A Study Of The Passive Voice Acquisition By Middle School Students From The Perspective Of Marked Ness Theory

Markedness Theory is the study of asymmetric phenomena of language. Thisthesis is undertaken to explore the influence of Markedness Theory on the acquisitionof English passive voice. The empirical study, based on the quantitative study andqualitative study, collects data in the form of test papers and interviews.The results demonstrate that during the process of passive voice acquisition, theacquisition of the marked voice is more difficult than that of unmarked voice. In otherwords, the passive voice is harder for middle school students to learn than the activevoice, since the passive voice is marked while the active voice is unmarked.Besides, the elements with high markedness degree is harder to learn than theone with low markedness degree, and the irregular forms of passive voice such as theomission of “to” in active voice, the addition of “to” in passive voice and active voiceexpressing passive meaning are more difficult for beginners to learn.Finally, the thesis investigates the underlying reasons for the errors made bybeginners and further confirms the relevance between the Markedness Theory and theacquisition of English passive voice. The author hopes that the research can providesome guidance for the future teaching and learning of English passive voice.