An Empirical Study Of Chinese EFL Learners’ Learning Of English Resultative Construction

Goldberg’s Construction Grammar（Cx G）has attracted much attention from cognitive linguists in recent decades.Domestic and foreign scholars have carried out numerous studies to verify how and to what extent the Cx G can elucidate the process and consequences of language acquisition.Studies at abroad have shown that children are capable to acquire some basic constructions at their young ages,like Ditransitive Construction（DC）.However,it is inconclusive that which teaching method and teaching sequence are more conducive to the acquisitions of construction in foreign language learning so far.English resultative constructions（ERC）are one of the most difficult constructions for foreign language learners because of their complex semantic relations and syntactic forms（Ellis,Matthew ＆ R（?）mer,2013;Sung ＆ Yang,2013）.Therefore,an experimental study that focuses on Chinese English learners is conducted to provide some empirical evidence for construction grammar theory and English resultative constructions.On the basis of Construction Grammar（Goldberg,1995;2006）,the current study intends to solve three research questions:（1）What are the effects of second language proficiency on the acquisition of English resultative construction for Chinese high school students?（2）What are the effects of verb types on Chinese learners’ acquisition of English construction?（3）How does the instruction of English resultative construction influence basic English constructions（e.g.,caused-motion construction,intransitive motion construction and ditransitive construction）? In this study,60 high school students in China were allocated into two groups based on their English proficiency,and then construction-centered teaching was conducted.Under the paradigm of construction-oriented instruction,constructional properties of the resultative construction matter much more than its syntactic structures.Prior to instruction,a task of 30 sentences that involved 15 Chinese-to-English and 15English-to-Chinese translation was assigned to the participants.After the instruction,a same type of task was allocated as a post-test.The major findings of this study are as follows:（1）Second language proficiency influences Chinese native speakers’ learning of English resultative construction.The average ERC score of students of high-level group is significantly higher than the score of students of low-level group.Therefore,the higher L2 learner’s proficiency is,they use constructions to comprehend and produce sentences in a better way.（2）The light verb（e.g.,make）plays a positive role in acquiring the English resultative construction.Scores of light verbs is significantly higher than the score of heavy verbs.It suggests that light verbs are more effective for construction learning than heavy verbs.Thus,it is advisable for teachers to teach light verbs first to let students learn the construction meaning and then to use heavy verbs to practice the target construction.（3）While the instruction of the English resultative construction positively affects the use of basic constructions,the strongest effect is observed in the caused-motion construction（CMC）which is straightforwardly relevant to but less marked than the English resultative construction in the hierarchical network.The finding shows that instruction of a more marked construction promotes the acquisition of a less marked construction that is not taught.It indicates the systematic consideration of the vital role of marked construction in construction teaching can serve as a facilitator of construction learning in foreign language learning and teaching.The present study corroborates the effectiveness of hierarchical network and inheritance of construction and supports Construction Grammar Goldberg’s Construction Grammar.Moreover,the positive effect of light verbs and the hierarchical network of constructions can be given special emphasis when implementing construction-centered instruction and designing foreign language curriculum in foreign language teaching settings.We can further explore the teaching sequence of various argument structure constructions to provide a reference for the development of teaching materials and the teaching sequence of various constructions.