An Investigation Into The Acquisition Of English Double Object Construction Of Senior High School Students

The English double-object construction with two juxtaposed noun phrases just after the verb,has become the focus of various linguistic schools.However,previous studies have focused on the theoretical field,and seldom centered around the acquisition of double object construction of senior high school students.It is of significance to make an investigation into the current acquisition situation of English double object construction of senior high school students and to study the influence of their mother tongue on their acquisition.Based on the theories of contrastive analysis and language transfer,this research takes the methods of the questionnaire and quantitative analysis,and selects 120Grade-12 students from a senior high school in Fuyang as the research subjects.By the questionnaire and judgment,writing and translation tests,it probes into the students' acquisition of the double-object construction,the use of double-object construction and its corresponding double-object construction with a to/for phrase and that of the double-object construction and compound object construction.It is hoped that the study can help the English teachers arouse their attention to the teaching of double object construction to improve the students' comprehensive language ability.This author raises the following questions:(1)What is the current acquisition situation of English double object verbs of the senior high school students?(2)How do senior high school students use English double object construction and its corresponding double-object construction with a to/for phrase?(3)Can senior high school students learn to use double object construction and compound object construction?The research shows that:(1)The tested students' mastery is more on the double object construction with overtly-giving verbs and covertly-giving verbs than with non-giving verbs.(2)The tested students adopt the avoidance strategy when they use unfamiliardouble object verbs due to the negative transfer of their mother tongue,and prefer to use the double-object construction with a to/for phrase.(3)The tested students are not able to completely distinguish between the double object construction and the compound object construction.They are more likely to be confounded when a verb can be used in these two constructions.On the basis of the above findings and aiming at how to improve the English double object construction teaching in senior high school,the author puts forward the following suggestions: cultivating the students' awareness of sentence patterns,paying attention to the differences between English and Chinese double object constructions,and strengthening the students' training of the relevant sentence patterns.Certainly,this study also has some shortcomings,such as the limited sample collection and the narrow survey scope.