The Effects Of Categorization On The Learning Of English Tag Questions

The present study is concerned with the learning of English tag questions by EFL learners. It is widely recognized that learning English tag questions is one of the biggest challenges for Chinese- speaking learners. Tag questions are frequently used in English conversation, but are less common in Chinese. Therefore, skills in tag questions are of great weight in mastering English as a foreign language for Chinese EFL learners.However, the distinct differences between English and Chinese tag questions may impose great challenges on the Chinese- speaking learners. Nevertheless, various types of English tag questions may cause different degrees of difficulty for them. It is worthwhile to explore what kind of tag questions are most difficult for Chinese-speaking learners to acquire? What are the underlying factors constraining their acquisition? The present study aims to investigate the following research questions:(1) Would the core, intermediate and peripheral members of English tag questions cause different degrees of difficulty for the Chinese- speaking adult learners?(2) Are the negative English tag questions more difficult for the participants to learn than the affirmative ones?(3) Would the participants perform better on English tag questions as their English language proficiency improves?The above questions were approached through an empirical study of different types of English tag questions. In light of categorization theory, English tag questions were classified under three types, i.e., the prototypical or the core, the intermediate and the peripheral tag questions. The core members come to our mind first when we retrieve the features of the category of tag questions. They are the most representative examples of this category. In contrast, the peripheral instances are the least representative of all the category members. The intermediate members are situated in between the core and the peripheral members. The criterion for the classification of English tag questions is the complexity of the verb in the statement. The tag questions which contain a simple verb(SV) in the main clause are the core members, such as: It is cold today, isn’t it? [is]. You like sports, don’t you? [like], and so on. Other members resemble the prototypical members to various degrees, but do not have simple verbs in the declarative clauses of the tag questions. The tag questions whose verbs are modified by modal auxiliaries(Maux. + V) or negative adverbs(Nadv. + V) are sorted into the intermediate group. For instance, We must come here early tomorrow, mustn’t we? [must come]. Birds rarely build nests in our garden, do they? [rarely build]. The tag questions that comprise two verbs(V + V) in the statement are classified as the peripheral members, because they represent the most complex attribute of the category. For example, I think she finishes the work late this afternoon, doesn’t she? [think & finishes].Our empirical study involved 114 Chinese- speaking adult learners of English who were all from Guizhou Province of China. The participants consisted of three groups of English learners representing three English proficiency levels: beginning, intermediate and advanced. Forty five learners from Guiyang Vocational and Technical College were recruited as beginning- level subjects. The intermediate-level participants were 37 students from Guizhou Normal University. The advanced-level subjects were 32 English postgraduate students from Guizhou Normal University. In order to investigate the learning of English tag questions, all the participants were required to finish two test papers: Test One and Test Two. Test One included four types of test items to investigate whether different types of English tag questions exert different degrees of difficulty on the adult learners; and Test Two comprised two forms of tag questions to examine if the negative tag questions cause more difficulty than the affirmative instances. Besides these two sets of test, a language proficiency test was conducted to ensure that the three groups of participants are at different proficiency levels. The data collected from all the tests were analyzed by means of SPSS 19.0.The results of the first test revealed that the three types of English tag questions did exert different degrees of difficulty on the participants. The mean scores of the core, the intermediate and the peripheral members by the subjects were: 5.96, 4.96 and 4.10 respectively. The one- way ANOVA results of Test One indicated that F = 40.393, and P =.000. Consequently, we can conclude that the Chinese EFL adult learners’ performance of the core members of English tag questions were much better than their learning of the non- core English tag questions. The core members of the category of English tag questions cause the least degree of difficulty for the learners than the intermediate and peripheral members. The intermediate members(Maux. + V; and Nadv. + V) are much more difficult than the core members(SV) for the participants to acquire. The peripheral members(V + V) are the most difficult type of tag questions for the subjects to study.The second test showed the mean scores of the affirmative tag questions and the negative ones were: 7.833 and 7.622 respectively. But F = 1.873 and P = 0.172 with p >.05, which indicated that the mean score difference did not reach the significant level. This shows that the negative tag questions were not more difficult than the affirmative ones for the learners.The results of the two tests also proved that the participants performed better on English tag questions as their language proficiency improved. The three groups’ mean scores of the tag questions were: 7.466, 20.567 and 27.937 respectively. What is more, the mean score differences between the three groups were highly significant(F = 114.573, P =.000). That is to say, as the learners’ general language competence improved; it would be easier for them to learn English tag questions.The study provides significant implications for English teaching and learning. First, more attention should be attached to English tag questions. Second, teachers and students should pay attention to the core members and learn these tag questions well in order to lay a foundation for the non- core members. The core instances represent the most typical features of tag questions. Hence, they should be taught and learned first. Furthermore, all the other examples resemble the central members to various degrees. The similarities between the core and the non- core members may facilitate the learning of different types of tag questions; whereas, the differences which distinguish the core and non- core members clearly should be emphasized in the process of teaching and learning.