A Study On The Presentation Of English Nouns' Number In Intermediate ECLDs

The objective of the present study is to optimize the presentation of nouns' number in intermediate ECLDs by applying the noticing hypothesis theory.Through an examination of the presentation of nouns' number in four selected intermediate ECLDs,the existing problems of their presentation are pointed out with the presentation of nouns' number in two selected advanced ECLDs as a baseline.Then based on the noticing hypothesis theory,five strategies are put forward so as to improve the presentation of nouns' number in intermediate ECLDs,which is conductive to Chinese intermediate EFL learners' acquisition of nouns' number.Taking the senior high school students as a typical example of Chinese intermediate EFL learners,four error types of English nouns' number errors committed by them are foud out through an analysis of the sub-corpus ST2 in CLEC.Based on an error analysis,these errors are classified into interlingual errors and intralingual errors and attributed mainly to mother tongue interference and interlingual interference.In the next chapters,six ways concerning the presentation of nouns' number in dictionary are summarized from the comparative examination of them in OALECD(8th edition)and LDOECD(5th edition).Then the presentation of nouns' number in four selected intermediate ECLDs is examined with the six ways as a baseline,and the six existing problems that could not serve to facilitate the Chinese intermediate EFL learners' acquisition of nouns' number are pointed out.In addition,it could be found that Chinese intermediate EFL learners have difficulty in mastering the noun' number through the corpus-based analysis,and it's necessary to present relevant information form various aspects and make it sailent.Therefore,the present study attempts to improve the presentation of nouns' number in intermediate ECLDs with the noticing hypothesis theory as theoretical background.To achieve this goal,five strategies are proposed and an idealized entry are presented.The five strategiesare as follows: 1)to provide the plural form of nouns;2)to offer example sentences under each sense as far as possible;3)to set up appropriate user-friendly columns;4)to give error warning notes;5)to build the cross reference among the nouns featuring the same way of presenting quantity or counting method.Though the study may have some limitations,it is a useful trial and can offer some inspirations for the compilation of intermediate ECLDs.