A Corpus Analysis of Chinese Students’ (Mis-)Use of Nouns at XJTLU

Abstract

Corpus linguistics is the study of language based on real-life language use. It draws on evidence from large databases of electronically encoded texts. Corpus analysis could offer insights into some common but often ignored features of language use (Hyland, 2009). Discussing language teaching and learning, Hoey (2009) assumes that: Native speakers have acquired a large corpus of examples of the words of English in their typical contexts, and from this they learn how the words are used. By contrast, non-native speakers have typically heard (or read) relatively few examples of even the more common words in natural use and have therefore had less opportunity to learn the way these words typically occur. Therefore, the starting point of this chapter is the hypothesis that non-native English speaker (NNS) learners tend to make more mistakes in the use of the language than the native English speakers. Corpus studies may help TEFL teachers to focus on the specific areas that cause problems for their students, whereas students can be made more aware of the areas of language use that they may find difficult and thus pay more attention to the areas.