Analysis Of Errors In The Written Output Of Pro-forms By Chinese English Learners

On the basis of the categories,relevant theories and usages of pro-forms,the present paper studies the errors in using pro-forms in written output by Chinese English learners.The materials analyzed are 130 samples randomly extracted from the sub-corpus in Chinese Learners English Corpus,and quantitative and qualitative analysis is made to explore the errors,which is based on the each category of pro-forms and the errors are divided into two basic types:the misuse and absence of pro-forms.And the Mann-Whitney U test is conducted to check out the significant difference between the frequency of misuse and absence of pro-forms.And the conclusions are drawn as follows:(1)There are problems of different kinds of in the use of pro-forms by Chinese English Learners.Misuses of personal pronouns and possessive pronouns take a higher percentage of all categories.For the misuse of pro-forms,obscure reference,inconformity of antecedents and pro-forms are most common for all.These errors indicate that some learners do not exactly know how to use relevant pro-forms correctly.(2)As for the absence of pro-forms,it is found in almost all categories.And they basically are influenced by the Chinese mother tongue.There has already been a consensus that Chinese students tend to repeat or omit words to achieve coherence,while English native speakers use pro-forms.Thus the common problem reflected in 130 samples is that many learners lack the awareness of pro-forms as cohesive devices.Then,some Chinese learners do not have a systematic concept about pro-forms.By analyzing the written output of pro-forms,and exploring the possible factors causing the errors,some feasible suggestions on pedagogical implications and learning methods are proposed to improve their relevant ability and to avoid errors.