Chinese Learners and English Plural Forms

       I.            INTRODUCTION

This study is written by Liu Jing, Dr. Evie Tindall and Dr.Deanna Nisbet. Liu Jing is a doctoral fellow in the School of Education at Regent University. She was an assistant professor at Henan University in China. Her present research interests include second language acquisition, learner autonomy in language learning, and technology in language learning. Dr. Evie Tindall is an associate professor who teaches in the TESOL program in the School of Education at Regent University. She is interested in reading and language arts, special populations, and teacher collaboration. She has extensive experience as a teacher, consultant, and conference speaker. Dr. Deanna Nisbet is an assistant professor and director of the TESOL program in the School of Education at Regent University. She has taught at the community college more than 15 years, undergraduate and graduate levels. She worked in the fields of human resource development and marketing. Her areas of expertise include first and second language acquisition and literacy for second language learners.

This study was published in November 2006 by Linguistic Asian EFL journal. It aims to explore the phenomenon of Chinese student who have difficulty with the use of plural forms in English by examining features of Chinese and English that may affect plural formation, highlighting specific areas of challenge for Chinese learners, and presenting an array of recommended instructional resources.

    II.            CONTENT

Learning is influenced by students’ prior knowledge (Brown, 2000). Language transfer, or the incorporation of patterns from the native language into the target language, is a common source of errors among learners of a second or foreign language (Brown, 2000; Lightbown & Spada, 1999). Language transfer often plays a significant role (Lightbown & Spada, 1999).

Jia (2003) reported that one area where language transfer is particularly prevalent among Chinese learners is the formation of English plurals. Grammatically, Chinese is not as complex as English in that it possesses little of what is traditionally known in European languages as inflectional morphology (Norman, 1988). Instead, as Norman further indicates, word order, particles, and prepositions carry most of the grammatical roles in Chinese. In contrast, English is an inflectional language, in which prefixes or suffixes play a significant grammatical role (Fromkin & Rodman, 1998).

·         Aspects of the Chinese Language that Affect the Formation of Plurals in English

According to Chen (1999) Writing system is the earliest reliable records of Chinese date back more than 3000 years ago in the form of oracle bone script. In other words, written Chinese is ideographic, consisting of an individual character or ideogram for every syllable, with each character representing an object or idea rather than a sound. English. Morphological and syntactic structure. English is classified as an Indo-European language, whereas Chinese is of the Sino Tibetan family (Fromkin & Rodman, 1998). Additionally, Chinese grammar is less morphologically complex than English grammar (Li & Thompson, 1981). Chinese characters are invariable in structure and allow no internal changes (Ho, 1997). Thus, grammatical functions and word meaning cannot be indicated through inflectional or derivational changes as in English. Instead, Chinese uses word order or functional words to realize grammatical roles.

In sum, two aspects of the Chinese language that are pertinent to the formation of English plurals are the ideographic writing system and the morphological and syntactic structure of the language. These aspects are markedly different from those of English. Understandably, when Chinese students grapple with the incongruence in these two linguistic systems, problems can arise. Specifically, the use of plural forms presents challenges to many Chinese students learning English

·         Plural Forms in Chinese and English

Chinese plural forms. The Chinese language does not use inflections to realize grammatical functions. Rather, Chinese is highly contextual. For this reason, the formation of plurals involves a certain degree of ambiguity. However, plurals can be formed in two other ways. First, the use of a numeral or a determiner in front of a noun denotes the plural meaning. Second, the addition of the morpheme -men to certain types of words can also indicate the formation of a plural. English plural forms. English addresses plural forms in a number of ways. English is a language in which inflectional morphemes are used to show grammatical relationships (Klammer, Schulz, & Volpe, 2004). English plurals can be formed through (a) the addition of the morpheme –s or –es, (b) the changing of one or more internal vowels, (c) the use of the same form for singular and plural, and (d) the application of the rules of foreign plural nouns to English words.

