Development of the progressive construction in Chinese EFL learners’ written production: From prototypes to marginal members

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianqi Wu ◽  
Min Wang
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Type Distribution ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Written Production ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Fixed Type ◽  
Increase In Productivity ◽  
Argumentative Essays

AbstractThis study investigates the developmental trajectory of L2 English progressive construction with a focus on frequency, verb-construction contingency and semantic prototypicality. Comparisons were made on the use of the progressive construction in argumentative essays written by Chinese learners at three different proficiency levels and English native speakers. Data of frequency and verb type distribution indicate that L2 learners’ progressive repertoire showed an increase in productivity and variability and a spread from a fixed type to a wider range of verbs. Contingency data demonstrate that, when associating verbs with the progressive, learners’ preference shifted from prototypical progressive verbs which denote specific and dynamic meanings to more marginal members represented by generic verbs. In addition, semantic prototypicality overweighs generality in driving the development of the progressive, which presents an interesting contrast with findings in the verb-argument construction learning literature where semantically general verbs were first predominantly used in the construction.

scholarly journals A CORPUS-BASED STUDY OF DIMINISHERS IN CHINESE EFL LEARNERS' WRITINGS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
LING FENG
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Written Corpus

This paper investigates the use of diminishers in Chinese EFL learners' written English (CLEC) and compares it with that in an English native speakers' written corpus (LOCNESS) through both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The corpus-based study reveals: (a) that there are similarities and differences in the frequency and pattern of usage of diminishers between Chinese EFL learners and English native speakers; (b) that the misuse, the overuse of some and underuse of other diminishers or patterns of diminishers indicate that Chinese learners have a different collocational range which could be affected by factors like mother tongue interference and the understanding of sematic prosody. Pedagogical implications of the study are also discussed to shed light on teaching English vocabulary and writing.LING FENG

scholarly journals Exploring Topic Effect on Syntactic Complexity of English Writings

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 98
Author(s):  
Bi Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Production Unit ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Argumentative Essays

This paper aims to explore topic effect on syntactic complexity in Chinese EFL learners’ and English native speakers’ writings. To this end, the paper examined 600 argumentative essays on two topics, using 14 measures of syntactic complexity to investigate whether there is significant difference in topic effect on EFL writings and ENS writings. Four dimensions are included in these 14 syntactic complexity measures, which are length of production unit, amount of subordination, amount of coordination and degree of phrasal sophistication. Results showed strong topic effect on both Chinese EFL writers and ENS writers in terms of length of production unit and particular structure. The topic effect differs in amount of coordination in that the Chinese EFL group produced different amount of coordination in the two topics, while the ENS group did not show significant difference in this aspect.

scholarly journals A Corpus-based Study of Collocation Production of Chinese EFL Learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Bowen Gao ◽  
Lin Zhu ◽  
Lin Zhu ◽  
Ziyan Luo ◽  
Ziyan Luo
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
School Students ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Language Influence

It is of great difficult for EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners to acquire collocation. This research investigated V + N collocation production of Chinese middle school university EFL learners based on TECCL (Ten-thousand English Composition of Chinese Learners) corpus, aiming at discovering the difficulties in collocation usage. In the study, collocations in the writing samples were identified manually and evaluated by dictionaries, corpus and native speakers as right or wrong. Collocation accuracy was figured out and errors were examined. Therefore, difficulties in collocation usage were discovered. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively to yield the following three findings: first, middle school students and university students respectively produced 79% and 83% correct collocations among their collocation production. Second, collocation accuracy did not improve significantly as overall L2 (second language) proficiency increases. Third, wrong choice of verb and noun was the largest problem for Chinese EFL learners. The results also suggested that L1 (first language) influence and deficiency in L2 knowledge affected collocation usage. Based on these findings, pedagogical implications were discussed.

scholarly journals Use of I in Essays by Japanese EFL Learners

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayo Natsukari
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
American Students ◽  
Problematic Issue ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Almost All

