A comparative study of wh-words in Chinese EFL textbooks, elicited native and non-native speaker data and written native and non-native speaker corpora
This study presents a corpus-based analysis of the use of âwhâ sentences by language learners, in language textbooks and in authentic written discourse. It focuses on the polysemeous nature of âwhâ words, which can be usedas interrogatives, declaratives and to introduce subordinate clauses. The analysis of âwhâ sentences in EFL textbooks showed that there are more prototypical examples at low proficiency levels. When teaching the interrogative, textbooks focus almost exclusively on grammatical words, particularly at the beginnersâ level. The analysis of âwhâ sentences elicited from Chinese speaking learners of English and Expert users of English suggested that the prototypical structure is very strong in both sets of data, although native speakers tend to use more prefabricated chunks of language. The analysis of âwhâ sentences from native speakers and non-native speakersâ written corpora suggested that subordinate clauses are strongly present in both corpora, except for the word âwhyâ in non-native speakersâ data. The use of different words occurring immediately after âwhâ words in the two corpora can be explained by (1) the relatively small vocabulary size of the L2 speakers;
Zhang, Feifei
P Philology. Linguistics ; PE English ; PI Oriental languages and literatures
A comparative study of wh-words in Chinese EFL textbooks, elicited native and non-native speaker data and written native and non-native speaker corpora. This study presents a corpus-based analysis of the use of âwhâ sentences by language learners, in language textbooks and in authentic written discourse. It focuses on the polysemeous nature of âwhâ words, which can be usedas interrogatives, declaratives and to introduce subordinate clauses. The analysis of âwhâ sentences in EFL textbooks showed that there are more prototypical examples at low proficiency levels. When teaching the interrogative, textbooks focus almost exclusively on grammatical words, particularly at the beginnersâ level. The analysis of âwhâ sentences elicited from Chinese speaking learners of English and Expert users of English suggested that the prototypical structure is very strong in both sets of data, although native speakers tend to use more prefabricated chunks of language. The analysis of âwhâ sentences from native speakers and non-native speakersâ written corpora suggested that subordinate clauses are strongly present in both corpora, except for the word âwhyâ in non-native speakersâ data. The use of different words occurring immediately after âwhâ words in the two corpora can be explained by (1) the relatively small vocabulary size of the L2 speakers;
comparative_study words chinese efl textbook elicit native_non native_speaker data write native_non native_speaker corpus study present corpus_based analysis use sentence language_learner language textbook authentic write_discourse focus nature word interrogative declarative introduce subordinate_clause analysis sentence efl textbook show prototypical example low proficiency_level teach interrogative textbooks focus_almost exclusively grammatical word particularly beginner level analysis sentence elicit chinese speak learner_english expert user english suggest prototypical structure strong set data although native_speaker tend use language analysis sentence native_speaker non_native_speaker write corpus suggest subordinate_clause strongly present corpus except word non_native_speaker data use different word occur immediately word corpus explain relatively_small vocabulary size speaker