马来西亚3至5岁华裔儿童三语词汇习得特征实证研究 = Features of vocabulary learning by trilingual Malaysian Chinese children aged 3-5

Abstract

本论文以实证研究方式进行两项实验及一项问卷调查,旨在探究多语言文化环境下的马来西亚华裔儿童标准认知与知觉认知冲突下的情况及三语手部动词习得发展与因素。两项实验包括物“大”、“小”认知实验及物体“大”、“小”认知实验和一项三语儿童手部动词习得问卷调查。实验一是以画面中两种大小颠倒动物作为测试;实验二儿童“大”、“小”认知模糊升级,同一种刺激物以三种大小(大、中、小)形式呈现,要求儿童辨别其“大”、“小”。实验结果证实3.0-3.9岁的儿童基本上能分辨“大”与“小”这两个概念。 手部动词习得方面,马来西亚华裔儿童对于第二及第三语言的发展缓慢。This thesis consists of an empirical study, where two experiments and one survey had been conducted. The study aims to investigate children's flexible understanding of the adjectives "big" and "little" between normative and perceptual conditions, and explores the nature of early language development in English-Chinese-Malay trilingual children in Malaysia, within the age range of 3 to 5. The investigation of the children' learning of the adjectives "big and "little" included two experiments with animal and object pictures as stimuli, and the other survey involved the acquisition of action verbs by trilingual children. In Experiment 1, children were required to interpret big and little of the size- inverted animal pictures shown in the power point. Experiment 2 examined flexible interpretations of big and little in respect to a medium-sized stimulus that was alternately compared with a smaller stimulus and a larger stimulus. Results revealed that 3.0-3.9-year-old children had the ability to interpret the adjectives under the normative standard condition. While the results of the acquisition of action verbs showed a slow development of the second (English) and third (Malay) languages of the Malaysian children.