Chinese English Learners＇ Text Reading Strategy Research

Reading strategies are different from identifying the words, but a kind of metacognitive activity based on the monitoring mode. This paper will explore Chinese English learners＇ text reading strategies according to the cognitive process of the reading, hoping for providing some suggestions and references for Chinese college students to learn English well and improve the text reading ability.

A Corpus-Based Study on Synonyms in Chinese Learners'English:A Case Study of Affair"and"Event"

Using British National Corpus(BNC)as the reference corpus and Chinese Learner's English Corpus(CLEC)as the observed corpus,this paper attempts to analyze synonyms in Chinese learners5 English based on"event"and tcaffair.?,By comparing the frequency,colligation,collocates,and semantic prosody of the two words in BNC,it is found that"event"and“affaiT”differ from each other in terms of frequency and semantic prosody.The same comparison is made between BNC and CLEC.It is found that Chinese learnersJ English vocabulary is rather small,and there is no significant difference in the semantic prosody of the two words between English native speakers and Chinese English learners except that Chinese English learners have a misunderstanding about"love affair,which may be attributed to their negligence of semantic prosody in the process of learning.

On the Teaching Methods to Balance Fluency & Accuracy for Chinese University English Learners

By dividing English learners in Chinese university context into intermediate and advanced level learners, the essay argues that fluency rather than accuracy is needed for most university students. It further discusses some suitable teaching methods in both contexts respectively to balance this pair of objective focus.

Intensifier-Verb Collocations in Academic English by Chinese Learners Compared to Native-Speaker Students

It is difficult for L2 English learners in general, and especially Chinese learners of English, to form idiomatic collocations. This article presents a comparison of the use of intensifier-verb collocations in English by native speaker students and Chinese ESL learners, paying particular attention to verbs which collocate with intensifiers. The data consisted of written production from three corpora: two of these are native English corpora: the British Academic Written English(BAWE) Corpus and Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers(MICUSP). The third one is a recently created Chinese Learner English corpus, Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners(TECCL).Findings suggest that Chinese learners of English produce significantly more intensifier-verb collocations than native speaker students, but that their English attests a smaller variety of intensifier-verb collocations compared with the native speakers. Moreover, Chinese learners of English use the intensifier-verb collocation types just-verb, only-verb and really-verb very frequently compared with native speaker students. As regards verb collocates, the intensifiers hardly, clearly,well, strongly and deeply collocate with semantically different verbs in native and Chinese learner English. Compared with the patterns in Chinese learner English, the intensifiers in native speaker English collocate with a more stable and restricted set of verb collocates.

An Empirical Study on the Effectiveness of Language Learning Strategy Training for Chinese Adult English Learners

This paper explores how to implement effective strategy training for part-time Chinese adult English learners in a tertiary FLT （Foreign Language Teaching） classroom. Through a study of threx~ semesters during which six sessions of learner training workshops and constant, integrated task-based instruction were carried out, empirical evidence was collected via the instrument of questionnaires, interviews, learners＇ regular written reports, and the findings indicate that： （1） The students reported a statistically significant increase of the overaU average frequency of language strategy use over all SILL （The Strategy Inventory for Language Learning） items with 2.95 at the beginning and 3.61 at the end; and （2） Well-organized, explicit, and discrete leaner training workshops combined with frequent, explicit, and integrated task-based strategy instruction are an effective and helpful way to improve learners＇ awareness, selection, and frequency of strategy use, which can further foster learner autonomy.

A Study on Chinese English Leamers＇ Use of Emotion Words

Most educated Chinese take English as an important communication tool and the language has been increasingly frequently used in all walks of life in the country. This paper is to examine the use of English emotion words on the target group of English learners in China. The study is designed to find out the relationship between the use of emotion words and such relevant variables as language proficiency, gender, and age. The results demonstrate that the use of emotion words is significantly linked to the level of proficiency as well as gender. Age is found to have slight effect on the use of emotion words. The study also reveals that more positive emotion words are produced than negative ones in the speech. Based on the major findings, some implications and suggestions are offered： Firstly, English learners in China are expected to improve their language proficiency, particularly that of listening and speaking. Secondly, they are supposed to enhance their culture awareness of English by means of exposing themselves to as much authentic language as possible.

