摘 要

词汇意识是元语言意识的组成部分，它指把词语作为一个独立单位并加以分割的意识和发挥词语作用以传递其意义的意识。词汇意识可以从心理学的角度反映出双语学习对语言认识能力的影响。

本研究以 45 位来自南京两所小学的一年级学生为研究对象，将他们分为三组，并对他们做了三个测试，包括词语切分、字数计算和词语大小判断。研究结果表明：（1）平衡双语者比单语者表现出词汇意识优势；（2）平衡双语者在词汇模糊意识和构词意识上比单语者和不平衡双语者能力强；（3）不平衡双语者在认知方面有明显优势，其词汇意识能力与单语者没有差异。总体看来，双语学习对儿童认知的影响是正面的，尤其是有利于加工控制能力和选择注意能力等发展，从而促进了儿童词汇意识的形成和发展。

关键词：双语儿童；词汇意识；构词意识；认知；加工控制能力；选择注意能力

Contents

1. Introduction 1
   1. Research background 1
   2. Significance of the study 1
   3. Structure of this thesis 2
2. Demonstration 2
   1. Literature Review 2
      1. Studies abroad 2
      2. Studies at home 4
      3. Summary 5
   2. Methodology 5
      1. Research Questions 5
      2. Subjects 6
      3. Materials 6
      4. Procedure 8
   3. Results 9
   4. Discussion 10
      1. Balanced bilinguals vs monolinguals 10
      2. Balanced bilinguals vs unbalanced bilinguals 11
      3. Monolinguals vs unbalanced bilinguals 12
3. Conclusion 13
   1. Major findings 13
   2. Pedagogical implications 13
   3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research 14

Bibliography 15

Appendix 17

The Impact of Bilingual Education on Children’s Word Awareness

Introduction

• 1. Research background

Lexical awareness refers to the extent to which children can understand words as the structural unit of the main meaning of language as well as the nature of the words. It obtained extensive research in the field of alphabetic writing. The research on lexical awareness not only focuses on the age and its features but also the theory assumption. For instance, whether lexical awareness is the general cognitive development, the results of language acquisition or the dependence on the obtain of literacy. The age at which children will obtain word awareness has been argued a lot. Most researches, however, suggest that 6-year-old is the significant age during the development of meta-linguistic awareness. The age of 6 is also the age at which children begin to have formal instruction in reading and writing.

From the views of some research results on word awareness done by different researchers in recent years, it is obvious to us that there is a great difference in the age at which children obtain word awareness. This kind of difference can be classified as the different research methods and research assignment. But no one can deny that children have an implicit understanding of meta-linguistic awareness at an earlier age. This kind of understanding may reflect the temporary comprehension from some words in some specific culture.

The important role of the words in learning and using language is beyond doubt. Wilkins, a distinguished scholar, once said, “Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.’’ It is observed that a large vocabulary is essential to language learning and the understanding of articles.

• 1. Significance of the study

This paper is based on a questionnaire survey. The data will be analyzed. I will focus on whether bilingual education has positive or negative impact on children’s word awareness.

Hopefully, the research results will deepen the acknowledgement of the development of word awareness. Moreover, it will be useful to the enactment of English language education policies.

• 1. Structure of this thesis

This thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter one aims to provide brief information for the research to enable readers to understand what this thesis is going to talk about. The research background, the necessity of this study and the structure of this thesis are presented. Chapter two is the main body of this thesis. It reviews the studies about the impact of bilingual education on children’s word awareness both at home and abroad. This chapter also focuses on the procedure and the results of the research. Chapter three summarizes the major findings and implications of this thesis. Limitations and some suggestions for the future studies are also listed in this part.

Demonstration

This chapter is the main body of the whole paper. This chapter consists of four parts including literature review, methodology, results and discussion.

• 1. Literature Review
     1. Studies abroad

In other countries, researchers closely link the study on word awareness with the study on the ability of children’s meta-cognitive ability. The acquisition of word awareness is different from the simple vocabulary learning. The development of word awareness reflects more on the development of children’s psychological cognition. Preschool children, who use English as their second language, can only get English

related interaction from family and training institution. The recent studies find that there are not any negative impacts of bilingual education on children’s word awareness, and the negative impacts exit theoretically．

According to Piaget's cognitive development theory, the development of children’s cognition mainly generate from the interaction with the outside world. Bialystok (2008) proposed a two-component-model which includes the analysis of language knowledge and the control of language processing. This proposal can also be used to explain the advantages that bilinguals have in terms of word awareness.

The analysis of language knowledge is the structure, organization and the explanation of children’s implicit language skill. The control of language processing refers to the skill element that one chooses information from mental representation and turns his attention to the specific aspects of stimulus situation when solving a problem, which is actually the manifestation of attention control in language processing. The advantage that bilinguals have in meta-linguistic awareness, which includes lexical, phonological and syntactic awareness, can be classified as the advantage in control process.