Analysis of Common Syntactic Errors in Spoken English of Chinese College Students
Abstract
This research focuses on syntactic errors in the English production of Chinese college students. First, it stratifies participants by their level of English proficiency, administers tests with unified standardized oral English tasks, and transcribes the recorded speech into textual corpora to systematically identify and classify different types of syntactic errors. Based on Error Analysis Theory, the study investigates the root causes of these errors, supplemented by student interviews to identify both subjective and objective factors of influence. The results show that such errors are basically divided into five categories: misuse of tense time, disagreement between subject and phrase, incorrect placement of articles and sentences, incomplete or mixed sentence structures, and misuse of non-finite verbs. Significant differences are also observed in error types and frequencies among students at different levels of learning. The results can provide empirical evidence for stratified oral English teaching, facilitating coordinated improvements in the accuracy and fluency of students' English conversation.
References
- Pan, J., & Xin, K. (2008). An analysis and study of language errors made by test-takers in the College English Test (CET-4/6) Spoken English Test.Journal of Northwestern Polytechnical University (Social Sciences), 28(2), 67-70.
- Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learners' errors.International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 5(2), 161-170.
- Ellis, R. (2005).Understanding second language acquisition. Oxford University Press.
- Li, N. (2020). On the integration path of non-English-major grammar teaching and oral English in higher education.Contemporary Foreign Language Studies, (2), 78-83.
- Zhang, M. (2021). Research on the construction and application of a corpus for college students' spoken English testing.Computer-Assisted Foreign Language Education, (3), 89-95.
- Chen, J. (2004). Error analysis of spoken English and error correction strategies.Journal of Harbin College, 25(10), 104-107.
- Wen, Q. (2020).Oral English teaching: Theory and practice. Beijing: Higher Education Press.
- Wang, C. (2019).Research methods and thesis writing in applied linguistics. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
- Zhou, X. (2017).Introduction to second language acquisition. Guangzhou: Sun Yat-sen University Press.