A Corpus-based Study of Chinese EFL Learners’ Employment of although

Jingwen Chen

doi:10.5539/elt.v10n8p51

Abstract

Although is a frequently used subordinating conjunction in English. However, non-nativeness is often observed in Chinese EFL learners’ although output during pedagogical practice. This paper aims at exploring the characteristics of Chinese EFL learners’ although employment in Chinese EFL learners’ writing. The study is a corpus-based analysis launched under the analytical framework of contrastive interlanguage analysis. The interlanguage hypothesis lays the theoretical foundation of the present study. Texts from two corpora—the Chinese learner English corpus [CLEC] and the “arts and humanities” disciplinary group of the British academic written English corpus [sub-BAWEC]—are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively with the help of concordance software Antconc 3.2.1 and statistics program PASW Statistics 18. Based on the findings, conclusions are drawn as follows: 1) Chinese EFL learners tend to underuse although and produce mono-structural although clauses in their writing. Nevertheless, they share similar preference on deciding although placement in clauses with native English speakers; and 2) Factors such as interlingual difference between English and Mandarin Chinese, pedagogical neglect in English classrooms and different cognitive styles influence Chinese EFL learners’ although employment.

Highlights

This paper aims at exploring the characteristics of Chinese EFL learners’ employment in Chinese EFL learners’ writing
It is very common that non-nativeness of employment appears in the written output of Chinese EFL learners
Part of the present study explores the range of clause constructions in the written output of both Chinese EFL learners and native English speakers, attempting to investigate whether Chinese EFL learners share similar flexibility in generating different types of clauses with native English speakers

Summary

Introduction

Under formal educational system, most Chinese children start learning basic English at the fourth grade of primary school (with the exception that some parents may send their children to English training at an earlier age) and will not start systematic learning of grammatical clauses until middle school. In several commonly used Chinese English textbook series, appears in the eighth or ninth grade vocabulary lists (see Net. 1 & Net. 2) while its informal counterpart though has its earliest appearance in a fifth-grade textbook (see Net. 3). Assumed by many English teachers, it is not difficult for Chinese English learners to master . It is very common that non-nativeness of employment appears in the written output of Chinese EFL learners

Objectives

Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion