A Corpus-based Study Of Verb-related Errors In Writings Of Freshmen English Majors

Research on errors in English writing of learners of English as a second language is an important part of second language acquisition research.However,there have been limited systematic analyses of verb-related errors in various genres of writing of English major freshmen.Based on the self-built Corpus of Writings for English Majors(CWEM),a quantitative research was conducted to analyze the verb-related errors in English major freshmen’s writing.225 pieces of writings of three genres are collected from 5 grades in this study:narrative,argumentative and expository writings.This study aims to answer two questions:firstly,what are the major categories and the distribution characteristics of verb-related errors in English writings of English major freshmen;secondly,what are the main verb-related errors and the distribution characteristics of verb-related errors in different genres of writings of English major freshmen.The major findings of this study are as follows:Among the six main categories of verb-related errors,i.e.verb agreement errors,auxiliary/semi-auxiliary verb choice errors,lexical verb choice errors,non-finite verb errors,verb omissions and redundancies,and other verb form errors,verb agreement errors have the highest percentage,followed by lexical verb choice errors,non-finite verb errors,verb omissions and redundancies and other verb form errors.Auxiliary/semi-auxiliary verb choice errors have the lowest percentage.In terms of the three genres,the proportion of verb agreement errors rates first in narrative writings and expository writings while lexical verb choice errors take up the largest proportion in argumentative writings.This research,with some exploration of the causes behind these errors,might assist the learners of English as a foreign language in using verbs correctly in English writing.