A corpus-based study on chinese efl learners' acquisition of english existential construction

Abstract

This corpus-based study examines English existential construction used by intermediate and advanced level Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners. The corpora adopted are the sub-corpora of SWECCL2.0—TEM 4 Oral and TEM 8 Oral and a sub-corpora of COCA. The study concludes Chinese EFL learners tend to overuse English existential construction and prefer the basic tenses, simple intransitive verbs and commonly seen expressions, avoid the perfect tenses and the difficult forms. With the level of proficiency in English getting higher, Chinese students try to use fewer English existential sentences. The study also finds errors relevant to the tenses, agreements and misuse of “there + have” pattern made in TEM 4 Oral and more difficult participle errors made in TEM 8 Oral and the main reason of errors made in English existential acquisition is due to L1 transfer/ L1 influence