英语硕士论文开题报告

1、外国语学院硕士学位论文开题报告书学科专业 课程与教学论 研究方向 英语课程与教学论 学生姓名 导师姓名 报告日期 2014510 外国语学院制2014年 5 月 10 日填写中文题目高三英语写作常见错误分析及启示对洛川县高三学生英语写作错误的研究外语题目 Error Analysis in English Writing of Senior Middle School Students in Grade 3 -A Case Study on Errors in English Writing of Senior3 Students of Luochuan High School论文类型请在有关

2、项目下划基础研究应用研究跨学科研究I. Introduction 1.1 Background of the researchWith Chinas entry into WTO in 2001, English, an international common language, plays a critical part in our daily communication. Writing, as well as listening, speaking and reading, is an important and essential part of second language a

3、cquisition. As one of the important linguistic output skills, writing is usually regarded as the ultimate and fundamental measures to judge ones English level. Wen Qiufang (1996) indicated that quality of English writing would became an important scale for testing a qualified person in the twenty-fi

4、rst century.In addition, writing is a kind of creative work that takes much time. Though students have studied English for several years, many students still regard it as an obstacle. Despite they have devoted much more time and energy to practicing writing; they still find it hard to obtain high ma

5、rks in written tasks. There has been a new wave of reform in English education in senior high school in China since 2004.The new national English curriculum lays out higher goals and requirements for senior high school students' writing. According to the English Curriculum Standard of High Schoo

6、l, it requires the students should write some basic composition correctly and fluently. Furthermore, it is known that the writing test in University Entrance Examination of China, takes up nearly 40 percent of the total marks in a paper. All of the evidence points that writing has increasingly signi

7、ficance in English learning.However, the present situation of writing teaching of senior high school is far from satisfactory. For a long time, giving topics and requests, allowing students to complete writing within the time, and the compositions corrected by teacher is the traditional writing Engl

8、ish form. In such a training mode, the majority of the students produce poor writing skills. Its obvious evidence that English writing is terrible. And of course, in their compositions are full of red underlines and errors that to be corrected by teachers, which cost teachers so much time and energy

9、, it also upset the students. Day after day, the students lose enthusiasm and motivation in the English writing, and they are forced to write for homework and examinations. In recent years, with the reformation of middle school teaching going further, some amazing changes have taken place in the Eng

10、lish writing. The English Curriculum Standard of High School emphasizes the transition from teacher-centered orientation to learnercentered orientation. Under these circumstances, mutual communication between teacher and student, student and student should be encouraged. The students academic motiva

11、tion is aroused. Therefore the students writing ability is improved. But, actually, there is a long way to go for the English writing teaching 1.2 Significance of the Study 1.2.1 Theoretical Significance of the StudyWriting is regarded as an objective and fair reflection of the overall level of lang

12、uage learning. With the development of the new theory of Error Analysis (EA), this research intends to find out the common errors in English writing committed by Chinese senior high school students in Grade 3 of, also the reasons .Theoretically, this kind of study could serve as a supplement for the

13、 study on EA. It is hoped that the result of the study will provide some support for EA. At the same time, the study also could enrich the study of EA involving the acquisition of writing skills in Chinese EFL context. And this kind of study will provide students to develop their individual strategy

14、 system. 1.2.2 Practical Significance of the StudyEnglish writing, as one of the four basic skills, has always been regarded as a essential part for English learners. Practically, the researches of combining the theories of error analysis with English writing are still lacking. Students' poor pe

15、rformance in writing is partly due to the deficiency in theories of EA. Therefore the findings study will make it clear for Senior Middle School Students in Grade 3. Specifically, if the research is successful, the practical significance will be the following. On one hand, the study on making errors

16、 shows the process in which students are trying to perform the target language when they are learning. The process, which is processed immediately and which is intake, internalized and cumulated in their brains .On the other hand, studying errors can provide useful information which will help teache

17、rs to make decision on how to deal with these errors by updating teaching methods. All in all , the study will cultivate students' writing skills and also will provide English teachers with effective methods on training English writing, all of these are benefit to improve students' writing l

18、evel. II. Literature Review 2.1 Studies on Error Analysis The study of SLA, as an influential discipline in second language study, has developed quickly in the past 5 decades. There have been extensive researches done in this field. Among them, error analysis (EA) is a common and controversial issue

19、 about which many linguists and foreign teachers have concerned themselves for years. 2.1.1 Errors and MistakeIn order to analyze the errors, there should be a standard to identify errors themselves and the types of errors Errors generally refer to the learners misuse or misunderstanding of the targ

20、et 1anguage, it may be grammatical or pragmatic. An error is a noticeable deviation from the standard grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the limit of the learners competence in using the target language. It reflects the learners knowledge of the target 1anguage. Researchers and experts give dif

