A Study Of Errors Related To English Relative Clauses By Senior High School Students And Corresponding Countermeasures

In China,English is a compulsory course for students,and it is one compulsory subject in college entrance examination.Relative clause occupies an important position in English grammar,which has been paid much attention by teachers and researchers in English teaching.Although English teachers have attached great importance to relative clause and spent much time in practice,students still think it is difficult for them to study relative clause,and they have made various kinds of errors.If errors are not corrected in time,it would have a negtive impact on English learning.In the process of second language acquisition,making errors are unavoidable.As a branch of Applied Linguistics,error analysis theory plays an important role in the study of second language acquisition.It is not common that researchers applied error analysis theory in the study of situation of high school students learning relative clause.This thesis is based on error analysis theory,contrastive analysis theory and interlanguage theory to investigate following questions: ? The error frequency of errors that senior high school students often commit when they study relative clauses;? The types of errors that senior high school students often commit when they study relative clauses;? The factors that cause students committing errors.This thesis took 100 students of grade 2 in No.3 Middle School as research objects.The author tested students by relative clause test papers and questionnaires and 4 English teachers who have rich teaching experience were interviewed.Through qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis,the author finds that the relative clause errors mainly include five types,they are misuse of relative pronouns,misuse of relative adverbs,omission of relative words,the disagreement between predict and antecedent and redundant components in relative clause.The study further explores and sums up the causes of making errors.They are language transfer,lacking of grammatical and lexical knowledge,paying too much attention to language form,lacking of effective practice and treating errors incorrectly.According to the causes of making errors,the author come up with some advices from two aspects.From the perspective of teachers,English teachers should pay more attention to the way of correcting errors during the process of teaching grammar;English teachers could create a good learning environment for students;English teachers should strengthen the training of students' basic knowledge;English teachers could also guide students use learning strategies in the learning process.From the perspective of students,students should introspect themselves;students should find weakness of basic knowledge;they should face mistakes with positive attitude;students should learn to use learning strategies under the guidance of teachers.This research can provide some useful data for English teachers which can help teachers to master the general condition of students learning.Through the analysis of the errors,teachers and students can find and correct errors in time.At the same time,through the investigation and analysis,the author provides effective teaching suggestions for senior high school English teachers,and also provides students with effective and better learning suggestions.