中国学生学习英语疑问句的模式的调查

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PATTERNS OF LEARNING ENGLISH INTERROGATIVE STRUCTURES BY EFL LEARNERS IN CHINA,

1.引言在第二语言习得研究的领域里,已有调查显示,不同母语背景的英语学习者在学习英语简单疑问句和特殊疑问句时有若一些相同的过渡阶段。这些研究提出了一种假设:无论英语学习者的母语背景是什么,他们在学习英语疑问句的过程中必须经历一些带普遍性的阶段。这方面的研究对寻找外语学习的普遍规律无疑是一种贡献(见Ravem,1968,1974;Wode,1978;Felix,1981;

A study, investigating the patterns in which Chinese EFL learners learn four major classes of English questions. Data from a translation test were used in a hierarchical analysis to determine an order of difficulty for Chinese learning English questions, and the transitional patterns were compared with ESL learners of other language backgrounds. The tentative hierarchy: the learning of yes/no questions precedes that of wh-questions, which precedes that of alternative questions. Another finding concerns the interaction between non-inversion errors and errors reflecting confusion between auxiliaries as question operators. It appears that a decrease of non-inversion errors is accompanied by an increase of 'do' vs. 'be' confusion errors at certain stages, suggesting that auxiliary confusion is a more advanced error type. The findings suggest that Chinese EFL learners undergo question learning processes similar to those of other ESL learners.