Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research Background
With China's rising international status and leading role in handling international affairs, Chinese language earns its popularity all over the world. More and more foreigners choose to study Chinese language. The spreading and promotion of Chinese language has become an important link between China and the international community. It makes the world to obtain a better understanding of China and Chinese culture. Without any doubt, cultivating Chinese language among more and more foreigners will definitely have positive effects on the relationship between China and the world. Accordingly, teaching Chinese as a foreign language embraces its golden period for developing. Tens of thousands of foreigners come to China for learning Chinese Language. Teaching Chinese as a foreign language has reached a considerable scale in Chinese universities. It gradually has been developed as a field which paramount importance is attached to. It is the platform where China shows the world the essence of its 5000 years’ civilization. Creating a high level subject of teaching Chinese as a foreign language will surely enhance the prestige of Chinese education in the world.
“In Chinese language learning, vocabulary and its meaning are always the key points laid ahead of the learners who learn Chinese as a foreign language or even as a mother tongue.”(Zhao Jinming，2004: 15) Without vocabulary, language learning will never be possible. The importance of vocabulary in teaching Chinese as a foreign language is without controversy. The primary function of language is communication. While a language is employed for communication, sentences are composed for utterance. In a language, vocabulary is the fundamental structural unit for sentences. The meaning of a sentence will not exist and lose its interpersonal function without vocabulary. “Due to the absence of vocabulary, organization and expression of utterance will become bricks without straw. Other various factors in language, such as phonetics, grammar will lose its foundation to exist.”(Wang Jihui，2000:4) In a word, priority should be given to vocabulary, especially for the starters. Only in this way will the learners acquire Chinese language easily.
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1.2 Research Significance and Purpose
“Research studies that focus on language learners and interest in language teaching methodology, whether for first language acquisition or for second language learning, have stimulated interest in both general language learning theory and language teaching practice. The most significant impact of the findings of second language acquisition (SLA) studies has been on teaching methodology. In the field of SLA, however, the majority of empirical studies have focused on learners’ acquiring English and various European languages. Much of this empirical research has been concentrated on interaction of cognate languages such as English and Spanish and has neglected an examination of genetically unrelated languages such as English and Chinese (Ren Changhui, 2001:1)”. As Ren demonstrated the significance of examining English and Chinese, analysis of Chinese primary lexical errors from international students, which aims to promote teaching Chinese as a foreign language, seems to be extremely important.
Chinese vocabulary teaching is complex and variable. It creates great disadvantage for Chinese teaching. The abundance, vividness and expressiveness make Chinese vocabulary teaching more complex and difficult. Characteristics like Word-formation, morphology, polyphony, polysemy, emotional coloring, stylistic differences and the profound cultural background make vocabulary teaching a challenging course.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Previous Reviews on Error Analysis Theory
2.1.1 Reviews on Error Analysis Abroad
It was not until late1960s that error analysis theory had turned into the applicable replacement of contrastive analysis. On the foundation of interlanguage, error analysis theory evolved from contrastive analysis. Therefore, delivering a brief introduction to the development of contrastive analysis is quite necessary. Lado(1957) raised the contrastive analysis theory in his monograph Linguistics Across Cultures. He was influenced by behaviorism. Contrastive analysis theory was demonstrated as the comparative study of two or more linguistic systems. The comparative study was supposed to carry out on a variety of levels, such as phonology, morphology, syntax and lexis. The similarities and differences were located in order to provide predictions about learning difficulties in the target language which learners of the source language were likely to encounter. The mission of contrastive analysis was to make synchronic study among two or more languages, to identify the differences and similarities, and thus apply the research in the related field (Xu Youlong,1992).
In the 1960s, as behaviorism theory declined, some critics began to doubt the capacity of contrastive analysis in predicting errors. It was under such historical background that error analysis theory appeared. With the emergence of The Significance of Learner’s Errors, written by British Linguistic Corder in 1967, error analysis and the study of Second Language Acquisition came into being. In 1972, American linguistic Selinker mentioned the theory of interlanguage in his thesis of Interlanguage. The theory of interlanguage laid the foundation for study of errors and L2 acquisition.
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2.2 Related Studies about Basic Principles and Methods in
Chinese Vocabulary Teaching Vocabulary is open and flexible. The teaching of vocabulary is even more difficult than teaching of phonetics and grammar. In the long-term teaching practice, many teachers realized the importance of vocabulary teaching for international students. They carried out a lot of research on vocabulary teaching and some remarkable achievements had been made. Some of these researches originated from the aspect of general design and principles, such as the general teaching design and basic principles. Whereas some derived from the aspects of teaching and learning.
For a long time, the study of language teaching has been affected by the thoughts of the standard theory. Standard theory forms the basic units of a language. It’s the basis of analysis of syntax. “ Word-standard” (Ma Jianzhong, 1898), “sentence-standard” (Li Jingxi, 1924; Shi Cunzhi, 1985; Gong Qianyan, 1996), “word group-standard” (Zhu Dexi, 1985) and “character-standard” came into being under the influence of standard theory. Accordingly, many teaching methods appeared, such as “word-centered”, “sentence-centered”,” word group-centered”, “character-centered”.
Scholars who insisted on “word-standard” thought that modern Chinese could only regard words, instead of characters, as the units of language structure. In addition, the words have features of coagulation in structure, integrity and independence in sense of meaning. During the process of teaching, structure and meaning of words should not be cut into pieces freely. They maintained that almost every word had its own property and vocabulary could only be “taught one by one, learned one by one” (Hu Mingyang, 1997:4).
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3. 1Interlanguage Theory .............................. 10
3.1.1 Interlanguage ........................................ 10
3.1.2 Language Transfer ............................... 11
Chapter Four Research Design .................... 16
4.1 Research Methodology .............................. 16
4.1.1 An Introduction to Research Objects .......................... 16
4.1.2 Research Tools and Software .............................. 17
Chapter Five Results and Analysis ............................... 22
5.1 The Results of Testing Papers and Questionnaire ......................... 22
5.1.1 The Result of Testing Papers ....................... 22
5.1.2 The Result of Questionnaire ............................ 24
Chapter Five Results and Analysis
5.1 The Results of Testing Papers and Questionnaire
5.1.1 The Result of Testing Papers
The data collected from testing papers is cross-sectional (i.e. at a single point in time). Generally speaking, SLA researches show preference to natural samples in most situations. However, it’s hard for the students to produce spontaneous data under research circumstance. But the testing papers can help to identify what types of errors would occur in a highly efficient monitoring system.
Errors caused by the identical reason are included in the same category and the number of errors is accumulated together under the specific error type. Sometimes an error happens because of many factors, but it will be referred to the most obvious one.
In the sample collection, 133 students are taken into consideration, and 266 testing papers of theirs are adopted. All the errors in the testing papers, of which lexical errors are included, have been carefully identified by the teachers during the process of marking the testing papers. The author has located 986 lexical errors from 266 testing papers. An experienced teacher is also invited to recheck the papers so as to further identify some ambiguous ones to endure the cover of all errors.
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Chapter Six Conclusions
6.1 Major Findings
reference(omitted)