Errors on the Relative Marker WHERE: Evidence from an EFL Learner Corpus

Supakorn Phoocharoensil

Abstract


The present study was aimed at investigating Thai EFL learners’ grammatical errors on their use of the relative marker WHERE. The data were collected from undergraduate students’ writings, which represent intermediate learner English, in Thai Learner English Corpus (TLEC).The findings indicate that the participants experienced the greatest difficulty using WHERE, i.e., as if it were functioning as a noun or noun phrase, which apparently emanates from learners’ overgeneralization. In comparison to the results of Phoocharoensil (2012), it seems that a great number of actual errors evidenced by the corpus-based data do not correspond to those found previously. In particular, the errors such as pronoun retention, preposition addition, and non-adjacency of RC to the head, which were prevalent in the past study, evidently occur with far lower frequency in the current study. This probably suggests that such problems reported in the past research may be due to limitations of the elicitation technique, i.e., a sentence combination task.

 

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/3L-2014-2001-01





Full Text:

PDF

References


Alsagoff, L. & Lick, H. C. (1998). The relative clause in colloquial Singapore English. World Englishes, 17(2), 127-138.

Braidi, S. (1999). The acquisition of second-language syntax. New York: Arnold.

Carter, R., McCarthy, M., Mark, G., & O’Keeffe, A. (2011). English grammar today: An A-Z of spoken and written grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Celce-Murcia, M. & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The grammar book: An ESL/EFL teacher's course, 2nd edition. Singapore: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

Chan, A. (2004). Syntactic transfer: Evidence from the interlanguage of Hong Kong Chinese ESL learners. The Modern Language Journal, 88(1), 56-74.

Chang, Y. (2004). Second language relative clause acquisition: An examination of cross-linguistic influences. National Chung Hsing University.

Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learners’ errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 5, 16-170.

Corder, S. P. (1974). Error analysis. In J. Allen and S. Corder (Eds.), The Edinburgh Course in applied linguistics Volume 3: Techniques in applied linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cowan, R. (2008). The teacher's grammar of English: A course book and reference guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Crompton, P. (2005). Where, in which, and in that: A corpus-based approach to error analysis. RELC Journal, 36(2), 157-176.

Crystal, D. (2004). Making sense of grammar. Essex: Pearson Education.

Ellis, R. (2008). The study of second language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ellis, R. & Barkhuizen, G. (2005). Analysing learner language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Erdogan, A. (2005). Use of English relative clauses by Turkish learners: A study of errors. http://sunzil.lib.hku/hkjo/view/10/100022.pdf .

Flanigan, B. O. (1995). Anaphora and relativization in child second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 17, 331-351.

Gass, S. (1979). Language transfer and universal grammatical relations. Language Learning, 29(2), 327-344.

Gisborne, N. (2000). Relative clauses in Hong Kong English. World Englishes Vol 19(3), 357-371.

Izumi, S. (2003). Processing difficulty in comprehension and production of relative clauses by learners of English as a second language. Language Learning, 53(2), 285-323.

James, C. (1998). Errors in language learning and use: Exploring error analysis. London: Longman.

Kachru, B. B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English language in the Outer Circle. In R. Quirk & H. Widdowson (Eds.), English in the World (pp. 11-30). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Keenan, E. & Comrie, B. (1977). Noun phrase accessibility hierarchy and universal grammar. Linguistic Inquiry, 8, 63-99.

Kirkpatrick, A. (2007). World Englishes: Implications for International Communication and English Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.

Kirkpatrick, A. (2010). English as a lingua franca in ASEAN: A multilingual model. Hong Kong University Press.

Klein, E.C. (1995). Second versus third language acquisition: Is there a difference? Language Learning, 45, 419-465.

Kortmann, B. (2006). Syntactive variation in English: A global perspective. In B. Aarts & A. McMahon (Eds.), The handbook of English linguistics (pp. 603-624). Oxford: Blackwell.

Kuno, S. (1974). The position of relative clauses and conjunctions. Linguistic Inquiry, 5, 117-136.

Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2005). Second language research: Methodology and design. New Jersey: Erlbaum.

Master, P. (1996). Systems in English grammar: An introduction for language teachers. Fresno: Prentice Hall Regents.

Newbrook, (1998). Which way? That way? Variation and ongoing changes in the English relative clause. World Englishes, 17, 43–59.

Phoocharoensil, S (2009). A study of English relative clauses in the interlanguage of Thai EFL learners. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Chulalongkorn University.

Phoocharoensil, S. (2010). Language universals and learning strategies in L2 relative clause acquisition. The International Journal of Learning, 17(2), 95-107.

Phoocharoensil, S. (2011). Resumptive pronouns in learner language. International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 4(4), 182-193.

Phoocharoensil, S. (2012). On the adverbial relativiser Where and prepositional relatives from an interlanguage perspective. Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics, 13(2), 85-114.

Ramat, A. G. (2000). Typological considerations on second language acquisition. Studia Linguistica, 54(2), 123-135.

Sadighi, F., Parhizgar, M. R., & Saadat, M. (2004). Preposition pied-piping and preposition stranding constructions in the interlanguage grammar of Iranian EFL learners. Asian EFL Journal, 6(4), 1-33.

Sattayatham, A. & Honsa, S. (2004). Medical students’ most frequent errors at Mahodol University. Asian EFL Journal, 9(2), 170-194.

Song, J. J. (2001). Linguistic typology. Pearson: Singapore.

Sornhiran, P. (1978). A transformational study of relative clauses in Thai. PhD. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.

Suktrakul, S. (1975). Contrastive analysis of relative clauses in Thai-English. Doctoral dissertation, UMI Dissertation Information Service, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Swan, M. (2005). Practical English usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Xiaoling, J. & Mengduo, Q. (2010). Interlingual factors in Chinese college students’ acquisition of English relative clauses. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 33(1), 110-126.

Yan, W. (2011). Relative clauses in Hong Kong English: A corpus-based perspective. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 34(4), 15-30.

Yip, V. & Matthews, S. (1991). Relative complexity: Beyond avoidance. Chinese University of Hong Kong Papers in Linguistics, 3, 112-124


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


 

 

 

eISSN : 2550-2247

ISSN : 0128-5157