Creativity in the use of verb + noun combinations by Chinese learners of English

Abstract

In this paper we examine verb + noun combinations as used by Chinese learners of English and compare them with Greek and German learners as investigated by Giovi (2006) and Nesselhauf (2003), respectively. We show that the building locks of learner language in Chinese interlanguage are memorised chunks that learners use to represent their ideas. This learner strategy seems to be more prominent in Chinese-English interlanguage than in Greek-English or German-English interlanguage, which is manifest in the Chinese learners’ more frequent use of semi-fixed expressions (i.e. verb + noun combinations), the higher error rate with which they use them, and the difference between the error types they produce and those of Greek and German learners of English. The factors that contribute to the ease or difficulty of learning and using verb + noun combinations by Chinese learners will be considered. These factors include languagerelated and environment-related factors, such as a) the type of input Chinese learners receive, mainly the textbooks they use, and the amount and nature of target English they are exposed to; b) features specific to the mother tongue, Chinese; and c) the influence of education in the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC). We argue that all these actors will have an impact on the amount and type of creativity that Chinese learners of English exhibit in their language production.