An Empirical Study On The Acquisition Of That-t Effect Among Chinese English Learners

That-trace effect is a research focus both in traditional and modern syntax. Previous studies paid much more attention to theoretical syntactic explanations of the asymmetrically-structured effect itself, but the empirical study was to some extent neglected. Therefore, this empirical study will explore the acquisition of that-t effect in long-distance wh-questions by Chinese learners of English and provide robust data for empirical use. The data obtained will enable us to delve into L2’s interlanguage, testify the correctness of Universal Grammar and offer suggestive explanations to different preferences of native speakers and L2 learners for using complementizer that. This paper investigates the following four questions:(1) Does there exist an asymmetry in acquiring the that-trace effect among Chinese learners of English?(2) Does the asymmetry vary with different language proficiencies?(3) Is there an interaction effect between language proficiency and sentence type?(4) Compared with native speakers, what are L2s’ preferences for using complementizer that in long distance wh-questions? Why?Two experiments were conducted: grammatical judgment test and oral production task. The former is to investigate research question 1-3, and the latter question 4. Four groups of subjects in a total of 120 were tested in the Grammaticality Judgment Test. In addition, 30 L2 participants, as well as 30 L1 participants as a control group, were asked to complete oral elicited production task on website. The data of the results were analyzed by SPSS 17.0. The findings are illustrated as follows:(1) Asymmetries were found in acquiring that-trace effect in Chinese learners of English. Referring to acquiring sequences, we found the acquisition of CT and AT was earlier than that of ST, and L2 made the biggest progress on ST from high school to the university stage. With regard to the difficulty of processing three types of sentence structures(ST, CT and AT), L2 had more difficulties in processing ST than CT and AT.(2) Language proficiency and sentence type will influence the asymmetry. In terms of language proficiency, asymmetries are more significant in groups with low proficiencies(elementary group and lower intermediate group) while less significant and even disappear in high-proficiency groups(high intermediate group and advanced group). With respect to sentence type, performances in each group are AT>ST, CT>ST( > means better than).(3) Data in this study showed the interaction between language proficiency and sentence type was significant. It is one of the reasons that caused the asymmetry.(4) L2’s preferences for using complementizer that in long distance wh-questions are different from those of native speakers. L2 s are more likely to overuse that in actual use, which scarcely happens in native speakers.The data of this study validate the accessibility of Universal Grammar. We resort to Universal Grammar and Shallow Structure Hypothesis to analyze the reasons why asymmetries appear and also to explain the overuse of complementizer that in actual use in L2. We provide robust data to reveal the interlanguage of Chinese learners of English in second language acquisition, which is an evidence for future study.