從菁英教育到普羅教育―英語文教科書歷史

Evolution of English curriculum: A longitudinal vocabulary study of English textbooks

臺灣英語教育極少歷史縱向大範圍跨學習階段之研究。本研究檢驗各世代（20~60歲）在其國中小及高中所接觸的英文教科書，以比較教育中新制度學派世界文化理論為基礎，從教育普及化角度來檢視過去50年來的演變趨勢。共蒐集高中國中國小教科書共33版本1,921課，以語料庫字彙分析檢驗英語角色定位。研究發現1968年九年國民義務教育實施前英文課本的質量均顯著高於實施後20年，證實英語為菁英語言特性，但在40年內持續上升趨勢下，最年輕世代之英文課本質量已經超過最早英文還是菁英語言時的課本，顯示目前高中畢業生之預期英文程度和50年前只有少數菁英能達到的程度類似，且國高中之間的斷層在九年國教實施後出現，高中英文之質量是國中的2倍以上，此結果可解釋為高中英語課程仍以菁英教育方式設計，未考量近年來廣設高中政策將高中視為基本國民教育。

This corpus-based study investigated the transformation of English from an elite to a mass language as portrayed in textbooks used by five generations in Taiwan (ages of 20-69 years). By analyzing 989,629 tokens from 1921 lessons across 33 editions at elementary, junior high, and high school levels—from the 1960s to the 2010s—the study revealed distinct generational trends. Notably, the textbooks of the oldest generation, who experienced an era of elitist secondary education, exhibited more complex and extensive content than did textbooks for the generation now in their 40s and 50s. Notably, the textbooks for the generation now in their 20s had more content and a higher complexity level than did those used by the generation now in their 60s. The origin of the stark complexity gap between junior high and high school might be attributed to the 1968 implementation of compulsory education, a disparity that persists despite the introduction of English at the elementary level. Finally, the study recommends that curriculum designers should increase content quantity while reducing complexity in high school English textbooks to facilitate a smoother transition from junior high to high school.