| Based on the longitudinal follow-up study and interlanguage writing corpus, this thesis mainly focuses on the developing process of Chinese Particle "Le" among English speaking students, aiming to find the universal acquisition process and developmental sequence.Firstly by adopting the longitudinal method, with actual dialogues, it tracks two American students of different levels for seven months to find out how they acquire "Le" in the target language environment. With a comparison of "The Relative Frequency of Use" between the American participants and a Chinese native, the study indicates that the frequency of use of foreign students is much lower than that of the native, and the frequently used categories are different even in the oral corpus from the advanced participant. Based on those findings, it probes into the multiple factors that constantly affect the usage of "Le" in L2acquisition process. The paper also analyses the correct rate and MLU of them to see how their usage of "Le" changes through time and discuss their acquisition stage:Silence, Trial-and-error, Happening, Upsurge, Falling after rise, and Stability.Secondly, the study of interlanguage writing corpus reveals that its frequency of use and correct rate of American students from high-level, intermediate-level and low-level group vary and increase along with the passage of time and raise of the learning level. High-level group tends to indicate more accuracy and complexity, while more variety and overgeneralization are found in intermediate group. Moreover, it as well looks into errors constantly seen at different groups, especially those "fossilized" in advanced speakers, to see in what context they might occur.Thirdly, based on results from above, the paper summarizes the universal acquisition process of Chinese particle ’Le" for English speaking students from beginning to advanced level.In response to the long existing question in this field about which "Le" would be firstly acquired, by summarizing the developmental sequences found in both oral and writing corpus analysis and comparing with those of previous research, it points out T8or "Le1+2" is the very first structure acquired orally by American students while T1or "Le1" seems to be the first in the writing context. Besides, the paper also finds the certain developmental process of "Le" acquisition among the American learners.Finally, from the perspective of increasing learners’ accuracy, complexity and variety, it tries to provide some suggestions for teaching Chinese as a foreign language in the view of Chinese textbooks and teachers with findings of this study. |
