| The Chinese modal verb "yao" is one of the key and difficult points in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language.At the same time,it remains a very prominent problem in the Chinese language learning process of Malaysian students.The reasons why "yao" is difficult for foreign students to learn can be roughly divided into two parts:first,the Chinese modal verb is the basic vocabulary of language expression,and the modal verb "yao" is used with a high frequency;what is more,the sense and negation of "yao" are rather complex,and there are subtleties with other modal verbs.Thus,the complexity of its multi-relationship makes it difficult to grasp.Second,from the perspective of the linguistic distance between mother tongue and the target language,it is not difficult to discover that the Malaysian language belongs to the Malay-Polynesian language system,one of the Austronesian language family;while the Chinese language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family,the relative relationship between the two languages is rather alienated,so the language difference is relatively large.When expressing the same modal meaning,there are many inconsistencies between the two languages,such as the regarding vocabulary and grammartical structures,which has caused Malaysian students much more negative transfer in learning more Chinese.In view of the above situation,this study adopts the methods of corpus analysis,quantitative statistics as well as interview in order to analyze and discuss the 800,000-word composition data written by Malaysian students who studies abroad at a Chinese university.The researcher then tries to sort out and make descriptions of every kind of errors appeared,and make further analysis of the causes of the errors from the perspective of second language acquisition theories.This article sorts out five major types of errors regarding to the Chinese modal verb "yao",which can be listed as follows:mistaken(47.93%),misleading(24.21%),omission(11.14%),negativity(13.80%),and disorder(2.91%).Judging from the proportion,it is easy to conclude that the mistaken errors are very prominent.It mainly includes mistaken additions of "yaol","yao2","yao3","yao4" and "yao5".Among them,the mistaken errors of "yao" are reflected in the following six sentence structures:the ordinary sentence patterns;"category-linked sentence" patterns;"zen me/ru he+yao" patterns,"wei le/yin wei+yao" patterns,"zhun bei/da suan +yao"patterns as well as "xiang +yao" patterns.Apart from that,the misleading errors are mainly presented as the misuses of "yao","xiang(want to)","neng(can)","dei(must)","hui(will)","ke","hao","ke yi",,"ying gai(should)" and etc.Judging from the corpus of errors the study has compiled,except for the two-way misleading errors of "should",the rest of the misleading errors all account for the errors of modal verb "yao".In addition,negativity errors are mainly reflected as the cases of mechanically corresponding the "yao 1”and "yao 2" negation forms to the"yao 3" negation form.Also,the omission error is mainly reflected as the omission of"yao 1","yao 2" and "yao 3",and the omission of "kuai yao + VP" sentence pattern.This article finds and sorts out five major types of errors:"category-linked sentence" patterns(32 cases),"zen me/ru he+yao" patterns(32 cases),"wei le/yin wei+yao" patterns(38 cases),"zhun bei/da suan +yao(prepare/intend to)"patterns(19 cases),and "ke" "hao" "ke yi" misuses(4 cases),"kuai yao +VP "structure omission(16 cases).There are 141 cases of these errors,which account for 34.14%of the total errors of this study.The innovation of this article is mainly manifested in two aspects.First,based on a large number of classifications and analysis,the specific error types of Malaysia college students' Chinese language use are found and sorted out though the analysis of the real composition corpus of college students.Second,the explanation of the causes of errors in this study is mainly concluded from the perspective of the Malaysian language,that is,the student's mother tongue.The author has done a lot of interviews so as to help the interviewees recall the meanings which they tended to express in the errors.Thus,by analyzing and explaining the true cause of the error as much as possible,this study tries to explain in detail how a type of error is affected by the negative transfer of mother tongue.It also should be pointed out that,at present,the interpretation of the types and causes of errors in the Chinese modal verb "yao" of Malaysian Chinese students still lacks attention and research.This study attempts tofill this gap.In addition,compared with other literature,this study has made a lot of effort in contacting with the participants—interviewing them helps the researcher obtain a lot of valuable first-hand information,which greatly enriches the content of this study.The major finding of this paper is that in the process of learning the Chinese modal verb "yao",Malaysian students share the common problems with other foreign students who learn Chinese language;nevertheless,Malaysian students also have the unique type of language errors which are found influenced by the negative transfer of their mother tongue-in particular,the misuse of Chinese modal verb "yao".The research results of this study have certain significance and value for the teaching and learning of the Chinese modal verb "yao" and the compilation of teaching materials.The study strongly suggests that the teachers who teach the Chinese language in Malaysia should pay attention to the students' proficiency of their mother tongue and improve the teaching preference.Also,the study suggests the Malaysian Chinese learners should change their thinking habits and writing habits,considering they are learners who are in the target language environment and make full use of the advantages of the language environment to communicate.The suggestion for the compilation of teaching materials is:All the meanings of the Chinese modal verb"yao" and their corresponding negative forms should be enumerated in a comprehensive and detailed manner,the pertinence of the compilation of the teaching materials should be improved,and the typical practice problems should be designed carefully. |
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