A corpus-based study of amplifier collocations by Chinese learners of English and L1 Influence

[[abstract]]本研究目的在探討以中文為母語之英語學習者其英語增強搭配詞使用及母語影響。在第一部分的分析中，研究者使用英國國家語料庫(BNC)及中國學習者英語語料庫(CLEC)比較英語母語者與中文母語者在英文增強搭配詞的使用情況。在第二部分的分析，研究者使用現代漢語平衡語料庫(ASBCMC)分析中文母語者的第一語言在英文增強搭配詞使用的可能影響。研究結果顯示中文英語學習者的母語在其英語增強搭配詞使用有潛在影響，包括過度或過少使用某些英語搭配詞、其搭配詞的搭配與英語母語者亦有不同的偏好等。研究建議因英語母語者與第二外語學習者的搭配詞學習方式不同，教師可讓學生了解中英文搭配詞使用上的不同及可能產生的影響，並鼓勵閱讀來熟悉英語增強搭配詞用法。[[abstract]]The purpose of this corpus-based study is to investigate Chinese English learners’ amplifier collocation use and how it is influenced by L1. To achieve this, two analyses were conducted. In analysis 1, the researcher analyzed amplifier collocations by native English speakers and Chinese English learners to find learners’ collocation use in the target language. In analysis 2, Chinese learners’ English amplifier collocation use and Mandarin amplifier collocation use were compared to investigate L1 influence. Three corpora were used in this study, including British National Corpus (BNC), Chinese Learner English Corpus (CLEC), and Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese (ASBCMC). The results showed that L1 may influence learners’ L2 collocation use. For example, Chinese learners mainly underused and overused some amplifiers, and Chinese speakers and native English speakers had different preference for amplifiers. Besides, Chinese learners failed to recognize negative or positive bias of certain amplifier collocations, which might be viewed as a form of incompetency. Conclusion of this study suggests that since the ways native speakers and EFL learners acquire collocations are different, teaching EFL students collocations needs to raise their awareness of problematic collocations use in L1. Moreover, in addition to explicit teaching, implicit learning of collocations, such as in reading, can maximize learners’ opportunities to acquire collocations