Developmental Features Of Incompletion Of Sentence Components In Spoken English By Chinese Learners

The incompletion of sentence components is one of the most typical syntactic errors in second language acquisition of Chinese learners of English,which is an important topic in the study of second language acquisition.However,previous studies have mostly focused on one specific incomplete component,or the incompletion of sentence components of learners at a certain learning stage.There is a lack of studies that have systematically explored the developmental features of incompletion of sentence components by Chinese learners of English at different learning stages.Additionally,most existing studies have been based on the written language of learners,while studies on the incompletion of sentence components in spoken English of second language learners should be paid more attention to.In addition,most studies have analyzed this phenomenon from the perspective of language transfer.The theoretical perspective is relatively single,and the research results are not discussed from multiple perspectives.In view of this,a combination of quantitative and qualitative method is applied in this research to explore the incompletion of sentence components in spoken English by Chinese learners.Specifically speaking,the spoken samples that contain the incompletion of sentence components in SCEL corpus at different learning stages(Grade one junior middle school students,Grade one senior middle school students and Grade one English major university students)are selected in this study.Some softwares like Anno Tool,Ant Conc and Log-likelihood Ratio Calculator are selected for annotating,retrieving and analyzing data.Based on language transfer theory and language exposure hypothesis,the present study attempts to answer the following research questions.First,what are the similarities and differences in the distribution of the incomplete components of sentences in spoken English by Chinese learners at different learning stages,namely Grade one junior middle school students,Grade one senior middle school students and Grade one English major university students?Second,what are the similarities and differences in the error types of each incomplete component of sentences in spoken English by Chinese learners at different learning stages? Third,what are the factors that affect the developmental features of the incompletion of sentence components in spoken English by Chinese learners? After data analysis and discussion,the research found that:(1)In terms of distribution,incomplete components of sentences at different stages can be divided into five categories: incomplete subjects,incomplete predicates,incomplete objects,incomplete adverbials and incomplete predicatives of sentences.Among them,incomplete subjects and incomplete predicates of sentences occur relatively frequently.At different learning stages,the frequency of incomplete components of sentences is the highest in stage one,stage two has less incomplete components of sentences,and there is relatively the least incomplete components of sentences in stage three.(2)In terms of error types,the error types of each incomplete component of sentences basically exist at the three learning stages,while they present four different change trends: decrease,increase,decrease and then increase,increase and then decrease.In general,the number of these error types is decreasing.(3)There is a non-linear development on the incompletion of sentence components in spoken English by Chinese learners,which has a rapid decline from stage one to stage two,and has a slight decrease from stage two to stage three.The developmental result is progressive.The factors affecting this developmental features are the negative influence of Chinese syntactic rules,the total time of exposure to English,the requirements of English curriculum standards,the layout of textbooks and teaching methods of English teachers,etc.This research has some enlightenment to the teaching and learning of English sentences.As for English teachers,teachers should guide students to observe and summarize the differences between English and Chinese sentences in English sentence teaching.In addition,teachers should offer students sufficient and high-quality exposure to English sentences from different aspects.Additionally,teachers should also provide students with more opportunities for oral expression,and correct students’ errors in their spoken English in time to improve the accuracy of students’ oral language.As for Chinese learners of English,students should summarize the differences between English and Chinese sentences under the guidance of teachers.Then,they should actively increase their English exposure in many ways.Last,they should dare to communicate in English and improve their language accuracy in oral expression.