·         Areas of Challenge

Omission of the morpheme -s/-es. Initially, Chinese learners of English may omit the morpheme -s/-es. To illustrate, phrases such as * three student, * five desk, and *ten apple commonly occur in the beginning and intermediate stages of learning English. Over-generalization of rules. English rules tend to be fraught with exceptions, and this is certainly the case with plural forms. To illustrate, students may use gooses instead of geese, or deers in place of deer. Most English teachers recognize the omission of the morpheme -s/-es and the over-generalization of rules as areas of difficulty faced by many beginning and intermediate students in regard to the use of plural forms. Count and non-count nouns. Simply put, count nouns are those that can be enumerated or counted. Examples include desk, tree, and chair. In a broad sense, the terms count and non-count nouns are conceptualized in the same way in English and Chinese.

·         Recommended Instructional Practices

Many Chinese learners encounter challenges in regard to the formation of English plurals. The following instructional recommendations are a compilation of (a) the results of a survey of instructional practices of experienced ESL/EFL teachers who work closely with Chinese students; (b) literature on second language acquisition, learner autonomy, and teaching methodology for English language learners; and (c) the personal and professional experience of one of the authors as an English language learner and scholar.

1.      Teach key differences in forming plurals between Chinese and English.

To assist Chinese students with the task of mastering English plurals, teachers can acquaint them with information regarding major differences between the way plurals are formed in the two languages. In doing this, teachers should begin with what students know about their native language and then address the differences in plural formation in English.

2. Teach English rules for plural formation.

Another recommendation for teaching plural rules is to categorize words according to the different rules. Finally, the use of a graphic organizer of commonly-known English plural rules can enhance learning and retention.

3. Teach the commonalities and the distinct differences between Chinese and English regarding count and non-count nouns.

Teachers can begin by introducing count and non-count nouns when they present vocabulary. These strategies include (a) the “known to unknown” instructional sequence, (b) the categorizing strategy, (c) practice employing all the language modes, and (d) a graphic organizer (see Table3).

4. Teach students language learning strategies with an emphasis on learning vocabulary.

. These strategies include doing vocabulary exercises, making associations, guessing, using context clues, classifying, memorizing, and consulting a dictionary.

5. Teach students to use a variety of resources when encountering unknown or confusing plural forms. The following three instructional resources are recommended: (a) the self-questioning strategy, (b) the dictionary, and (c) informational technology. To begin, teachers can directly teach the use of the self-questioning strategy. Specifically, this strategy provides students with a systematic problem-solving process to use when encountering unknown or confusing plurals. The self-questioning strategy includes the following three steps.

A second instructional resource for learning about English plural forms is the dictionary. Teachers should focus on teaching students how to be strategic in their use of this resource.

Informational technology is a third instructional resource. This resource provides an abundant array of information for students. Learners can also take advantage of word processing tools on a computer. Specifically, attending to writing on a computer screen supports learning about correct English plural forms. Finally, using the spelling and grammar check at the end of any writing assignment is another means of addressing and correcting problems with plural forms.

6. Teach students to develop their own resources.

Efficient English learners try not to make the same mistake twice. Teachers can encourage students to self-monitor their use of plural forms and record, correct, and categorize their own errors. By doing this, students create their own tailor-made resources. In order to monitor their progress, students should type all the sentences with the errors and categorize the errors in a word document. Students can highlight the corrected area(s), and then at the end of the sentence, put a comment or two in parentheses regarding the error(s).

 III.            CONCLUSION

Prior knowledge of Chinese language patterns may notably influence Chinese learners’ acquisition of English. Language transfer, or the incorporation of forms from the native language into the target language, is one major source of errors among learners of a second or foreign language. One area where language transfer is particularly prevalent among Chinese learners is the formation of English plurals.

 IV.            COMMENT

In my opinion this study is quite good. Beside explore the phenomenon that happen in Chinese learners this study also  provides an overview of the linguistic features of Chinese and English that may affect formation of English plural forms and pinpoints three major sources of difficulty for many Chinese students. In this study the writers have recommended a number of instructional practices which are very crucial to be understood by the teacher. The practices which writers recommended can be used  to develop independent language learners. Specifically, teachers can use the foundational information and the five instructional practices presented in this article to equip Chinese learners to be strategic and resourceful as they address the challenges of English plural forms.