三、五年级学英语起点和语音发展的实验研究

本研究比较三、五年级起点的学生英语语音语调的发展.研究采用准实验设计,样本包括198名中国小学三、五年级学生和15名美国小学生.学年结束时,对被试施行朗读测验、单人单盒磁带录音并将录音带匿名编号、随机混合,由3名英美人以随机顺序各自独立评分.结果表明:无论是按学校分类、按性别分类、还是按任课教师分类,五年级被试的平均分都显著地高于三年级被试,且处于最高分数段者也多是五年级被试.

An Experimental Study of the Relation of Age to the Acquisition of English Pronunciation and Intonation

This study compared the acquisition of English pronunciation and intonation by two different groups of pupils. One group started to learn English at Grade 3 and the other at Grade 5. Quasi-experimental design was adopted. The valid sample included 198 Chinese Grade 3 and Grade 5 pupils (99 boys and 99 girls), and 15 American pupils. At the end of the school year, all the subjects were given a read-aloud test and the results were recorded. The mixed recordings were then judged independently by three native English speakers. The results show that the Grade 5 group performed significantly better than the Grade 3 group. No matter how to sub-group the pupils, by school, by sex, or by English teachers, the basic patterns were the same. Furthermore, those pupils who scored the highest were mostly of Grade 5.