Study On Topic Prominence In The Inter-Language Of Chinese English Learners

Interlanguage refers to a language system which is produced as a result of foreignlanguage learners who make some incorrect inductions and deductions about therules of the target language in the process of learning. In recent years, with theconstant improvement of the field theories, the phenomenon of interlanguage hasbeen paid much attention by many scholars in the field of applied linguistics.Throughout the past researching literature, the author can find that scholars havemainly focused on the subject prominence in the interlanguage. On the contrary,there are very few researches about the topic prominence in English interlanguage inChinese classrooms. According to this, the paper will explore the topic prominencein the interlanguage of Chinese English Learners from a new perspective, trying tocompare Chinese-English transition language with other types of transition language,and figure out Chinese learners’ unique characteristics and the common features oflearners coming from other language background.As to the research content, this paper will explore the topic-prominent type ofChinese and figure out whether it would affect the English acquisition of Chinesestudents or not. Through the analysis of related errors of different English levelChinese students in Translation Test (Chinese into English) and English writing tests,the author will find out the topic prominence in the interlanguage of Chinese EnglishLearners and the causes of the event.As to the research method, the author selected40high school students,30non-English majore undergraduate students and30English majore undergraduatestudents as the subjects. This research was mainly based on the theoreticalframework such as language transfer, error analysis and contrastive analysishypothesis. The paper obtained the data through the instruments including theTranslation Test (Chinese into English), Control Composition and questionnaires.This study intended to find out the following two aspects: the topic-prominent features of different English level learners who perform different tasks in English;the reasons that cause these topic-prominent features.Through detailed researches, the author proves the topic-prominent structure exist inall levels of Chinese students in English learning, but, with the improvement ofEnglish learners’ level, the proportion of using the topic-prominent structure willreduce. In addition, unless the advanced learners are deliberately induced, they willrarely use the topic-prominent structure. What’s more, the questionnaire shows thatthe high level learners can realize the functions of the mother tongue transfer to thetopic prominence in the interlanguage of Chinese English Learners more clearly.In the end, this paper concludes several pedagogical suggestions about Englishteaching. English teachers ought to hold a suitable perspective to the shift of Chinesetopic-prominent structure in English. Teachers should pay more attention to thefeatures of the subject prominence which exist in the target language in Englishteaching. Either the teachers or the students ought to have a proper attitude toaccelerate English learning, especially the factors which are in linguistics and culture.It will have its certain theoretical and practical significance to complete the learningmechanism, improve the level of foreign language teaching.