A Study On English Expression Acquisition Of Caused Motion Events By Chinese English Majors

As one of the most basic cognitive events of humans,motion event has become one of the research hotspots in L2 acquisition at home and abroad.Yet most of previous studies placed emphasis on the differences in lexicalizaion patterns between typologically different languages and the effects of different languages on human's way of thinking.With respect to L2 acquisition,more attention was paid to voluntary motion events,and few studies focused on the more complex caused motion events.Furthermore,whether and to what extent the L1 thinking for speaking can affect learners' L2 acquisition is still inconclusive.In particular,there is no research devoted to an in-depth analysis of how Chinese English majors acquire English caused motion event expressions.Based on Talmy's typological framework of motion events and Slobin's thinking-for-speaking hypothesis,analyzing the oral narrative data,elicited from 108 Chinese English majors with different English proficiency,this study aims to explore how Chinese English majors,with different proficiency,acquire English CME expressions and it focuses mainly on the questions that whether Chinese English majors' acquisition of English CME expressions develops alongside their general English language proficiency and whether L1 thinking for speaking influences the acquisition of English CME expressions.After analyzing the results,the major findings can be concluded as follows.Firstly,Chinese English majors' acquisition of English CME expressions develops alongside their general English language proficiency.There is a steady increase in number as well as lexical diversity of cause verb type with proficiency improvement,although most of them are general,first-tier cause verbs rather than specific,second-tier Cause verbs.Besides,there is a developmental progression in the acquisition of each verb construction with English proficiency development and the participants performed best on CA,followed by CAV and CAI the most poorly.Chinese English majors tend to encode Path in other devices than in main verbs and encode Cause-and-Manner in main verbs like English native speakers do with proficiency development.Secondly,there are both positive and negative effects of L1 thinking for speaking on the L2 acquisition of English CME.The former reveals that acquisition process of CME can be facilitated when L1 and L2 share some typological properties while the latter further supports Slobin's thinking for speaking hypothesis.Besides,Chinese English majors were almost shaking off their L1 thinking for speaking and adopting English thinking for speaking pattern gradually.The above findings indicate that Chinese English majors have been initially acquiring English CME expressions,but they are still influenced by L2 proficiency and L1 thinking for speaking.Therefore,some implications for English expression teaching of CME can be concluded.Firstly,the concept of CME should be grasped,including its meaning and form.Secondly,the teaching process of English CME expressions should be consistent with the acquisitional order.Finally,teachers should explain the similarities as well as differences between English and Chinese as much as possible.This study enriches the research on L2 acquisition of CME expressions,having both theoretical and practical implications.