| Over the past30years, multi-word units have been well recognized as an important component part of linguistic competence (Peters,1983; Hymes,1992; Nattinger&DeCarrico,1992; Wray,1999; Tomasello,2003). As a special kind of multi-word sequence or units (for example:I don’t know that, etc.), formulaic language (FL), consists of the sequences constituted by words or other elements, which are continuous or discontinuous. They seemed to be prefabricated, which means that once at the time of use, rather than trying to generate or analyze language based on the language grammar, these sequences are effectively stored and retrieved whole from human memory (Wray,2002). The present research regards formulaic language as the category of this language phenomenon, while formulaic sequence (FS) is regarded as the research multi-word units of this language phenomenon. The knowledge of the FL phenomenon is reflected by the investigation in the multi-word units of formulaic sequences. Formulaic sequences (FSs) are combinations of form and meaning in the process of long-term language communication, and play the role of great significance in both first/native language acquisition and the second/foreign language learning. It has been widely acknowledged that FSs occupy one of the most important aspects of language use in daily situation, and an increasing number of researchers who are interested in language acquisition and learning have paid much more attention to the study of multi-word FSs. In the field of foreign language teaching and research, more and more researches have proved that the development of second/foreign language leaning system largely depends on the accumulation and stores of formulaic sequence. And the learners’use of these multi-word FSs also reflects learners’improvement of the language expression.From the native spoken and written language corpus, many researchers at home and abroad did the research in the native speakers and explored features and different patterns of multi-word formulaic sequences; according to different parameters, the linguistics features in spoken and written English of Chinese college students who major in English are analyzed. However, what linguistic features of formulaic sequences are there in spoken and written English of Chinese EFL learners? Can the linguistic features of spoken and written English of Chinese EFL learners be analyzed based on the parameter of formulaic sequences’linguistic features?The research uses Spoken and Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners (SWECCL) as the research corpus, and adopts corpus linguistics research methodology to extract multi-word formulaic sequences in English from Chinese EFL learners’interlanguage corpus. The linguistic features of formulaic sequences in spoken and written English will be analyzed from the qualitative and quantitative approach.Two sub-corpora constitute SWECCL:the one part is Spoken English Corpus of Chinese Learners (SECCL) with spoken data and the other part is Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners (WECCL) with written data. The spoken data in SECCL is gathered from the tape recording of the Chinese EFL learners majoring in English who have participated in the TEM-4and TEM-8, while the written data in WECCL is collected from the English composition of college students majoring in English with27different titles, including argumentation, exposition and narration. The research in such large interlanguage corpus has great significance, and will reflect the linguistic features of Chinese advanced EFL learners.The research addresses two questions:(1) The research adopts one of the corpus linguistic approaches-corpus-driven approach---to explore the extracting method of formulaic sequences from SWECCL and construct the formulaic sequence resources of interlanguage corpus after sifting and identifying the sequences data.(2) Based on the identified formulaic sequence resources, the research analyzes the grammar structural features and discourse functional features of these sequences across spoken and written registers and discusses their relationships.In answer to the research questions above, the following findings have been obtained in the research:(1) It has constructed the small-sized formulaic language resources, which will become the useful data of language learning for Chinese EFL learners and related future study.(2) From the data of previous and present research, formulaic sequences in spoken register are more than those in written register. From the point of structural feature, in spoken English, almost74%of all common FSs incorporate verb phrases.14%of the all common FSs incorporate dependent clause and16%of all target sequences belongs to those incorporate noun phrase and prepositional phrase fragments. In contrast, the FSs in written register are phrasal rather than clausal. The rate of the three types are respectively27%,28%,45%. From the point of functional feature, in spoken English, almost51%of all common FSs belong to the stance expression.29%of the all common FSs are discourse organizing sequences and20%of all target sequences belongs referential sequences. In contrast, the FSs in written register are different. The rate of the three taxonomy are respectively29%,32%,39%.(3) Compared with the previous research of formulaic sequences in ENL corpus (Biber2004,2006,2009), it is easy to find that linguistic features of formulaic sequences in spoken English between ENL and EFL learners are almost the same. On the contrary, ENL learners use few Verb-based phrase and stance sequences in the written register, which are used mostly in EFL learners’written English. The common use of Verb-based phrase and stance sequences is the feature of spoken register; therefore it is proved that there exists colloquial style in Chinese EFL learners’written register.(4) In the processing of data analysis, many colloquial characters in spoken are reflected and many Chinglishes are present because of the influence of Chinese. Application of corpus linguistic research method into language learning is good for the improvement of language leaning effect and will ensure learners of the linguistic features of spoken and written registers respectively to master the idiomatic expressions.Research on the multi-word formulaic sequences by domestic and foreign linguistics inspires language acquisition in our country. Application of multi-word formulaic sequences into language learning can enhance fluency, appropriateness and accuracy of language output, and improve learners’correct understanding of language context and style, which is a practical way to improve learners’language expression and communication. The study on features of Chinese learners’spoken and written formulaic language helps us to understand the uses and functions of formulaic language in spoken and written context. The positive role of formulaic language should be played to improve students’ spoken fluency and the correctness of related language in discourse context. Language learners not only need to pay attention to the respective stylistic characteristics in spoken and written language, but also should be concerned about their interconnection and appropriate use of the structure and function of the two language registers, ultimately to promote learners’ language output closer to the target language, and effectively improve English spoken and written communicative skills. |
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