A Corpus-Based Study On The Use Of Preposition On By Chinese College English Learners

Prepositions are frequently used in English. It is of great significance to know how English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners use English prepositions. On is not only one of the top 14 high-frequency prepositions in English, but also one of the top 10 high-frequency prepositions used by Chinese learners. However, few researches have been conducted on the use of it. Based on Contrastive Analysis, Error Analysis and Interlanguage theory, this thesis analyzes the characteristics of preposition on used by Chinese college non-English majors.The learner corpora adopted are three sub-corpora of Chinese Learner English Corpus: St3, St4 and St6. The use of eight senses of prepositions on were analyzed, and a comparison was made between EFL learners at different English proficiency levels to explore whether their English proficiency level positively corresponding with their performance in using preposition on.The results of the study show that Chinese Learners have not fully mastered all the senses and the related phrases of preposition on listed in the syllabus. Compared with native speakers, they overuse three senses and some of the phrases. Inspecting frequency, the performance of Chinese learners with higher proficiency level is closer to that of the native speakers' in using preposition on. Four possible error causes of the misuse of preposition on are identified: Mother Tongue interference, overgeneralization, incomplete application of rules, and confusion of similar expressions. Based on the findings, the thesis puts forward some suggestions for improvement in English preposition teaching and learning.