A Comparative Study On Learning English Passive Voice Between Chinese-native And Uighur-native Middle School Students

Passive voice is one of the important grammatical items in English. This thesis is a comparative study on learning English passive voice between Chinese-native and Uighur-native middle schools studentsThe study is undertaken by means of Error Analysis, with the procedures-collecting the errors in the assignments, written exercises and compositions of 52 Chinese-native students of No.2 Middle School of Urumqi and 52 Uighur-native students of No.5 Middle School of Urumqi, identification of the errors, description of the errors, explanation of the errors and evaluating the errors.The study aims to find out the rules of the errors such as interlingual errors and intralingual errors, the causes of the errors and the difficulties and error differences between Chinese-native and Uighur-native middle schools students in learning English passive voice, hoping to offer teachers, especially the ones teaching English in Uighur-native middle schools a better understanding of the students' difficulties and problems in learning English passive voice, leading them to more appropriate teaching methods and promoting the students' learning.The major findings are: (1) inadequate use of passive voice is among the errors most likely to be made by the two groups of students. (2) The errors can be attributed to the negative transfer of native languages (Uighur/Chinese) and the poor grasp of verb usages. (3) Uighur-native middle school students have more difficulty in learning English passive voice than Chinese-native middle school students. The main cause of the errors is that Uighur-native middle school students are affected by both L1 interference and L2 interference. Besides, improper teaching and less input of English add to their difficulty in learning English. (4) In the Uighur language exist the rules of Subject-verb Agreement and tenses of verbs that are similar to the English ones. Uighur-native middle school students show advantage of learning and using them.English teaching in Uighur-native middle schools is at the beginning stage. Comparative studies on Chinese-native and Uighur-native middle school students can provide teachers and researchers with valuable data and also propel English teaching in Uighur-native middle schools.The thesis is composed of 7 parts. Part One -states the purpose and significance of the thesis, Part Two-reviews the development history of EA and presents some relating research in this field at home and abroad, Part Three-introduces the theories employed in this studyincluding Corder's 5 steps for the procedure of EA and the theory of interlingual and intralingual errors as well as "Interlanguage" and "Fossilization", Part Four-concerns the procedure of the study including hypothesis, subjects, data collection, identification of errors, description and explanation of errors and data treatment, Part Five - deals with data analysis and discussion, Part Six - concerns conclusion and Part Seven-presents limitations and implications.