学位论文-英语专业本科生在英语议论文写作中动词使用错误分析.pdf

摘要英语动词一直以来是中国学习者二语习得过程中的重点和难点。汉语注重意 合，汉语动词没有明显的形态变化。而英语讲究形合，英语动词的形态变化使得 语言更加丰富多彩。这种差异就加大了中国学生学习英语动词的难度，在英语写 作中经常在动词使用中出现错误。而犯错，在习得第二语言过程中是不可避免的。作为应用语言学的一个重要分支，错误分析在外语教学和学习中起着重要的作用。尽管国内外对中国英语学习者写作的错误分析研究已经有很多，系统地对中 国不同年级英语专业学生写作中出现的动词错误的对比分析还很少。本研究将定 量研究和定性研究相结合，分析一至三年级英语专业学生写作中的动词错误，以 此来为中国英语学习者的写作发展提供一些启示。本研究旨在回答以下三个问题。(1)三个年级英语专业学生主要犯的动词错误类型有哪些？(2)三个年级英语专业学生的动词错误有何异同？(3)动词错误的原因是什么？本研究在每个年级收集50篇写作样本，共计150篇，并在写作后做相关问 卷调查。在对写作样本和问卷进行分析后，作者在每个年级中选取5名学生，进 行持续10分钟的访谈，在此之后对访谈内容进行整理。经分析写作样本、调查 问卷和访谈内容后，作者得出以下结论。(1)总的来说，三个年级的英语专业学生在他们的写作中都会犯动词错误。在总计26670个字的写作样本中，一共发现了 402个动词错误，平均每66.34 个词就会出现一个动词错误。比较三个年级来看，动词数量从大一年级至大三年 级呈下降趋势，并且大二与大三年级的错误变化量大于大一与大二年级的。动词 类型分为词汇错误和句法错误两大类以及拼写错误、选词不当、动词短语错误、及物性错误、时态错误、语态错误、主谓不一致错误、动词缺少及冗余、非谓语 动词错误、语气错误和情态及助动词错误，共11种子类型。(2)三个年级中间动词错误的共同点有：首先，动词在句法上错误占了大 多数比例，几乎是词汇错误的两倍。其次，在错误子类型方面，三个年级中，都 是主谓不一致错误、非谓语动词错误和选词不当错误占据前三位比例；情态及助 动词错误占据末位。不同点有：尽管三个年级的最高最低错误子类型是一致的，但其他子类型的比例在三个年级中分布各不相同；在三个年级中，尽管有些错误 子类型属于同一变化趋势，但是在各年级间的变化幅度不一致。IV（3）除了语际迁移和语内迁移带来的影响，本研究发现动词错误还与一些 四个因素相关：学习者的语言能力、努力程度和学习策略、相关课程和老师以及 学生的态度和心理因素。其中，学生学习态度和心理因素是主要原因。本研究共有三个启示：一是巩固基础语言知识、增加定期练习和扩大语言输 入；二是合理设计课程和课程的内容；三是激发学生学习的兴趣和自信心。尽管 本研究付出一些努力，但是仍然在三个方面有局限性。首先，这不是一个历时研 究。其次，研究对象数量不足以及写作体裁的单一性使得研究结果缺乏一些可信 度，需要用更大的研究对象和多体裁写作样本来佐证。希望未来的研究可以弥补 这些空白。关键词：动词错误；错误分析；英语写作；英语专业vTable of ContentsAbstract in English.IIAbstract in Chinese.IVTable of Contents.VIChapter On e Introduction.11.1 Research Background.11.2 Research Questions.21.3 Research Purpose and Significance.21.4 Organization of the Study.3Chapter Tw o Literature Review.52.1 Interlanguage.52.1.1 Definitions of Interlanguage.52.1.2 Features of Interlanguage.62.1.3 Stages of Interlanguage.62.2 Error Analysis.72.2.1 Development of Error Analysis.72.2.2 Definitions of Errors.92.2.3 Procedures of Erro r Analysis.102.3 Previous Studies on the Analysis of Verb Errors in Writing.152.3.1 Previous Studies on the Analysis of Verb Errors in Writing Abroad 152.3.2 Previous Studies on the Analysis of Verb Errors in Writing at Hom 16Chapter Th ree Methodology.183.1 Subjects.183.2 Instruments.183.2.1 Compositions.183.2.2 Questionnaires.193.2.3 Interview.203.3 Categorization of Verb Errors.203.4 Research Procedures.21Chapter Fo ur Results and Discussion.234.1 Types of Verb Errors in the Writings.234.1.1 Types of Verb Errors in the Writings from the Three Grades.234.1.2 Analysis of Verb Errors on the Lexical Level.284.1.3 Analysis of Verb Errors on the Syntactic Level.334.2 Similarities and Differences Among Verb Errors from the Three Grade.434.2.1 Similarities and Differences Among Verb Errors from the ThreeVIGrades on the Level of Error Category.434.2.2 Similarities and Differences Among Verb Errors from the ThreeGrades on the Level of Error Subcategory.444.3 Causes fbr Verb Errors.474.3.1 Language Proficiency.514.3.2 Learning Efforts and Strategies.524.3.3 Related Teachers and Courses.544.3.4 Learning Attitude and Psychological Factors.564.3.5 Interlingual Interference.574.3.6 Intralingual Interference.59Chapter Fi ve Conclusion.625.1 Maj or Findings.625.2 Implications of the Study.635.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Study.64References 66Appendix A 70Appendix B 71Appendix C 73Appendix D 77Appendix E 78Acknowledgments.79VIIChapter One IntroductionIn the first chapter of the whole thesis,the author first gives a brief introduction of research background,after which purpose and necessity of the research are presented.Whafs more,at the end of this chapter,organization of the whole thesis is stated.1.1 Research BackgroundListening,speaking,reading and writing are four basic skills in second language acquisition,among which writing skill is considered as the most difficult one fbr learners to reach a proficient level.Based on the teaching purposes and principles of Syllabus for English Majors in China,writing skill is one of the most significant skills which English majors are supposed to develop and ifs also a difficult and important point in English teaching and learning.Nowadays,researchers have gradually realized that Chinese students5 writing ability is far from proficient and one of the main reasons is that some low-level grammatical errors made by learners block their development of language skills and then limit their further study of second language.It is well-accepted that vocabulary is regarded as the center of a language.According to Harmer(1983),language structures form the skeleton of a language while vocabulary provides flesh and blood.Similar to nouns and adjectives,verbs are core vocabulary in English with high rate of usage.However,to most Chinese students,although it has been a long time for them to get in touch with English verbs,there still exist difficulties in their practical use of this part of speech.English is a language belonging to Indo-European languages with hypotaxis nature whose verbs have morphological variations in terms of person,class,tense,voice and mood while Chinese is a language belonging to Sino-Tibetan languages