A Corpus-based Analysis Of Chinese EFL Learners' Adjective/Noun Collocational Errors In English Writing

By adopting Error Analysis, this thesis is intended to investigate the characteristics of Chinese EFL learners'adjective/noun collocational errors based on CLEC and to attempt to provide some tentative explanations for these errors. 473 collocational errors in CLEC are examined and descriptive classification of these errors is made by adopting a combined taxonomy which divides these errors into 11 subcategories, followed by a diagnosis-based classification which divides them into 14 subcategories. The number of each subcategory of adjective/noun collocational errors is counted and normalized. Analyses are carried out with regard to the learners'L2 proficiency and writing condition differences. Comparison is employed as the principal method of data analysis and the data of both descriptive and diagnosis-based categorizations are first analyzed in relation to L2 proficiency differences, followed by the analysis of the data with regard to writing condition differences. Based on careful examination, we have the following findings:(1) No specific pattern is found in Chinese EFL learners'adjective/noun collocational errors. However, all learners show a heavy reliance on their mother tongue.(2) Learners'adjective/noun collocational errors show different characteristics with regard to their L2 proficiency differences. The number of each subtype of these errors in ST2, and ST5& ST6 is negatively correlated with the learners'L2 proficiency levels in most cases, while in ST5 and ST6, the result is not very obvious. The result of ST3 and ST4 learners'adjective/noun collocational errors turns out to be very surprising: most subcategories of these errors in ST4 outnumber that in ST3 respectively and the number of each subtype of these errors is positively correlated with the learners'L2 proficiency levels in most cases.(3) Different characteristics of learners'adjective/noun collocational errors arise due to the writing condition differences. The result of both descriptive and diagnosis-based classification shows that each of the subcategories in examination writing outnumbers that in free writing. Learners in examination writing commit more Holistic Strategies, Misanalysis, Overgeneralization and Exploiting Redundancy errors and tend to rely more heavily on their mother tongue.At last, this thesis provides the following implications for the learning and teaching of adjective/noun collocations: To begin with, English teachers in China should pay more attention to adjective/noun collocations in their teaching. Special attention should be paid to those adjective/noun collocations that are different in Chinese and English, and teachers should contrast English adjective/noun collocations with possible Chinese equivalents in order to raise learners'consciousness of avoiding Chinese interference. Second, teachers should raise learners'awareness of collocations in their teaching. Third, teachers should teach vocabulary by means of collocation. Fourth, the quantity of input should be increased and the quality of input should be improved.