摘要
台灣英語學習者在英語性別代名詞的使用上，經常出現錯誤。和中文的代名詞系統相比，英語代名詞系統相對複雜。英語代名詞系統在書寫及口說上都有性別的區分，而中文代名詞系統在口語上卻無差別。就英語性別代名詞的使用，母語為中文的英語學習者最常犯的錯誤就是將語句中所指的對象與錯誤的英語性別代名詞配對（Felzien，2011）。換言之，母語為中文的英語學習者經常會產出如His name is Katie這類的話語。
語言的產出與理解皆需要運用我們的認知能力，而要將先行詞與正確的性別代名詞連結，則需要認知能力中工作記憶的運作。因此，本研究探討台灣英語學習者英語性別代詞在口說和書寫上的使用情況，並探究工作記憶在其中所扮演的腳色，以期進一步了解台灣英語學習者英語性別代詞誤用的根本原因。
本研究共招募了30名英文能力為中高級的台灣英語學習者。他們皆完成了三項實驗。一項是用來測量受試者工作記憶容量的閱讀測驗（the reading span task），以及一個口說測驗和一個寫作測驗。在口說及寫作測驗中，受試者們皆須介紹一位外籍學生或是一部美國喜劇片中的一位角色。資料蒐集完之後，我們分析並比較了受試者在口說測驗及寫作測驗中英語性別代詞的使用情況。由於結果顯示受試者在寫作測驗中的性別代詞錯誤率趨近於零，我們只計算了受試者的工作記憶與口說測驗中的性別代名詞誤用比率的相關係數。
本研究結果顯示，在不同的語言產出型態中，台灣英語學習者更容易在口說時誤用英語性別代名詞，這或許是受到他們母語的影響。口說相較於寫作，較容易受到時間的限制。在口說過程中，語言產出的當下是極其迅速的，所以在語言產出的當下，很難有效的掌控自己的兩個語言系統，因此容易出現語言誤用。除此之外，我們也發現男性性別代詞常被誤用來代替女性性別代詞，而女性性別代名詞較少被誤用來代替男性代名詞。這或許是因為中文口語的ta沒有形式上的性別差異，但在書寫上有性別差異存在，而男性代名詞「他」的書面形式更可以同時用來指稱男性和女性。相較於以上的發現，我們並沒有在台灣英語學習者的工作記憶與英語性別代詞錯誤率之間發現顯著相關性。我們推測這可能是因為我們實驗中的英語學習者們都已經習得了英語性別代詞的知識，因此他們的工作記憶容量與他們的英語性別錯誤率並無法展現出顯著相關性。
本研究探討了語言產出型態和工作記憶對於台灣英語學習者使用英語性別代詞的影響，研究結果讓我們對台灣英語學習者性別代名詞誤用的根本原因有更進一步的瞭解。

ABSTRACT

Second language learners are susceptible to making errors in various aspects of their L2 for a variety of reasons. For Mandarin-Chinese learners of English, the relatively intricate pronominal system of English is a prevalent area in which mistakes occur, especially in the area of personal pronouns. One of the most commonly observed and persistent error amongst Mandarin-Chinese EFL learners is mismatching English gender-marked pronouns with the gender of the referent (Felzien, 2011). That is, Mandarin-Chinese EFL learners would frequently produce utterances such as His name is Katie. To connect a pronoun to its antecedent requires the antecedent to be kept in memory; in other words, pronoun resolution demands the operation of working memory (Qiu et al, 2013). Building on existing findings, the present study investigated Mandarin-Chinese EFL learners’ spoken and written productions of English gender pronouns and the role of working memory to provide more insight into the underlying causes of English gender pronoun misuse.
A total of 30 high-intermediate Mandarin-Chinese EFL learners were recruited for the present study. They all completed three tasks: a reading-span test to evaluate their working memory capacities; a speaking task and a writing task, both of which involved the introduction of a foreign student or a character from an American sitcom. The learners’ use of English gender pronouns was analyzed and compared between the speaking and writing tasks. Since the learners’ gender pronoun error rate of the writing task was close to zero, only their gender pronoun error rate in speech was analyzed with their working memory test scores to see whether there is a correlation between their working memory capacities and accuracy of gender pronoun production.
The results show that the Mandarin-Chinese EFL learners made more gender pronoun errors in speech than in writing. A plausible reason could be that speech is more time-constrained than writing, and thus learners’ L1 automatic procedure is harder to shut off and may compete for access with the learners’ L2 procedure for production. We also found that the male gender pronoun was more often misused for the female gender pronoun than the other way around. One possible explanation of this finding is that although Mandarin-Chinese does not indicate gender in the spoken form of pronouns, the written form of male gender pronoun 他 can act as a default representing both male and female pronouns. However, no correlation was found between Mandarin-Chinese EFL learners’ English gender pronoun error rate and their working memory capacities. It may be because all the learners from our study have fully acquired the knowledge of English gender pronouns, and thus their working memory capacity did not influence their accuracy of gender pronoun production.
The present study investigated the roles of language modality and working memory on Mandarin-Chinese EFL learners’ production of English gender pronouns. By looking at how Mandarin-Chinese EFL learners used gender pronouns in speech and writing, we were able to provide some insights into the underlying cause of EFL learners’ gender pronoun misuse.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT (Chinese) i
ABSTRACT (English) iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
LIST OF TABLES ix
LIST OF FIGURES x
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Research Background and Motivation 1
1.2 Goals of the Present Study 5
1.3 Organization of the Thesis 6
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 7
2.1 L2 Errors and Second Language Acquisition 7
2.1.1 L2 errors in language production 8
2.1.2 Language production in different modalities 10
2.1.3 Theoretical accounts of L2 errors 13
2.1.3.1 Levelt’s model of speech production 13
2.1.3.2 Acquisition by Processing Theory 17
2.2 Working Memory and Second Language Acquisition 21
2.2.1 Working memory 21
2.2.2 Working memory and L2 speech 24
2.2.1 Working memory and L2 writing 27
2.3 Previous Research on L2 Learners’ Processing of Gender Pronouns 29
2.4 Mandarin-Chinese vs. English Pronominal System 34
2.5 Purpose of the Study 35
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 36
3.1 Participants 36
3.2 Instruments and Procedures 36
3.2.1 Speaking task 37
3.2.2 Writing task 37
3.2.3 Reading span test 37
3.3 Data Analysis 39
3.3.1 Speaking task analysis 39
3.3.2 Writing task analysis 41

3.3.3 Reading span test analysis 41
3.3.4 Inter-task analysis 43
CHAPTER IV RESULTS & DISCUSSION 44
4.1 Results and Discussion of Research Question 1 44
4.1.1 Results of research question 1 44
4.1.2 Discussion of research question 1 48
4.1.3 Self-repairs in speech 51
4.2 Results and Discussion of Research Question 2 55
4.2.1 Results of research question 2 55
4.2.2 Discussion of research question 2 56
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION 58
5.1 Summary of the Findings 58
5.1.1 Research question 1 58
5.1.2 Research question 2 60
5.2 Theoretical and Pedagogical Implications 60
5.3 Suggestions for Future Research 61
REFERENCES 63

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