with parataxis characteristic whose verbs have no inflection.Due to the great differences between Chinese and English,Chinese learners are easily affected by their mother tongue(MT)and are likely to make verb errors during the process of English writing.Chinese Learner English Corpus(CLEC)totally tagged 72532 errors while the number of verb errors is 10899,representing 15.03%of the whole errors,which tops the list among the seven types of tagged errors,almost twice that of noun errors(Yang Huizhong et al.,2005).Therefore,it is of great significance to study verb errors existing in Chinese learners5 English writings in order to have a general 1comprehension of students5 proficiency of verb usage and provide practical pedagogical suggestions to teachers and students.In recent decades,researchers have laid great importance on the analysis of errors occurring in Chinese students compositions.However,it is found that most researchers mainly chose junior or senior high students or non-English major students as the research objects.Some other researchers focused on all errors made by English majors,but they did not pay special attention to the specific category of errors,namely verb errors.Up to now,there have been a limited number of researches focusing on comparing verb errors committed by Chinese English majors of different grades.Therefore,it is meaningful fbr this thesis to select Chinese English majors of different grades as the subjects.Whats more,through analyzing the 150 writing samples,similarities and differences among verb errors by three grade will be discussed.And the causes of the verb errors will be summarized with the help of questionnaires and interview.1.2 Research QuestionsThis paper is an empirical study on verb errors committed by three grades of English-major students.It aims at revealing major types of verb errors and finding out the similarities and differences among verb errors made by students of three grades with different English proficiency levels so as to discover the possible causes of these verb errors.Then,pedagogical implications fbr second language teaching and learning are summed up to improve students writing ability and optimize teachers5 teaching methods.This paper will address three questions as follow.(1)What are the major types of verb errors in English-major students of three grades respectively?(2)What are the similarities and differences among verb errors existing in the compositions by students of three grades?(3)What are the possible causes of these verb errors?1.3 Research Purpose and SignificanceThe task of this thesis is to reveal major types of verb errors committed by English majors of three grades in their English compositions.It aims at finding out the similarities and differences among verb errors made by students with different English proficiency levels to observe the developing trend of the errors.It will figure out the changes and stability in verb errors related to the learners5 grades.Whats more,the study intends to conclude possible causes of these verb errors and then provide some pedagogical suggestions for second language teaching and learning.2Error Analysis plays a significant role in second language learning and teaching as it not only deepens peoples understanding of errors,but also offers practical help to reduce errors.In recent decades,a large number of researches have been conducted on errors,but there are still some gaps waiting to be filled up.Some studies were just carried out theoretically without empirical studies and some chose CLEC as the data source which has been studied by too many researchers.Also,in most cases,non-English majors or high school students rather than English majors were chosen as the research subjects.Whats more,it is obvious that scholars preferred to consult the classification of verb errors used in CLEC instead of reclassifying the verb errors into a more systematic classification.At last,some studies just focused one specific aspect of verb errors,such as non-predicate errors or verb-noun collocation errors instead of providing a comprehensive study on all types of verb errors.In summary,as there are so many limitations existing in the previous relevant studies,the present study is worth carrying out.Choosing English majors as the research subjects,the study will be of help to both teachers and English majors.For teachers,it makes them know what major types of verb errors are,what the similarities and differences among verb errors made by students with different grades are,after which they are able to discover the error causes and then adjust their teaching content and methods.For students,it also helps English majors realize the importance of verbs,treat verb errors properly and then enhance their English writing proficiency.1.4 Organization of the StudyBased on the theory of Error Analysis,this thesis intends to analyze the verb errors committed by Chinese English majors.After collecting,identifying,describing and explaining