The Influence of Chinese Topic Prominence Construction on English Acquisition : A Study on Non-English Majors and English Majors at a Chinese College
As Chinese is a topic prominent language and English is a subject prominent language, there are many differences between these two languages. The present study investigates the influence of Chinese topic prominence constructions on the acquisition of English with the instrument of a translation task...
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Högskolan Kristianstad, Sektionen för Lärarutbildning
2011
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ndltd-UPSALLA1-oai-DiVA.org-hkr-83452013-01-08T13:32:03ZThe Influence of Chinese Topic Prominence Construction on English Acquisition : A Study on Non-English Majors and English Majors at a Chinese CollegeengChen, CaicaiHögskolan Kristianstad, Sektionen för Lärarutbildning2011topic prominencesubject prominencetransfersecond language acquisition.SOCIAL SCIENCESSAMHÄLLSVETENSKAPEducationPedagogikAs Chinese is a topic prominent language and English is a subject prominent language, there are many differences between these two languages. The present study investigates the influence of Chinese topic prominence constructions on the acquisition of English with the instrument of a translation task. 60 Chinese college students of two levels were divided into two groups according to their English proficiency level (the non-English majors for low level and the English majors for high level). The results were analyzed and calculated in terms of four types of topic prominence constructions: Noun phrases as topics, clauses as topics, verb phrases as topics and prepositional phrases as topics. Through this study, it is found that the interlanguage of Chinese learners for English is characterized by topic prominence construction. What is more, Chinese learners of English can gradually decrease the use of topic prominence construction, turning into more target-like interlangage with the increase of their English proficiency level. The findings of the present study contribute to a better understanding of Chinese English learners' interlanguage development from topic prominence to subject prominence. Furthermore, the results of the current study are significant for the English teaching in China. The language teacher should enhance the comparison between Chinese and English so that the learners could be more aware of the difference between these two languages and errors could be avoided. Student thesisinfo:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesistexthttp://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-8345application/pdfinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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topic prominence subject prominence transfer second language acquisition. SOCIAL SCIENCES SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP Education Pedagogik |
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topic prominence subject prominence transfer second language acquisition. SOCIAL SCIENCES SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP Education Pedagogik Chen, Caicai The Influence of Chinese Topic Prominence Construction on English Acquisition : A Study on Non-English Majors and English Majors at a Chinese College |
description |
As Chinese is a topic prominent language and English is a subject prominent language, there are many differences between these two languages. The present study investigates the influence of Chinese topic prominence constructions on the acquisition of English with the instrument of a translation task. 60 Chinese college students of two levels were divided into two groups according to their English proficiency level (the non-English majors for low level and the English majors for high level). The results were analyzed and calculated in terms of four types of topic prominence constructions: Noun phrases as topics, clauses as topics, verb phrases as topics and prepositional phrases as topics. Through this study, it is found that the interlanguage of Chinese learners for English is characterized by topic prominence construction. What is more, Chinese learners of English can gradually decrease the use of topic prominence construction, turning into more target-like interlangage with the increase of their English proficiency level. The findings of the present study contribute to a better understanding of Chinese English learners' interlanguage development from topic prominence to subject prominence. Furthermore, the results of the current study are significant for the English teaching in China. The language teacher should enhance the comparison between Chinese and English so that the learners could be more aware of the difference between these two languages and errors could be avoided. |
author |
Chen, Caicai |
author_facet |
Chen, Caicai |
author_sort |
Chen, Caicai |
title |
The Influence of Chinese Topic Prominence Construction on English Acquisition : A Study on Non-English Majors and English Majors at a Chinese College |
title_short |
The Influence of Chinese Topic Prominence Construction on English Acquisition : A Study on Non-English Majors and English Majors at a Chinese College |
title_full |
The Influence of Chinese Topic Prominence Construction on English Acquisition : A Study on Non-English Majors and English Majors at a Chinese College |
title_fullStr |
The Influence of Chinese Topic Prominence Construction on English Acquisition : A Study on Non-English Majors and English Majors at a Chinese College |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Influence of Chinese Topic Prominence Construction on English Acquisition : A Study on Non-English Majors and English Majors at a Chinese College |
title_sort |
influence of chinese topic prominence construction on english acquisition : a study on non-english majors and english majors at a chinese college |
publisher |
Högskolan Kristianstad, Sektionen för Lärarutbildning |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-8345 |
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