A Longitudinal Study Of Motion Event Expressions In Chinese EFL Learners’ Spoken Narratives

A growing body of study shows typological difference in the expression of motion events,that is,different languages express motion events in different ways.This difference has drawn the attention of researchers not only to the expression of motion events by monolingual speakers but also,in recent years,to the expression of motion events by bilingual speakers.In China,there is an increasing concern with how Chinese EFL learners use the target language to express motion events in spoken narratives.However,most previous studies in L2 acquisition of motion events are cross-sectional and few studies are longitudinal.Besides,the relevant empirical studies focus more on the use of manner verbs and path verbs and less on the use of deictic verbs and sentence patterns.Therefore,the present study,on the basis of Talmy’s typological framework and Slobin’s thinking for speaking hypothesis,is intended to explore how Chinese EFL learners express motion events at both lexical and sentential level.The questions to be addressed are as follows:(1)How do Chinese EFL learners use verbs in expressing motion events? How does their use of verbs change over time?(2)How do Chinese EFL learners use sentence patterns in expressing motion events? How does their use of sentence patterns change over time?(3)What are the resemblances and differences in the use of verbs and sentence patterns between Chinese EFL learners and native English speakers in expressing motion events? How do the resemblances and differences change over time?This study is a part of longitudinal study on L1 transfer in Chinese learners’ English production(11CYY021).The 33 participants were undergraduates majoring in English at Qufu Normal University and Jiangnan University.The project team members tested the participants at the beginning of the first semester,and at the beginning and end of the second and fourth semesters.The spoken narrative data were transcribed into texts.The author coded texts according to research questions.Firstly,all the motion event descriptions in all oral narratives were manually coded by author.Next,motion verbs were coded and sentence patterns were identified based on the research questions and previous literatures.Finally,the data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively with the help of Chi-square test on the differences across the five stages in Chinese EFL learner’s use of motion verbs and sentence patterns.The findings of the study are as follows:(1)In terms of verbs,there were significant differences in verbs used by Chinese EFL learners across five stages.There was an overall increase in both type and token frequency of manner/cause verbs across five stages.Chinese EFL learners preferred to use more first-tier manner/cause verbs and fewer second-tier manner/cause verbs;there was little difference in the type frequency of path verbs across five stages,but there was an overall increase in the token frequency;the use of deictic verbs showed a non-linear change across the five stages.The deictic verbs go appeared more frequently than come.(2)In terms of sentence patterns,there were significant differences in the frequency of tight patterns and semi-tight patterns used by Chinese EFL learners across five stages,while there was marginal significant difference in the frequency of loose patterns.There was an overall downward trend in the use of tight patterns by learners,and an overall upward trend in the use of semi-tight patterns and loose patterns.Besides,results showed that learners preferred to use loose patterns to express motion events.(3)Chinese EFL learners and English natives have resemblances and differences in the use of verbs and sentence patterns.In terms of verbs,both learners and natives used the highest proportion of manner/cause verbs.In addition,learners used a higher proportion of deictic verbs and a lower proportion of path verbs than English natives.In terms of sentence patterns,both learners and natives used the highest proportion of loose patterns to express motion events.In addition,learners used a higher proportion of tight patterns and a lower proportion of semi-tight patterns than natives.The findings show that Chinese EFL learners have basically acquired English motion events expressions.However,even at a high proficiency level,learners are influenced by their L1 thinking-for-speaking pattern.This study has both theoretical and practical implications.Firstly,this study enriches the research on L2 acquisition of motion events.Secondly,this study has implications for EFL teaching.It will draw teachers’ and students’ attention to the cross-linguistic difference in thinking for speaking behind the language forms.As such,more emphasis will be put on the explicit instruction by the teachers to cultivate learners’ cross-linguistic awareness,which will be much helpful to improve their expressions of motion events in terms of both accuracy and idiomaticity.