A problematic issue in Japanese EFL learners’ academic writing is the overuse of the personal pronoun I. The use of personal pronouns is particularly important in academic writing because it determines the writer’s perspective and attitude toward the readership. This study investigates the extent to which Japanese EFL learners’ use of the first-person singular I in essays is different from the norms of native speakers. By using subcorpora in the International Corpus of Learner English and the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays, the study compares the use of I in argumentative essays. The results indicate that Japanese EFL learners use I in a similar way to American students, but they overuse I in essays: Almost all essays by Japanese learners contain I and the number of I is excessive. The analysis also uncovers an excessive use of the phrase I think in their essays. 日本人英語学習者のアカデミックライティングにおける問題点のひとつとして主語のIの多用がある。本稿は、約20万語から成るICLE書き言葉コーパスを利用し、議論形式のアカデミックエッセーにおいて、日本人英語学習者の主語Iをどのように使用しているのか調査し、これをアメリカとイギリスの大学生が書いたアカデミックエッセーから構成されたLOCNESS書き言葉コーパスのデータと比較した。結果、日本人学生の人称代名詞のIの使用方法はアメリカ人学生のそれに類似していたが、全体的な過剰使用が確認された。特に、ほぼすべての学生がIを使用し、その量も過剰であった。I thinkというフレーズも母語話者の書き言葉に比べて過剰であった。本稿は、この過剰使用の問題点を議論する。

scholarly journals Lexical correlates of comprehensibility versus accentedness in second language speech

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 597-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAZUYA SAITO ◽  
STUART WEBB ◽  
PAVEL TROFIMOVICH ◽  
TALIA ISAACS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Surface Level ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Lexical Content ◽  
Lexical Factors

The current project investigated the extent to which several lexical aspects of second language (L2) speech – appropriateness, fluency, variation, sophistication, abstractness, sense relations – interact to influence native speakers’ judgements of comprehensibility (ease of understanding) and accentedness (linguistic nativelikeness). Extemporaneous speech elicited from 40 French speakers of English with varied L2 proficiency levels was first evaluated by 10 native-speaking raters for comprehensibility and accentedness. Subsequently, the dataset was transcribed and analyzed for 12 lexical factors. Various lexical properties of L2 speech were found to be associated with L2 comprehensibility, and especially lexical accuracy (lemma appropriateness) and complexity (polysemy), indicating that these lexical variables are associated with successful L2 communication. In contrast, native speakers’ accent judgements seemed to be linked to surface-level details of lexical content (abstractness) and form (variation, morphological accuracy) rather than to its conceptual and contextual details (e.g., lemma appropriateness, polysemy).

scholarly journals A Corpus-Based Study on the Use of the Logical Connector ‘Thus’ in the Academic Writing of Turkish EFL Learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Serpil Ucar ◽  
Ceyhun Yukselir
Keyword(s):  
Likelihood Ratio ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Log Likelihood ◽  
Log Likelihood Ratio ◽  
Effect Relation ◽  
Academic Genre

This research was conducted to investigate how frequently Turkish advanced learners of English use the logical connector ‘thus’ in their academic prose and to investigate whether it was overused, underused or misused semantically in comparison to English native speakers. The data were collected from three corpora; Corpus of Contemporary American English and 20 scientific articles of native speakers as control corpora, and 20 scientific articles of Turkish advanced EFL learners. The raw frequencies, frequencies per million words, frequencies per text and log-likelihood ratio were measured so as to compare varieties across the three corpora. The findings revealed that Turkish learners of English showed underuse in the use of the connector ‘thus’ in their academic prose compared to native speakers. Additionally, they did not demonstrate misuse in the use of the connector ‘thus’. Nevertheless, non-native learners of English tended to use this connector in a resultative role (cause-effect relation) more frequently whereas native speakers used it in appositional and summative roles more as well as its resultative role. Furthermore, the most frequent occurrences of ‘thus’ have been in academic genre.

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