A Corpus-based Study Of If-Conditionals In High School English Writing

The present study is intended to investigate the position distribution, semantic features and communicative functions of if-conditionals in high school English writing. The corpora employed in the study include St2(a corpus of writings by Chinese senior high English learners) and Flob/Frown (a reference corpus of native speaker English). The following research questions are to be addressed:1. What are the differences and similarities between Chinese senior high learner English writing and native English writing in the position of if-conditionals?2. What are the differences and similarities between Chinese senior high learner English writing and native English writing in the meaning and function of if-conditionals?3. What are the underlying factors responsible for the characteristics of if-conditionals used in Chinese senior high English writing?The investigations show that1. Both Chinese senior high English learners (hereinafter referred to as learners) and native speakers tend to put if-conditionals in the sentence-initial position, with the former being more frequent than the latter.2. In contrast to native speakers, learners tend to underuse if-conditionals for comment, statement and threat, while overuse them for suggestion, warning and promise and misuse if-conditionals for planning.3. L1transfer is one of the most important factors responsible for the differences between learner English and native English.On the basis of the above findings, some implications for EFL teaching and learning are discussed:1) Efforts should not only be spent on the form but also on the meaning and function of grammar structures in grammar teaching;2) Using corpus data in language teaching can help highlight typical patterns and usage of grammar structures;3) Teachers should make full use of the positive factors of L1transfer and try their best to avoid its negative transfer.However, the present study has its own limitations and needs improvement in future research.First, the classification and identification of the functions of if-conditionals may be subjective though the author has consulted many reference books and bigger context. Second, the uses of if-conditionals in this study have not been investigated completely and deeply enough.