Students Adverb "only" Visits, And "on The Acquisition Process

This essay takes a synchronic way to make a research on the two special adverbs:'cai'and'jiu'. Using questionnaires to make a quantitative research on how oversea students learn these two adverbs, this essay wishes to highlight the usage of these two adverbs in SLA.Analyzing the questionnaires from different angles, I find some characteristics and rules of the acquisition of'cai'and'jiu'by oversea students, which include the acquisition order of the three meanings of"cai"and"jiu", the unbalanced development in learners at different stages, the influence of the markedness of'cai'and'jiu'on the acquisition of the modal meanings, but not the quantitative and conditional meanings. Based on the deep analysis and interpretation of the above characteristics, I draw the following conclusions: Oversea students have a clear understanding of the scalar quantity at an early stage; the logical and the inferential form and the subjective attitude of the speaker affect the acquisition of these two adverbs.Finally, I give some suggestions on the teaching of'cai'and'jiu'so that teachers will be able to aim at the acquisition characteristics of students and have a definite objective in the foreign language teaching.