Study On Substitution Errors In The English Compositions Of Junior English Majors

With contrastive analysis and error analysis as the theoretical basis, this thesis attempts toexplore substitution errors committed by junior English majors in their writings collected inChinese Learner English Corpus (CLEC). The aim is to offer Chinese learners some helpconcerning the methods to improve their English writing level and yield some suggestions onEnglish language teaching. Chapter 1 introduces the subject of the study, substitution errors, and describes the scopeof this thesis, together with its significance and organization. The data in the study come froma sub-corpus of CLEC named st5, which collects the writings of junior English majors. Chapter 2 is literature review. Some important terms, such as mistakes and errors,learning and acquisition, interlingual and intralingual errors, are interpreted. The thesis thenprobes into the theoretical basis for the study—contrastive analysis and error analysis.Language transfer theory is also explained for this study focuses on the influence of mothertongue interference on foreign language learning. The review on language transfer andsubstitution errors centers on the publications in recent years, which offers inspiration for meto do this study. Chapter 3 concentrates on the research methodology and the main findings of the study.A corpus-based approach is adopted in this study, which involves contrastive and erroranalyses on the substitution errors collected from written samples of junior English majors inCLEC. The software WordSmith is used to classify errors on the basis of two dimensions: thefirst is parts of speech, and the second is interlingual and intralingual errors. Five findingshave been concluded and mother tongue interference is the most influential factor resulting insubstitution errors according to the data collected. Chapter 4 is devoted to discuss both interlingual and intralingual errors. 844 substitutionerrors excluding spelling errors have been found in the study, 69.8% of which are traceable tomother tongue interference. The biggest difficulty lies in selecting proper words, especiallythose synonyms. Mother tongue interference has been proved to be a major cause ofsubstitution errors. Intralingual errors, although account for only 19.3% of the total, are alsoworth studying due to their importance in finding causes of substitution errors.Chapter 5 makes a summary of this thesis and yields some suggestions on languageteaching and learning from the data-driven perspective. Limitations of the research areexamined and questions for future study are proposed. The integration of corpora intolanguage teaching and learning may help students achieve a sound effect in acquiringnative-like language.