、以及「世界文學」等五項。除了「美國歷史與節慶」所包含的10則美國漫畫之外，其他四個類目各包含11則美國漫畫。這些漫畫皆有著顯著的文化基礎。 本研究之230個受測者均為高雄第一科技大學應用英語系的學生。每位受測者各須完成一份文化語彙測驗以及一份關於個人閱讀美國漫畫之經驗的問卷。 綜合論述以及統計結果，本研究主要發現如下： 1. 應用英語系學生之文化語彙知識與年級高低成正比成長。 2. 應用英語系學生對於「世界文學」類之相關知識最為豐富，而對於「流行文化」 之相關知識則最為薄弱。 3. 應用英語系學生認為他們最為熟知的類別為「世界文學」類；對於「西方古典文學」類則較為陌生。 4. 應用英語系學生對於「世界文學」類最感興趣；而最沒有興趣的則是「西方古典文學」類。 研究中另外發現應用英語系學生表示他們喜歡閱讀英語報紙、雜誌或網路上之美國漫畫，然而卻也提到自己花在閱讀的時間並不多—約一個月3次。此外，大部分應用英語系的學生相信學習英文以及多看美國漫畫可以幫助他們了解美國文化。因此，本研究提出建議，未來英文老師可以在課堂上多使用美國漫畫來教學。因為應用英語系學生相信若使用美國漫畫來教學將可以幫助和激發他們的學習成效，進而提升他們對文化語彙相關知識的認知。[[abstract]]“A picture is worth a thousand words”, an old saying goes. However, the proverb will be true of cartoons only if the viewers understand the language and the cultural context of the cartoons. It is the cultural literacy including American cultural literacy and world cultural literacy contributing to that cultural context that is the central focus in this study. Using the categories of the third edition of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy by Hirsch and others (2002) as a reference, the researcher created five categories: American History and Holidays, English Language, Pop Culture, Western Classics, and World Literature to investigate the knowledge of cultural literacy of Taiwan technological university English majors. Each category contains eleven one- to four-frame American cartoons (10 test items in American History and Holidays) with an obvious cultural basis. A total of 230 undergraduates at four academic years at National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology in Taiwan participated in the study. The subjects completed a written cultural literacy test and a three-page questionnaire about their personal information and prior experience of reading American cartoons. The major findings are summarized as follows. First, the higher academic year the students are, the higher scores the students get. One finding reveals a rising trend from the 1st year to the 4th year, which means that the level of cultural literacy of English majors will increase year by year. Second, English majors at the four years were most knowledgeable of World Literature and least knowledgeable of Pop Culture. Third, English majors of all four years thought they were most familiar with World Literature and least familiar with Western Classics. Their scores on the cultural literacy test confirmed their first hypothesis but not the second. Fourth, English majors of all four years were most interested in World Literature and least interested in Western Classics. This study also found that most English majors like to look at American cartoons in English newspapers, magazines, or on the Internet, but they report they spend very little time looking at them—perhaps only three times per month. Additionally, most of the subjects believed that learning English and looking at American cartoons would help them to learn American culture. Hence, the researcher suggests English teachers use American cartoons in class in the future. English majors’ belief that these cartoons can aid their learning may motivate them to get more out of the cartoons and hence more cultural literacy