Optimizing Adjective Error Warnings In ECLDs

This study is on adjective error warnings in ECLDs.English adjectives with a high frequency of occurrence and complicated usage have been a great hindrance to Chinese EFL learners.Chinese learners in all stages cannot avoid making errors in using English adjectives.In recent years,there is an increasing number of researchers who have realized the significance of studying learners' errors and the importance of presenting error warnings in learners' dictionaries.However,the adjective error warnings in current mainstream ECLDs are not so satisfying.Therefore,the aim of this study is to find a workable solution to improve the adjective error warnings in ECLDs in order to help Chinese EFL learners avoid making similar errors and better acquire English adjectives.Firstly,the common adjective errors committed by Chinese EFL learners are found out with the help of the CLEC,concordance software Ant Conc and other relevant studies.The patterns,types and causes of the errors are analyzed based on the error analysis theory.The Chinese learners' difficulties and needs found out above may shed light to the improvement of the adjective error warnings in ECLDs.Secondly,in order to find out how adjective error warnings are presented in the current mainstream English learner's dictionaries,this study investigated the top 3most popular ECLDs among Chinese EFL learners from the following aspects: forms,patterns,the numbers and types of the adjective errors the error warnings target at.The study has found out that there is still plenty room for improvement after comparing and analyzing their advantages and deficiencies.Finally,based on the study above,recommendations are presented for optimizing the adjective error warnings in ECLDs and samples of the optimized adjective error warnings are also given.