自然手語與文法手語的詞彙記憶廣度比較

A Comparison of the Short-Term Memory Span for Words in Taiwan Sign Language and Manually Coded Chinese

中文文法手語是台灣聽障教育界慣用的教學語言；自然手語則是聾人社群溝通使用的手語，本研究的目的在比較手語使用者對於兩種手語的詞彙記憶廣度是否有差異，並進一步探討影響詞彙記憶廣度的可能因素。本研究以二因子混合實驗設計，自變項是手語構詞方式及手語使用者。手語構詞指的是自然手語簡單詞、複合詞及文法手語的贅加詞、串接詞等4 類。手語使用者指的是啟聰學校聾生、聾成人與聽成人等3 類。結果發現，在手語詞記憶廣度測量上，自然手語似有優於文法手語的趨勢，例如聾生對於自然手語簡單詞的記憶廣度優於文法手語的贅加、串接。聾成人的自然手語簡單詞與複合詞記憶廣度均優於文法手語的贅加、串接。聽成人的自然手語簡單、複合詞也優於文法手語的串接詞，但並未優於贅加詞。此外聽人有優於聾人的趨勢，例如在簡單、複合、贅加詞部分，聽成人明顯均優於聾生，而且在贅加詞方面亦優於聾成人。

In Taiwan, Manually Coded Chinese (MCC) is the main teaching method in schools for the deaf, while Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL) is the natural language used in the deaf community. The purpose of this study was to compare the short-term memory span for words in TSL and MCC. The dependent variables in our two-way ANOVA analysis were morphology and the deaf and hearing subjects (signers). The morphology included TSL simple words, TSL compounds, MCC added pleonasms, and MCC concatenated words. The signers included deaf students, deaf adults, and hearing adults. The results showed that for both deaf students and deaf adults, the short- term memory span was shorter with the MCC added pleonasms and MCC concatenated words than with TSL simple words and TSL compounds. For hearing adults, this short-term memory span was shorter with MCC concatenated words than with TSL simple and compound words. Memory plays a key role in the cognitive process, so it was concluded that educators need to look more closely at the difficulties deaf students have in memorizing MCC words and reconsider the applicability of MCC to instruction.