[The case of articles]

The Case of Articles

---A study of how the Chinese non-English majors students are using English articles in noun phrasesThe case of articlesBy Aini & Wenwei1

The purpose of this studyThere is no articles in ChineseIts difficult for Chinese students to use English articles accurately

What factors cause the misuse of articles?Is there any relationship between the use of articles and students English proficiencies?

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2Previous studiesHuebner (1983) developed a system to analyze the semantic functions of articles used by English learnersHuebner analyzes the semantic function of noun phrases in terms of two features:

[+/- hearer knowledge] ([+HK])[+/- specific referent] ([+SR])3

FOUR NP CATEGORIES2. [+SR] [+HK][-SR] [+HK]3. [+SR] [-HK]4.[-SR] [-HK]4

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Research designThis study collected the scores of using English articles from 85 non-English major junior students from Shaanxi Normal University.This test ( Master, 1994 & Ekiert, 2004) is made up of two parts: using appropriate articles in separated sentences and passagesArticles in this test are separated into indefinite article, definite article and zero article ( a/an are regarded as the same in this test) The data from this test is analyzed by SPSS software

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3 steps to analyze data Step 1: Descriptive Statistical Analysis for the relationship between College English Test, Band 4 and the use of articlesStep 2: Pearson Correlation Coefficient for the correlativity between College English Test, Band 4 and the use of articlesStep 3: Variance for the relationship between the types of articles and the accuracies of using articles8

Results and Discussion Grade-Distribution Chart

Research

Questions 1 Does accuracy correlates with English proficiency?

Correlation Coefficent = 416

There is correlation between Accuracy and English Proficiency.

.Questions 2 Which article does learners use with a highest accuracy rate?

A > The > 0

OvergeneralizationBeing difficulty in distinguishing the use of indefinite article from zero articlePaying little attention to zero article

Questions 3 Whats the reason that learners use articles by error.

ConclusionThree factors influence variation in interlanguage: the communicative function of a feature, the linguistic environment of that feature, and social factors.

Paying more attention to the use and learning of articles.

Thank youBy Aini & Wenwei15