The Research Of Malaysia's Secondary School Chinese Students Errors Made In Measure Words "Ke" And "Li"

Measure words is one of the unique syntaxes in the Sino-Tibetan Language.Not only there is a wide variety of quantifications,the application of quantifications is rather complicated.The study of measure words can be traced as early as back to the Wei,Jin,the Nan and Bei Dynasties,however,there appeared to be a delay in propagating the knowledge and application of quantifications to the foreign learners.In the late 1990s,some scholars began to provide rational suggestions and strategies after conducting research on the study of measure words in the hope of making the learning of quantifications easier.It was not until the 21st century before the propagation of measure words had shown a significant improvement.According to the research conducted by the author,there is very little references on measure words which are currently available to the non-native Chinese speakers.Malaysian Chinese are generally required to have a good command of Malay language,English language and other languages other than their own personal dialect due to the multiculturalism of the country.In their usual dialects,the application of quantifications are very much different from the Mandarin measure words.Hence,due to the complex nature of quantifications of different languages,often Mandarin measure words will be applied wrongly in the conversation among Malaysian Chinese.One of the common mistakes including using the measure word 'Li' for all objects that are round in shape.As such,this thesis selects the Chinese students from SMK SRI JAYA as the main research participants,with the aim to observe and analyze their wrongful application of measure words specifically the quantification of 'Ke' and 'Li' This is done by distributing questionnaires and arranging daily conversation.The author will then analyze and find out the root of the mistakes and proposes effective teaching and learning suggestions to both teachers and learners.This study is divided into 7 chapters.The first chapter focuses on general introduction,which includes the origin of the study,the current research status,the research content,the research purpose,the research method and the sources of corpus taken.The second chapter is a brief introduction to SMK SRI JAYA and an overview to its Chinese teaching.The third chapter includes the evolution history and collocation analysis of measure words 'Li' and 'Ke'.A conclusion will be drawn as to where is the measure words 'Li'and 'Ke' applicable with examples of noun given.The fourth chapter focuses on the analytical results of the students from SMK SRI JAYA by analysing the questionnaires in details.The fifth chapter summarises the root of the students' mistake in applying measure words after looking at it from five perspectives,namely the influence of dialects,cultural difference,negative transfer of target language knowledge,the effect of learning and communication strategies,and the impact of teachers as well as teaching materials.The sixth chapter consists of teaching and learning proposals for both teachers and students.Finally,a conclusion will be drawn in the last chapter.