| In China, English should be regarded as a foreign language, as it is learned consciously in a foreign language setting. All through the language study process, the learner's language (interlanguage) is a variable system between the first language (Chinese) and the target language (English). In the continuum of interlanguage development, English learners'errors are inevitable because of the differences between the first language and target language.Plenty of research can be found with the areas of Contrastive Analysis, Error Analysis and Interlanguage. However, the focus of the previous research has been mostly on the theoretical exploration. Systematical study of the acquisition of verb be in English has seldom been found.The verb be is an important item in English for its high frequency and it's also an outstanding grammatical item in the second language learning by Chinese learners. Erroneous variables of verb be are full of universal characteristics. It also takes a long time for learners to grasp the use of it.The study addresses three research questions:(1) What kinds of errors concerning the verb be are most striking in foreign language learning settings?(2) What causes language learners to make such errors?(3) What pedagogical enlightenment can be obtained from the research?The interlanguage data analyzed consisted of 240 English compositions written by the subjects of Senior 1 and Senior 3 from the Second Experimental Middle School of Changchun. The errors that contain the verb be are analyzed.Corresponding to the research questions, this study has obtained the following findings:(1) The most prominent error for Senior 1 students is in the ellipsis of be, whereas the most striking problem is with the tense for Senior 3. (2) Negative transfer of the mother language is assumed to be one of the most important causes to the erroneous problems when the second language learners acquire the use of the verb be.(3) The acquisition of the verb be in the present study is of dynamic characteristics. The general tendency of errors involving verb be decreases from Senior1 to Senior 3. The redundancy error of be seems to continue as the number of errors of this type are close in the two grades. Though both Senior 1 and Senior 3 students make a lot of errors in tense use, it must be pointed out that the number of tense errors in Senior 3 is even greater than that in Senior 1. It's more difficult for Chinese learners to use verb be with plural countable nouns as subjects, compared with other controllers as subjects. In the tense use, the most difficult concentrates on the past tense use. In the study, Chinese students tend to overuse there be structures.The study has important practical implications in English teaching and foreign language study. It can shed light on the second language acquisition, especially on the acquisition of the verb be.
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