| The passive-sentence is a crucial aspect of Chinese grammar. Although there search on passive-sentence structures has already reached high achievements, there are few studies directed toward foreigners’ acquisition of passive-sentence structures or studies centered on the successful teaching of passive-sentence structures to foreign students. The frequency of passive-sentence use among foreign students studying Chinese language is low, regardless of the students’ level or length of study. At the same time, the frequency of errors made in passive-sentence structures by foreign students is high. Because of the difficulty and importance of passive-sentence structures, further research is valuable and pertinent to foreign students’ study of Chinese language.Past studies on second language acquisition are limited in that these studies focus on the marked passive-sentence structures only. Drawing from the research of these past studies and now including "unmarked" passive-sentence structures, this type of sentence pattern can be divided into three categories:bei-sentences, sentences with a patient NP subject, vocabulary passive sentences.Research for this study was conducted in two parts. The first part was conducted with two students at Institute for Foreign Students Nanjing University from December16,2011to July12,2012. Both students separately participated in15informal interviews, which were about one hour in length each time. All interviews were recorded and later transcribed. At the time of the interviews, both students were at the threshold between Intermediate and Advanced Chinese abilities. However, the mother languages of these two students are not the same. One student is Korean and the other is American, both representing the two largest groups of foreign students studying Chinese in China, students of East Asian decent and native English speakers, respectively. In the second part of the study, Institute for Foreign Students Nanjing University Associate Professor Cao Xianwen’s Intermediate and Advanced study abroad students’ compositions were analyzed.The informal interviews were analyzed using both longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis. Cross-sectional analysis was used to compute the frequency of occurrence and the rate of correct usage for the three categories of passive-sentence structures (bei-sentences, sentences with a patient NP subject, vocabulary passive sentences) and the six categories of the bei-sentence structure. These results were then compared with the results of past research.In the longitudinal analysis, the students’ respective15interviews were divided into five phases including three interviews per phase. Each phase was on average1.5months long. In addition to the frequency of occurrence and the rate of correct usage, the sentence length and number of words per sentence were also computed for the three categories of passive-sentence structures and six categories of the bei-sentence structure. The data of the two students were then compared and the differences between the students were explained.Professor Cao Xianwen’s Intermediate and Advanced study abroad students’ compositions were also analyzed using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. In the longitudinal analysis, both the Intermediate and Advanced students’ compositions were divided into three phases, respectively. The frequency of occurrence and the rate of correct usage were computed in both the longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis and then compared.Based on the findings in this study and the comparison of modern teaching materials and syllabi used to teach foreign students Chinese, there are several areas that can be improved, which can specifically aid foreigners in the acquisition of passive-sentence structures. |
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