A Study On The Second Language Acquisition Of Interrogatives By Beginners

The study investigates two hundred students enrolled in Paralleled classes in the School of International Studies at East China Normal University, Dong Hua University and several others. From the analysis of test paper, we get a general idea of the situation of "interrogative pronouns" mastered by the beginning learners. Based on the results of Second Language Acquisition from the "Interrogatives" data, we found that there are differences and similarities among different interrogatives and the different usage of the same interrogative. Considering theories on Second language Acquisition and taking into account the characters of Chinese language we try to explore the rules and their explanations, then as a result we draw our own conclusions, the result of which will shed light on the teaching of Chinese to foreign students. With the cross-sectional study and through the collection and description of language data, we look into the features of the acquisition of the grammatical item of "Interrogative Pronouns" during the period.All in all, the thesis discusses the following aspects:1. What's the difficulty level and order of acquisition between interrogatives and of similar or different usages.2. What's the reason for the characters of acquisition of Interrogatives.3. What kind of factors influenced this result.First, on the syntactical level, we found that there are big differences and similarities of the different Interrogatives. We also further analysis of the data from the perspective of mechanism and psychology. We conclude that factors as follows affect the acquisition situation of the grammatical item "Interrogatives" in SLA, which are Language transfer, Language generalization, Language markedness, Cognitive Difficulty, Language Teaching and Strategy, Resetting Hypothesis in UG. Specifically, the semantic complexity, language forms and the format of sentences are the most influential elements, at the same time, learning environment is also important in SLA. In addition, classroom teaching and the process of teaching should be mentioned.Our research on the acquisition of Interrogatives in Chinese as a second language by beginners has been a new attempt in this field by far. We will expect further discussion and research on on this area.