Learning Challenges of Prepositions in English: A Corpus-based Study of "on" and Pedagogical Strategies for Chinese EFL Learners
Abstract
Prepositions constitute a fundamental yet challenging area in English acquisition, especially for learners whose first language has a markedly different system. This study investigates the use of the English preposition on among Chinese EFL learners, drawing on corpus-based methods to identify common errors, their underlying causes, and effective pedagogical interventions. A mixed-methods approach was applied, combining quantitative error analysis with qualitative interpretation. A sample of 200 instances of on was randomly extracted from the Chinese and English Learner Language Corpus and compared with an equal number of tokens from native-speaker corpora. Results show that selection errors are the most frequent, followed by omission and addition errors, while order errors are rare. These errors can be traced to negative transfer from Mandarin Chinese, overgeneralization of simplified textbook rules, and insufficient acquisition of collocational patterns. The findings highlight the role of semantic differentiation, interlanguage development, and idiomatic competence in mastering prepositions. Pedagogically, the study proposes data-driven learning, explicit contrastive tasks, and collocation notebooks to enhance learner awareness and accuracy. This research contributes to second language acquisition theory and offers practical strategies for improving EFL instruction, with implications for broader preposition teaching beyond on.
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