the verb errors,the author hopes that this thesis is able to offer enlightening and feasible implications fbr English teaching and learning.This thesis includes five chapters.Chapter One is a brief introduction to the study.It presents the background of the research,research questions,the purpose and significance of the study,followed by the organization of the study.Chapter Two is literature review,which is made up of three parts.First,an introduction of Interlanguage is specified,including definitions,features and stages of Interlanguage.Second,Error Analysis is explained by stating the development of Error Analysis,definitions of errors and procedures of Error Analysis.Third,previous studies on the analysis of verb errors in writing abroad and at home are presented.Chapter Three is devoted to expound methodology.It states research subjects,instruments,categorization of verb errors as well as research procedures.Chapter Four is results and discussion,focusing on answering the three research questions of the study,which is the most important part of this paper.By identifying 3.Jand classifying verb errors in the writing samples,the author tries to find out main types of verb errors,summarize the similarities and differences of verb errors committed by different grades,explore the causes of verb errors and then make suggestions to solve the problem.Chapter Five is the conclusion part of the research with a brief summary of the major findings and implications of this study,with limitations and suggestions for future research followed.4Chapter Two Literature ReviewThis study is conducted based on Interlanguage theory and Error Analysis theory in order to analyze verb errors committed by English majors.Therefore,this chapter will introduce Interlanguage theory and Error Analysis theory first in Section 2.1 and 2.2,and then briefly review the related studies on the analysis of verb errors in English writing abroad and at home in Section 2.3 and 2.4.2.1 InterlanguageIn the process of second language acquisition(SLA),it is inevitable for learners to make errors in every stage and aspect.But it had been a long time that researches on foreign language learners were scattered and unsystematic until 1940s.From 1940s to 1960s,researchers started to fbcus attention on Contrastive Analysis(CA)to find similarities and differences between learners5 mother tongue(MT)and target language(TL).Then,they shifted their focus towards Error Analysis(EA)on learners5 language itself so as to reveal rules in SLA from 1970s.Meanwhile,the language used by learners independent from both MT and TL,termed Interlanguage attracted scholars5 attention.They attempted to provide a better approach to guide foreign language learning and teaching through studying the characteristics and developing rules of Interlanguage.This thesis,based on the theory of Error Analysis,is carried out under the guidance of Interlanguage theory.2.1.1 Deflnitions of InterlanguageIn the end of 1960s,with the fade-out of CA,people start to do researches on Interlanguage from different perspectives in order to understand the nature of SLA.The concept closest to Interlanguage first appeared in The Significance of Learners Errors written by Corder(1967).In this article,Corder defines learners5 foreign language ability which does not live up to the standard level of the target level as transitional competence.Seiinker(1969)first puts forward the concept of“Interlanguage“in his article Language Transfer and then in 1972,he establishes the important place of Interlanguage in SLA in his paper Interlanguage(Shu Dingfang&Zhuang Xiangzhi,2008:66).Seiinker(1972:214)points out that Interlanguage,a special language belonging to second language learners,is independent from both MT and TL and actually it is an intermediate status between the two languages.Meanwhile,along with the process of SLA,Interlanguage is gradually developing,changing and then 5approaching the system of TL.In fact,the development of Interlanguage is a process of approximating to TL but never achieving the goal easily.2.1.2 Features of InterlanguageInterlanguage possesses its own features which are different from MT and TL.These features represent the development of the learners competence in the process of second language learning.Seiinker(1972)puts forth three main features of Interlanguage as follows.(1)Interlanguage is permeable which means it is an open system able to be modified.This feature is a universal one for all natural languages,but the only difference lies in the degree of permeability.According to Adjemian(1976),natural languages are fundamentally stable in different aspects of language while Interlanguage is continuously open to new language forms and rules.In other words,Interlanguage takes them in,and amends itself with them,making learners5 Interlanguage approach TL constantly.(2)Interlanguage is dynamic,changing with the development of learners5 second language proficiency.The change is not abrupt and rapid