Error Analysis Of Derivational Affix Acquisition By Chinese EFL Learners

After decades of neglect, lexis is now recognized as central to language acquisition. As an important component of lexical competence, knowledge of derivational affixes is indispensable to Chinese EFL learners to tackle the task of learning large numbers of English words. Although somewhat rule-governed, the system of derivational affixes is a complex one which often causes learners' lexical errors. This study is intended to investigate Chinese learners" acquisition of derivational affixes by analyzing the derivational affix errors in their essay writing. The thesis uses CLEC and SPSS to get the necessary statistics and analyze them. The first step is to locate all the word building errors in CLEC, then, the errors related to derivational affixes are scrutinized. Errors are identified and classified in the word classes and error types. After listed the raw statistics of these error types. SPSS is used in further analysis of the statistics to see if there are some rules and characteristics. Then, the possible causes of errors are discussed. The results show that errors of derivational affix acquisition are widespread in the five sub-corpora. Chinese EFL learners, even at an advanced proficiency level, have great difficulty in using derivational affixes, especially in the acquisition of derivational affixes of nouns. The causes of errors in derivational affix acquisition include negative language transfer, overgeneralization. ignorance and incomplete knowledge of derivational affix rules, transfer of training, etc.At last, the thesis gives implications to the acquisition and teaching of English derivational affixes.