Chinese English Learners' ERC Acquisition Under The Influence Of RC Pattern,Embedded Position And Task Type

The structural properties of relative clauses(RC),which tend to pose acquisition difficulties for second language(L2)learners,have long been the wide concern of researchers,triggering a number of studies conducted to testify the relevant theoretical hypotheses,but few of them have shed light on the interactive effects among multiple influencing factors.With optimized research methods,this thesis attempts to explore the acquisition of relative clauses by Chinese learners of English in terms of the interaction among RC pattern,embedded position and task type.The present research focuses on the following questions: 1)What are the degrees of acquisition difficulty when L2 learners deal with different types of English RCs in comprehensive tasks? 2)What are the degrees of acquisition difficulty when L2 learners deal with different types of English RCs in productive tasks? 3)What role do RC pattern,embedded position and task type play in the acquisition of ERC for Chinese EFL learners?In this study,RC pattern,embedded position and task type are independent variables,and the test score is dependent variable.63 senior high school students are selected as subjects.Through four tasks,the scores as well as the numbers of self-revised answers are collected to analyze the acquisition orders in both comprehensive and productive parts and to explore the main effect and interaction effect of the three factors in virtue of SPSS 17.0.The results show that: 1)In comprehensive tasks,the acquisition orders for students with high and low language proficiency are OS \ OO > SO > SS and OS >OO > SO > SS respectively.And the self-modified answers also supported the above order.Thus,the results fully support PDH and partially support NPAH and SOHH.2)In productive tasks,the acquisition orders in two groups are OS > SS > OO > SO and OS > OO > SS > SO.However,affected by strategies of structure transformation,answers with difficult RC types are transformed into easier ones.Both NPAH and PDH are verified while SOHH is partially supported in RC production.3)Main effects of RC pattern,embedded position and task type factor are all testified,significant interaction effect between embedded position and task type is found as well.However,there is no interaction between RC pattern and embedded position factor,the interaction between the RC pattern and the type only exists in high proficiency group and three factors interact with each other in low proficiency group.Further exploration of the influence of task type factor shows that the mean scores in picture-sentence matching task are higher than those in other tasks and the differences are highly significant in high proficiency group.The results not only have theoretical significance,but also provide reference to students,teachers and textbook compilers in the process of ERCs acquisition,teaching and investigation.