Chinese Students’ Errors with English Syntax

Cirenwangdui

This paper was written for Chinese students who are currently learning English. It mainly focuses on some common problems that Chinese students usually have in learning English grammar in terms of parts of speech， adjective clauses， articles， conjunctions， and time and tenses， as well as pronouns， through a comparison of Chinese and English.

Chinese Students Errors with English Syntax

After thirty years of Chinas open policy， English learning has become very popular. Chinese students are listening to English songs or watching English movies at home or in their dormitories， reciting vocabulary at every corner of campuses， and practicing their grammar exercises in cafeterias. However， unlike those English learners whose mother tongue consists of Roman script， these same Chinese students who are used to Chinese characters still have many problems in their learning of English. They keep encountering difficulties in the process of learning English pronunciation， vocabulary， conversation， and grammar. This paper will mainly focus on some common problems that Chinese students usually have in learning English grammar in terms of parts of speech， adjective clauses， articles， conjunctions， and time and tenses， as well as pronouns， through a comparison of Chinese and English

Problems with parts of speech

For anyone who understands an Indo-European language， one thing they notice about Chinese is its lack of grammatical inflections （Li & Thompson， 2009， p. 715）. And in Chinese， “There is no established comprehensive grammatical classification， and the same word may often serve different structural functions” （Chang， 2001， p. 314）. According to Li and Thompson （2009， p. 715）， that is to say， most Chinese words have one unchanged form. This form does not change according to various grammatical categories that are familiar to English speakers. Therefore， Chinese students are frustrated with trying to memorize the related forms of English words and their functions in different sentences. They may remember the English eight parts of speech by heart， but fail to apply them correctly all the time， due to the habits from their own language. For instance， they sometimes cannot distinguish the difference between related words such as beautiful and beautifully， as well as to realize the fact that certain functions in an English sentence can only be produced by words form certain parts of speech （Chang， 2001， p. 314）. Therefore， they may say or write some utterances

Problems of relative clauses and adjectives

In terms of adjectives， Li & Thompson （2009） believe that there are no such words in Chinese that seem to fit the definition of ‘a(chǎn)djective in English. That is， although there are certain words that are used to describe nouns or pronouns from a grammatical point of view， it is difficult to tell the difference between ‘a(chǎn)djectives and ‘verbs （Li & Thompson， 2009， p. 717）. In Chinese， adjectives can often seem to behave like verbs. “Adjectives in Chinese are sativa verbs” （Campbell， 2000， p. 376）. For instance， the sentence “Amy is very beautiful.” is different according to the presence or absence of the copular verb in English and Mandarin （Li & Thompson， 2009， p. 717）.

In conclusion， Chinese students usually have difficulty in learning English grammar due to significant distinctions between the two languages. Chinese students have difficulty in using the eight parts of speech or not matching certain functions with certain word classes. Moreover， Chinese students have trouble in using relative clauses and adjectives.so Chinese students have trouble in producing the right one in speaking English. they are awkward. Finally， Chinese students have problems in handling time and tenses. They often cannot recognize time indicated by the main verb form in a sentence. we should be aware of the problems mentioned above， and try our best to think of more effective teaching methodologies in order to help the students to reduce their errors as much as possible. This will facilitate Chinese students learning English grammar more effectively.

References：

[1]Campbell，G.L.（2000）.Compendium of the worlds languages.London and New York：Routledge.

[2]Chang，J.（2001）.Chinese speakers.In Swan，M.&Smith，B.（Eds.）， Leaner English：A teachers guide to interference and other problems（2nd ed.，pp.314-321）.UK：Cambridge University Press.

[3]Chou，C.H.&Bartz，K.（2007）.The Effectiveness of Chinese NNESTs in Teaching English Syntax.Retrieved from http：//www.Catesol.org/07chou.pdf.

[4]Folse，K.S.（2009）.Keys to teaching grammar to English language learners：A practical handbook.The United States of America：The University of Michigan Press.

[5]Li，C.N.&Thompson，S.A.（2009）.Chinese.In Comrie，B.（Ed.）.The worlds major Languages（2nd ed.，pp.715-717）.New York：Oxford University Press.