A Study On The Acquisition Of English Resultative Constructions By Chinese EFL Learners

In recent years,constructions have gradually become a hot topic in language study,which play a significant role in language research.The literature review indicates that relative studies mainly focus on the theoretical exploration without enough empirical studies.With regard to the SLA,the studies on the acquisition of English Resultative Construction(ERC)are deficient where existing studies reach different conclusions.Most of the studies only have the right choices in the acceptability judgment task without any interference choices,which is to the detriment of the validity and efficiency of the study.Thus,this study designs a more reasonable experiment in order to investigate the acquisition of ERC by Chinese English as a Foreign Language(EFL)learners.Based on the Construction Grammar and Thinking for Speaking hypothesis,this study mainly investigates the following two questions:1)To what extent do Chinese EFL learners acquire ERC?2)What is the relationship between the L1 thinking-for-speaking patterns and the acquisition of ERC by Chinese EFL learners?90 English majors were recruited at random from a university and were asked to finish an acceptability judgment task and a Chinese-English translation task in this research.They were divided into three groups: the freshman group,the junior group and the postgraduate group.The conclusions are as follows:1)Chinese EFL learners have acquired,to some extent,the ERC.Their acquisition of Selected Transitive Resultative is better than that of Intransitive Resultative,which is better than that of Unselected Transitive Resultative.Besides,the perception of ERC is easier than that of production.The higher language proficiency the Chinese EFL learners possess,the better they acquire ERC.2)L1 thinking-for-speaking influences the acquisition of ERC.When the L1 thinking-for-speaking patterns are similar to those of the L2,they can exert a positive influence on the acquisition of ERC by Chinese EFL learners.When they are different from the L2 thinking-for-speaking patterns,they can exert a negative influence on it.The main findings indicate that Chinese EFL learners have acquired,to some extent,the ERC,the acquisition of which varies according to different types of ERC.Furthermore,Chinese EFL learners perform worse in the production of ERC compared to that of perception,whose acquisition of ERC is influenced by the language proficiency and L1 thinking-for-speaking patterns.This study believes that teachers should lay emphasis on not only the acquisition and teaching of ERC but also students' production of ERC.In addition,English teachers should create conditions for improving students' awareness and ability of L2 thinking-for-speaking patterns.The participants in this study are relatively insufficient and the language proficiency of the junior group is close to that of the postgraduate group.It is advisable to expand the number of participants and employ a more reasonable grouping method in further studies.