The Issue of Register-Style in Language Teaching: Analyzing Register-Style Errors of Learners of Cantonese as a Second Language

Abstract

This paper analyzes the register-style errors of learners of Cantonese as a second language. It is a pilot study of building up learners' corpus containing learners' speeches and storytelling samples of about 5000 minutes. All data are collected from spontaneous speeches delivered and storytel-ling by 44 Cantonese L2 learners during different learning stages. The data shows examples containing utterances and samples with register-style errors produced by Cantonese L2 learners. Examples show violation of rules in register-style grammar by using inappropriate register-style or mingling different levels of formality in particular language context. The research is a preliminary analysis of register-style grammar in Cantonese and discusses some implications and suggestions for teaching Cantonese as a Second Language as well as in teaching Chinese as a Second Language .