The effect of zero pronouns in text books on students’ reading comprehension

• Main Author: 許慶堂
• Other Authors: 楊文金
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/48321779888429356874

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 科學教育研究所 === 95 === The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of zero pronouns on seventh graders’ reading comprehension in natural science and living technology text books. It also tried to find out the factors that influence students’ decision on choosing or looking back referents in texts with zero pronouns. The study subjects were 69 sixth graders in an elementary school in Taipei. In the experiment, they were divided into groups based on their levels of “reading comprehension”, “prior knowledge”, “daily zero pronoun reading comprehension” and were tested “the zero pronoun in science texts exam” chosen from text books by the researcher. Major findings were as follows: 1. Even if the contents were identical, students picked different referents when reading the texts with zero pronouns. It made students have diverse explanations and understanding to the texts. 2. The difference between students’ ability influenced their reading comprehension to zero pronouns in science text books. More capable students had better understanding to the science text books than that of less capable students. 3. The most influential element that affected students’ reading comprehension to zero pronouns in science text books was “daily reading comprehension to zero pronouns”. The second one was “reading comprehension”, and the third one was “prior knowledge”. 4. The factors that influenced students’ choice of referents in a text with zero pronouns could be divided into four categories: (1) Distance: the distance between a zero pronoun and its referent in a text. (2) Competition: number of competitors between a zero pronoun and its referent. (3) Saliency: the more coherent between competitors and the topic of the paragraphs is, the more salient the zero pronouns and its referent is. (4) Unity: whether a zero pronouns and its referent belongs to a same frame, a viewpoint or a paragraph. The four elements are the common impact factors that influence students’ verbal usage of zero pronouns or reading with zero pronouns in text books. 5. Students applied the following four strategies in order to solve the problems of reading with zero pronouns in a text book. (1) Prior knowledge: students searched the familiar parts of the sentences or lexicons in their memories to fill the blank that zero pronouns made. (2) Saliency: Most students could recognize which lexicons fit the topic best. The more coherent between the zero pronoun and the topic was, the more salient the referent was. (3) The clues in lexicons and sentences: When students used clues brought by verbs, adjectives and verbs, or compared pre- and post- sentences, it would be easier to find out the referent to its zero pronoun. (4) Punctuation: Use the characteristics of the punctuation to separate the sentences in a paragraph to find out the proper semantics. The four strategies were effective in helping students to look back for referents to their zero pronouns, and helped students to understand the text better.