21、ferent definitions of errors：A. According to S. P. Corder (1 967:158-171), an error is a deviation in learner language which results from lack of knowledge of the correct rule.B. H. Brown (2001:205) defines errors as a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the i

22、nterlanguage competence of the learner.C. C. James (2001:2-5) defines errors simply as “unsuccessful bits of language”. Concerning errors, it is necessary for us to talk about another term: mistakes, which have close relationship with errors. Most researchers define “errors as a systematic deviation

23、 created by learners who have not yet mastered the rules of the second language, such as phonetic, grammatical structure and lexical and so on. The other normally occurs in oral form, and often referred to as “a slip of tongue”. Corder (1973:35) first distinguished errors from mistakes. Errors refle

24、ct a gap in a learners knowledge of the target language, in which the learner does not know what is correct. Mistakes reflect occasional lapses in a situation where the learner knows the correct form , but slips due to nervousness, carelessness or tiredness 2.1.2 Classification of ErrorsSince the 19

25、50s, linguists treat errors have different views and they categorize learner errors into different types.Corder classifies errors into three types; pre-systematic errors, systematic errors, and post-systematic errors.Jack Richards classify errors into three types; interlingual errors intralingual er

26、rors and developmental errors. Duly and Burt classify errors into three types; developmental errors, interference errors, and unique errors.Theo Van Els et al. Divide errors into the following categories; error of competence and error of performance.Butt and kiparsky classify errors into two types:

27、global and local errors. 2.1.3 The Classification of Errors in Chinese High School Students English WritingCarl James (1984) pointed out an error occurs on three levels: the substance errors, refers to various spelling, writing and pronunciation errors; text errors, including vocabulary and grammati

28、cal errors; discourse errors, including coherence and language with errors. Based on Carl James, the error is divided into the following categories:2.1.3.1 Study of Substance ErrorsSpeaking substance errors bore the brunt of spelling errors (misspellings). According to James (2003) view, spelling er

29、rors can be divided into two categories: spelling errors caused by incorrect pronunciation (mispronunciation errors) and the error of output of language-coding errors (written misencodings).The written misencodings can be divided into two types, interlingual misencodings and intralingual misencoding

30、s. The interlingual misencodings refers to that when the writer of second language is spelling words, he is influenced by the L1 Phonographic rules, so the errors come. In addition to interlingual misencoding errors, as well as reasons of some coding errors generated can not be attributed to several

31、 situations described above. In other words, these errors interference with native phonetic rules irrelevant; these coding errors are within the language coding errors. James, Scholfied, Garrett and Giffith divide the written misencodings into four types: overgeneralization, homophone confusion, mis

32、choice and letter naming.(James 2003:139). 2.1.3.2 Study of Text Errors The text errors consist of vocabulary errors and grammar errors. (1)Vocabulary Errors A.Misuse of the word B.Misuse of speech C.Meaning misuse D.Collocation errors E.Temporary sentences (2)Grammar Errors A.Mindset B.Knowledge tr

33、ansfer C.Details forgotten 2.1.3.3 Study of Discourse Errors The discourse errors mainly contain errors within sentences and errors of chapter structure. (1) Errors within sentences A. Clause errors B. Sentence errors (2) Errors of chapter structure A. Ignore related words B. Neglect topic sentence2

34、.1.3.4 Other Errors (1) The level of cultural knowledge A.Chinese sentence B.Chinese word order C.Sentence confusion D.Words spelled (2)Punctuation and capitalization errors 2.1.4 Procedures of EAAccording to Corder, the procedures of EA often include sample collection, identification, description,

35、explanation and evaluation of errors. (1)The sample collection of errors (2)The identification of errors (3)The description of errors (4)The explanation of errors (5)The evaluation of errors 2.2 The Previous Studies on Errors Abroad and at home 2.2 .1 Studies on EA Abroad“Error analysis is the proce

36、ss of determining the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language. It is a procedure for analyzing second language data，which begins with the errors that learners make and attempts to explain them”(Carl James, 2001:1). “Error analysis aims at exposing the relations between Un

37、iversal Grammar and the second language acquisition(SLA), so as to find what strategies the language learners use in the process of language learning and what the causes of errors are. It is closely related with Chomskys points of Inner theory, Language Acquisition Device and Universal GrammarIts ps

38、ychological basis is cognitive theory”(Corder, 1981).Error Analysis has a long tradition and the analysis of learners errors had long been a part of language pedagogy. In the late 1 960s, EA had become a commonly accepted alternative to the Behaviourism,based contrastive analysis(CA), an approach, t