On L2 English Learners’Formulaic Language Use and Spoken English Fluency

This study explored the distribution of three types of English formulaic language, which involves four categories in L1 Chinese L2 English learners’ speaking performance. In addition, it investigated the relationship between the English learners’ use of formulaic language and their spoken English fluency. A CCA(canonical correlation analysis) was conducted to examine the correlations between two sets of fluency variables(dependent variables) and linguistic variables of English formulaic language use(independent variables). The fluency variable set consists of:(1)temporal indices such as SR(speech rate), AR(articulation rate), MLR(mean length of run), and PTR(phonation time ratio);(2) linguistic variables of English formulaic language like F2 R(twoword formulaic sequences/run ratio, B3 R(three-word lexical bundles/run ratio), and B4 R(fourword lexical bundles/run ratio). These are calculated according to the frequency of the English formulaic language in the speech samples of the participants(n = 86) across three academic levels.The results indicate that the learners’ spoken English fluency is highly related to their use of English formulaic language. Its limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Interlanguage Fossilization in Chinese EFL Writing --An Empirical Research of 20 English Major Students

This research is designed to investigate interlanguage fossilization in Chinese college students＇ written output. Twelve common linguistic errors from 20 Chinese EFL （English as a foreign language） learners＇ writing assignments are observed. Results show that among 12 typical errors, five types of errors are declining while the rest are increasing, indicating a tendency towards fossilization. Analysis shows that negative/corrective feedback has played a key role in reducing fossilization of some errors, but it does not work in every case. Some errors tend to be fossilized for several reasons. First, language items that do not have a direct form-function relationship are likely to be fossilized. Second, advanced learners create their own language system and neglect the basic rules of grammar. Third, task difficulty takes learners＇ attention away from form to meaning. Fourth, ingrained thinking patterns have a great impact on how learners organize their thoughts in writing. It is true that many Chinese EFL advanced learners reach a plateau in the process of acquiring English. However, attention, consciousness, and training of self-monitoring ability will help destabilize their interlanguage system.

PROTOTYPIC EFFECTS IN VOCABULARY ACQUISITION: EVIDENCE FROM CHINESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

This paper is based on the assumption that semantic categories vary from one language to another and prototypes of semantic categories are culture-specific. Prototypicality has its effects in acquisition of second foreign language vocabulary. The author hypothesizes that focal member words and basic level words are acquired earlier than non-focal member words and words on other levels of lexical hierarchies when prototypes of the target language correspond to those of the mother tongue in the same semantic categories. The results of a vocabulary test on beginner, intermediate and advanced learners of English as foreign language confirm the hypothesis. The paper concludes that learning a second foreign language means, to an extent, learning to categorize the worm in a different way, and prototypic effects should be given due attention in vocabulary instruction.

THE TEACHING OF PRONUNCIATION TO CHINESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

English pronunciation is being unduly neglected or even ignored in some of our colleges anduniversities.Its role and necessity are not yet generally realized,and English phonetic courses areusually left to chance or given no place in our teaching or learning.The result is as Baker(1982,pl)states:‘advanced students find that they can improve all aspects of their proficiency in English excepttheir pronunciation,and mistakes which have been repeated for years are impossible to eradicate.’The long-term solution to this problem,I would suggest,is to have a compulsory phonetic coursebccause an active command of pronunciation will help promote the entire learning process.

Metaphorical Explanations for Misuse of the English Preposition IN by CELs:A Corpus Analysis

There exist differences between the usages of prepositions in English and Chinese, not only for the different cultural backgrounds, but for the different cognitive models. The use of English prepositions is a great challenge for Chinese English learners (CELs). This essay discusses the misuse of the English spatial preposition IN by CELs, using the data collected from Chinese Learner English Corpus (CLEC) against other corpora such as BNC, FLOB, FROWN as reference corpora. The statistical data, such as Frequency and Type/Token Ratio (TTR) of IN, shows that the overuse of IN is typical for Chinese English learners, and it also offers a reasonable explanation for the misuse of IN using the image schema in cognitive metaphor theory (CMT). The polysemy of the spatial preposition IN can be divided into different image schemas. Chinese English learners can avoid preposition misuse with the help of image-schemas.