Chinese College Learners Semantic Option Of English Articles Use

The system of English article is composed of definite article the. indefinite a (n) and zero0. Since the1970s. some researchers have proposed theories about semantic feature of English articles and noun classification. of which Article Choice Parameter. Fluctuation Hypothesis and Semantic Wheel Model are the more important from which the study is put forth to analyze article use of Chinese college learners from a semantic perspective.The study mainly explored whether different semantic contexts influenced the article use and how different subjects performed under four semantic contexts. The present study adopted fill-in-the-article-test which is targeted. It is different from previous research to investigate the accuracy rate of article use in the text. It lies in a new experimental approach used in the experiment:Use E-prime software in fill-in-the-article task to test article accuracy rate and reaction time. Because accuracy rate and reaction time for the study was obviously more persuasive.Three groups of participants (30low.30intermediate.30high level students) were recruited to take part in the fill-in-the-article task. The research adopted two factors within-subjects design by using subject types (low-, intermediate-, and high level) and four semantic types of noun phrase (Type1[-SR.＋HK]. Type2[+SR,＋HK], Type3[＋SR.－HK], Type4[－SR,－HK]) as independent variables. Article accuracy rate and reaction time are used as dependent variables. The research use3x4within-subjects design having twelve kinds of experimental conditions.The data was processed by statistical software SPSS (11.0). The procedures of statistical analysis were:First. General Liner Model with repeated measures were conducted in order to confirm whether semantic contexts were one of the important factor to influence accuracy rate and reaction time of article use and whether accuracy rate and reaction time in four semantic contexts were significantly different. Second, a one-way analysis of variance was used to determine accuracy rate and reaction time for the three groups in the four semantic contexts. Third, paired-sample T test was carried out to test whether the differences in mean percent of the in [+SR] and [+HK] contexts were statistically significant.The final analysis comes to the following conclusions:First, the accuracy rate of Chinese college learners is positively correlated with their English proficiency level. Second. Type2and Type4are proved to be the easiest while Type1is the most problematic for Chinese L2learners. The accuracy rate on Type4and Type2are significantly higher than that on Type1, and the reaction time on Type2are significantly shorter than others. That is. the two features of referentiality. namely [±SR] and [±HK]. have a significant influence on Chinese learners" article accuracy rate (F=99.932. P<.05) and reaction time (F=16.815. P<.05). Hypothesis1is upheld. Third. Chinese learners tend to associate the with [±SR] contexts rather than [±HK] contexts, for the overuse of the in [±SR] environments is significantly higher than that in [±HK] contexts (t=-5.489. p<.01). Hypothesis2is supported.The findings prove that the data on the task mainly follow the orders:Type2＞Type4>Type3>Type1. Based on this research, several suggestions are pointed out for English article instruction:First, more attention needs to be paid to the systematic and formal instruction and learning of English articles. Second. Type1is the most difficult for ESL. thus the generic usage of English articles should be reinforced. Third. Type3and Type4are to distinguish the article a and0difficultly, so the concept of countability needs further clarification. Fourth. it is necessary to increase the awareness of zero article.