39、hrough which applied linguists sought to use the formal distinctions between the learners first and second or foreign languages to predict errors.The study of EA was established in the 1970s by S.P.Corder and his colleagues. The landmark is that Corders The Significance of Learner's Errors was p

40、ublished in 1976. He has provided a systematic framework of EA, which makes a great contribution to the development of EA. Corder first advocated the importance of errors in the language learning process. Errors can be significant in the following there ways. “First, they provided the teacher with i

41、nformation about how much the learner had learnt. Second, they provided the researcher with evidence of how language was learnt. Third, they served as tools by which the learner discovered the rules of the target language. That is to say, we can consider the making errors as a device that the learne

42、r uses in order to learn. It is a way that the learner has to test his hypothesis about the nature of language he is learning, whereas reflects the traditional role of EA, provides a new role that is of primary interest to the second language researcher because it could shed light on me process of t

43、he second language acquisition.” (Rod Ellis, 1994)In addition to Corder, the two most significant experts were H. George (1972) and M. Burt and .Kiparsky (1972). George offered a detailed account of the major causes and types of errors, full of suggestions for ways to avoid or remedy error. Burt and

44、 Kiparsky (1972) entitle their book The Gooficon: a Repair Manual for English, which they defined as a collection of goofs and their explanations from the point of View of English grammar. This claimed that the mother tongue did not have any significant effect on the learning of a second language.In

45、 the 1 970s and early 80s, a large number of papers on error analysis were published throughout the world. With the development of error analysis, the shortcoming of EA appeared. Many researchers criticize it on many aspects. H. D. Brown (2001) put forward three points. First, there is a danger in t

46、oo much attention to learners errors. Second, there is a danger of overstressing of production data. Third, error analysis fails to explain the strategy of avoidance. 2.2.2 Studies of EA in ChinaThe study of error analysis in China is about 20 years later than that in the western countries. But in r

47、ecent years, the Chinese scholars have made rapid progress in this field.Some scholars have introduced EA theory to China since 1980s and some researchers have made fruitful achievement in the study. Professor Du shichun (1 985) regards EA as a common teaching method, through Which the English teach

48、er can find the individuality and generality of the 1anguage errors of students.Another professor, Wang Chuming shows great concern about Contrastive Analysis (CA) and Error Analysis (EA) in his book Applied Psychological Linguistics (1990). Scholars, such as, Dai Weidong and Shu Dingfang(1994)have

49、also made introductions and comments on the current situation of CA and EA.The other scholars like Tang Chenxian and Yang Lianrui have discussed research procedures, significance and limitation of EA. All these scholars lay emphasis on the introduction of the EA and make some exploration in the fiel

50、d. Obviously, their valuable and practical work has made great contributions to the study of EA.In addition to the above introduction of theory of errors, many scholars and teachers have begun to conduct experimental studies in order to inquire the linguistic and pragmatic errors in the use of targe

51、t language (Liu Shaozhong, 1997)Xue chen, a professor in Nankai University has been focusing on writing since 1989. He finds the main problems in the writing of university students are as fellows:1) Students are greatly influenced by the Chinese language in the process of their writing. They often m

52、ake an outline of writing in Chinese and then translate it into English word for word. What they have produced is hard to understand to the native speakers.2) Many students are found not to apply the grammar that they have learned to their writing. Some dont know how to use them correctly and effect

53、ively and make some errors in the writing.In the1990s, the grammatical errors used popularly as a device drew the scholars great attention. After 2000, the researchers studied EA from different aspects with different device. Some did the research using the device of semantics or pragmatics. Even in

54、recent years, some scholars have used the latest device: language corpus into their research works. They all have made remarkable achievement in their own ways. 2.2.3 Comment on Studies on EAAccording to the researchers conducted by scholars abroad or at home, the most commonly source of data is fro

55、m corpora. Few have carried out researchers based on real classroom. The classification of errors is not clear either. In the 1 970s and early 80s, a large number of papers on error analysis were published throughout the world. With the development of error analysis, the shortcoming of EA appeared.

56、Many researchers criticize it on many aspects. H.D.Brown (2001) put forward three points. First, there is a danger in too much attention to learners errors. Second, there is a danger of overstressing of production data. Third, error analysis fails to explain the strategy of avoidance. In all, althou

57、gh great progress has been made, researchers on the errors analysis conducted more theoretically than experimentally; more grammatically than semantically or pragmatically. Studies on the high school students in language learning do not concern too much. Without doubt, the limitation on the topic ha

58、s to be overcome in the following years.IIITheoretical RationaleThere are there major rationales to be introduced in the thesis: input theory, out put theory, and noticing hypothesis. 3.1 The Input TheoryInput and output theories believe that: comprehensible input is the necessary and key part of language acquisition. The output language is the result of learner through the comprehension input