This study attempted to identify the characteristics of collocations and determine the existence of a relationship between collocations and coherence in writing by Chinese students. This study produced the following r...This study attempted to identify the characteristics of collocations and determine the existence of a relationship between collocations and coherence in writing by Chinese students. This study produced the following results： （1） Common mistaken collocations are seen in the writings by Chinese non-English and English majors; specifically, both English majors and non-English majors made more lexical collocational mistakes than grammatical collocational mistakes in terms of the total number of mistakes and in the type of mistaken collocations; （2） No evident relationship between the correct usage of collocations and coherence is found in the writings of non-English majors as compared to that of English majors. Thus, we can conclude that with the development of skills with the English language, the relationship between the correct use of collocations and coherence becomes increasingly stronger.展开更多
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＇ writi...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.展开更多
This paper makes comparison among CLEC, the Brown Corpus and the LOB Corpus, and studies the Chinese students＇ contraction strategies in English writings. It draws the temporary conclusion that Chinese students of va...This paper makes comparison among CLEC, the Brown Corpus and the LOB Corpus, and studies the Chinese students＇ contraction strategies in English writings. It draws the temporary conclusion that Chinese students of various English levels tend to overuse contracted forms in their writings, and thus makes their writings more informal and conversational. There are even a few students trying using informal contractions such as ＂gonna＂, ＂wanna＂, etc. It is necessary to remind Chinese English learners of paying attention to the standard contraction strategies in their writings.展开更多
To get more insight into using self-assessment in writing instruction, the present study intends to explore the effects of student self-assessment on students＇ EFL writing by adopting writing assignments, analytic sc...To get more insight into using self-assessment in writing instruction, the present study intends to explore the effects of student self-assessment on students＇ EFL writing by adopting writing assignments, analytic scoring rubric, questionnaires and interviews. It is found that students are able to make judgments about the overall quality of their writing in a manner consistent with those made by the teacher and students made significant improvements in content, organization, and mechanics of their writing after the practice of self-assessment while qualities concerning vocabulary and language use have been improved but not to a significant level. Moreover, the study demonstrates that the practice of self-assessment has exerted positive influence on students＇ perceptions of their writing skills in terms of organization, language use and mechanics while it does not result in any change of students＇ perceptions of their writing skills in content and vocabulary. These implications are conductive to working out a set of new models of the teaching of writing and helping further intensify the innovations of Chinese foreign language teaching.展开更多
This article develops an empirical an investigation on the errors in compositions written by students who are studying in Luzhou Vocational and Technical College （LVTC） and Luzhou Medical College （LMC） and contras...This article develops an empirical an investigation on the errors in compositions written by students who are studying in Luzhou Vocational and Technical College （LVTC） and Luzhou Medical College （LMC） and contrasts them in order to trace the source of the errors. It finally turns out to be that there exists strong correlation between students＇ academic quality and the number of errors of various types. Compared with ordinary university students, vocational and technical college （VTC） students＇ interlanguage （IL） errors seem to be more rudimental, and more negative-transferring, most of which are influenced by their mother tongue （MT）-Chinese. VTC students＇ general error in writing is misspelling, while university students ＇ major error lies in collocation. In this thesis, some practical enlightenment about learning and teaching English writing are also proposed.展开更多
As the number of Chinese international students studying in the U.S. has grown dramatically in recent years, there has been increasing attention to how English Composition instructors approach these students＇ writing...As the number of Chinese international students studying in the U.S. has grown dramatically in recent years, there has been increasing attention to how English Composition instructors approach these students＇ writings. Using a dialogue format representing ＂narratives of classroom life＂ （Nelson, 2011a）, this paper demonstrates two polemic views held by teachers and researchers： one view sees students＇ language use as problematic as it differs from the expected standards required for academic success in the U.S., while the other calls for more tolerance of the students＇ linguistic and cultural diversity and accordingly, more strategic ways to give ＂error feedback.＂ By opening up the debate, the paper explores possibilities for teachers in the U.S. and around the world to help their students address the gap between academic expectations, and what they are currently capable of.展开更多
文摘This study attempted to identify the characteristics of collocations and determine the existence of a relationship between collocations and coherence in writing by Chinese students. This study produced the following results： （1） Common mistaken collocations are seen in the writings by Chinese non-English and English majors; specifically, both English majors and non-English majors made more lexical collocational mistakes than grammatical collocational mistakes in terms of the total number of mistakes and in the type of mistaken collocations; （2） No evident relationship between the correct usage of collocations and coherence is found in the writings of non-English majors as compared to that of English majors. Thus, we can conclude that with the development of skills with the English language, the relationship between the correct use of collocations and coherence becomes increasingly stronger.
文摘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.
文摘This paper makes comparison among CLEC, the Brown Corpus and the LOB Corpus, and studies the Chinese students＇ contraction strategies in English writings. It draws the temporary conclusion that Chinese students of various English levels tend to overuse contracted forms in their writings, and thus makes their writings more informal and conversational. There are even a few students trying using informal contractions such as ＂gonna＂, ＂wanna＂, etc. It is necessary to remind Chinese English learners of paying attention to the standard contraction strategies in their writings.
文摘To get more insight into using self-assessment in writing instruction, the present study intends to explore the effects of student self-assessment on students＇ EFL writing by adopting writing assignments, analytic scoring rubric, questionnaires and interviews. It is found that students are able to make judgments about the overall quality of their writing in a manner consistent with those made by the teacher and students made significant improvements in content, organization, and mechanics of their writing after the practice of self-assessment while qualities concerning vocabulary and language use have been improved but not to a significant level. Moreover, the study demonstrates that the practice of self-assessment has exerted positive influence on students＇ perceptions of their writing skills in terms of organization, language use and mechanics while it does not result in any change of students＇ perceptions of their writing skills in content and vocabulary. These implications are conductive to working out a set of new models of the teaching of writing and helping further intensify the innovations of Chinese foreign language teaching.
文摘This article develops an empirical an investigation on the errors in compositions written by students who are studying in Luzhou Vocational and Technical College （LVTC） and Luzhou Medical College （LMC） and contrasts them in order to trace the source of the errors. It finally turns out to be that there exists strong correlation between students＇ academic quality and the number of errors of various types. Compared with ordinary university students, vocational and technical college （VTC） students＇ interlanguage （IL） errors seem to be more rudimental, and more negative-transferring, most of which are influenced by their mother tongue （MT）-Chinese. VTC students＇ general error in writing is misspelling, while university students ＇ major error lies in collocation. In this thesis, some practical enlightenment about learning and teaching English writing are also proposed.
文摘As the number of Chinese international students studying in the U.S. has grown dramatically in recent years, there has been increasing attention to how English Composition instructors approach these students＇ writings. Using a dialogue format representing ＂narratives of classroom life＂ （Nelson, 2011a）, this paper demonstrates two polemic views held by teachers and researchers： one view sees students＇ language use as problematic as it differs from the expected standards required for academic success in the U.S., while the other calls for more tolerance of the students＇ linguistic and cultural diversity and accordingly, more strategic ways to give ＂error feedback.＂ By opening up the debate, the paper explores possibilities for teachers in the U.S. and around the world to help their students address the gap between academic expectations, and what they are currently capable of.
