Abstract:There exist big differences between Chinese and English, which make it difficult for Chinese pupils to acquire the foreign language. In the large language system of English, the noun is the most basic part of grammar in English learners’ acquisition, and the number system of the noun is likely to confuse Chinese English learners, especially beginners. This thesis analyzes Chinese English learners’ acquisition of English plural morphemes by giving tests to two groups of primary school pupils. The results of the study show that in different learning stages, the learners make different mistakes concerning the plural morphemes. And the learners use different learning strategies to acquire the language. The reasons of mistakes made by learners lie on the difference between Chinese and English mostly, especially the great difference of thinking model. Therefore, the teacher should adopt different teaching skills, including giving negative feedback in the classroom or review the learned knowledge often, to improve learners’ learning condition and create more chances for learners to speak English.

Key words: English plural morphemes; Chinese primary school; contrasting tests; learning and teaching

对中国小学生英语复数词素习得的研究

摘要:中英文两种语言存在很大的差别，这也使得中国学生在英语语言习得中有很多困难。在庞大的英文体系中，名词在学习者对语言的习得中占据着最为基础的部分，而其中关于数量的系统更容易使中国学习者造成中英文之间的混淆。本文通过测试的方式对中国小学生的英语复数系的情况进行了分析。结论发现学生在英语复数词缀习得的不同阶段会犯不同的错误，他们也会用不同的策略来学习英语名词复数。造成这种错误的原因主要是中英文语言表达的不同，特别是思维模式的不同上。因此教师在教授过程中应该采用不同的技巧来强化学生的学习情况，比如在课堂中给予负面反馈或者尽可能为学生创造口语表达的环境等。

关键词： 英语复数词素；中国小学；对比测试；教学

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Research questions 1

1.3 Objective and scope of the research 1

2. Literature review 2

3. Research method 3

3.1 Method of data collection 3

3.2 Method of data analysis 4

4. Results of the tests 4

4.1 The analysis of the results of the tests 4

4.1.1 The analysis of the results of the test for s5 4

4.1.2 The analysis of the results of the test for s6 5

4.2 Contrastive analysis of tests for s5 and s6 7

5. Discussion 8

   5.1 The problems pupils have when learning plural morphemes 8

   5.2 The possible causes for the problems 8            

   5.3 Suggestions for teaching English plural morphemes 9

6. Conclusion 10

6.1 Major findings of the study 10

6.2 Implication of the study 10

6.3 Limitations and suggestions for future study 10

References 11

1.  Introduction

1.1 Research background

For English learners, the acquisition of nouns goes through the learning process because nouns are the largest in amount in the language of English and the most basic language unit in language use. The English beginners must learn the noun at the very beginning and then they will gain the knowledge of forms of it. Comparing to the form of it of Chinese language, the learner will find difficulty in the acquisition of plural forms in English.

In China, English beginners begin to learn the plural form of English nouns at the stage of Grade 5 in primary school and in Grade 6 they will have the knowledge of different plural forms and classify the different categories. My teaching experience suggests that the age is one element that influences the distribution of the mistakes they make in plural forms. For example, in the beginning period of acquisition, the pupils do not have the English thinking pattern so they always forget to add plural forms because the lack of them in Chinese, and in the further studying pupils tend to confuse different plural forms. On this issue, the teaching method of plural forms should vary in the different stages.