中文摘要

本研究以57名三至五歲幼兒為對象，探討學前幼兒的語言能力與心智理解能力兩者之間的關係。其中語言能力除了以看無字圖畫書「青蛙，你在哪裡？」編故事的方式，收集敘事語料以分析幼兒的平均語句長度及複雜句，並進行「一般語言能力測驗（接受性語意能力及語用能力）」、「語法能力測驗」、「補語句型理解作業」的測試。而心智理解能力則以「錯誤相信作業」、「意向作業」及「外表真實區辨作業」來評估。研究發現，幼兒在一般語言能力、補語句型理解能力與心智理解表現之間存在關聯性。幼兒各層面的語言能力與心智理解能力之間的關聯性，會隨不同年齡層，而展現在不同的語言層面。如：與心智理解能力有顯著關聯性的語言層面，在三歲組的發現是「接受性『語用能力』」；在四歲組的發現是「接受性『語意能力』」與「接受性『語法能力』」；在五歲組的發現是「接受性『語意能力』」、「接受性『語法能力』」及「接受性『語用能力』」。此外，四歲組和五歲組的補語句型理解能力，均與心智理解能力有顯著的關聯。研究者依據上述之研究發現，提出相關建議，以供教育及後續研究之參考。
關鍵字：學前幼兒、語言能力、心智理解

The relationship between language skills and understanding of theory of mind in young children

Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between language skills and understanding of theory of mind (TOM hereafter) in young children. Fifty-seven 3- to 5-year-olds were tested on general language (receptive semantic and pragmatic skills), receptive syntactic comprehension, complement-understanding, and TOM (including false-belief task, intention task and appearance-reality task). In addition, narratives of the book “Frog, where are you” were collected to analyze children’s mean language of utterance and production of complicated sentences. Results showed that the children’s general language ability and complement-understanding were positively related to their understanding of theory of mind. Receptive pragmatic ability of the 3-year-olds was found to be significantly correlated with their understanding of TOM. As for the 4-year-olds, the receptive semantic and syntactic skills were significantly correlated with their understanding of TOM. Receptive semantic, syntactic and pragmatic skills were all found to be significantly correlated with understanding of TOM in the 5-year-olds. Finding of this study also showed that complement-understanding ability in the four- and five-year-olds was significantly correlated with their understanding of TOM. Suggestions for future research and educational implications were proposed according to the findings of this study.
Key words：young children, language skills, theory of mind

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