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fr฀ English Words and Chinese Errors Introduction Research o n word errors of second language learners shows that many of th e mistakes ar e relate d t o confusio n wit h meanings , an d wit h th e writte n o r spoken form o f a word. While English learners of German ma y confuse receipt and Recept (which means recipe) there ar e fe w cognates , o r word s with share d roots, betwee n Englis h an d Chines e t o caus e a simila r confusion . Fo r thi s reason, th e bulk o f the error s ten d t o be grammatica l o r form related . It can be difficul t t o distinguish betwee n lexica l an d grammatica l error s as the two can often b e interlinked, and in this chapter we will focus more o n word errors that commonly occur with Chinese learners. Many of these error s are als o common wit h students whose first languag e i s other tha n Chinese . Word Confusion s Laufer (1990 ) suggest s tha t confusio n o f word s wit h a simila r for m (o r synforms) ma y be due t o the way learners store words in th e menta l lexicon . If the wor d i s incorrectly o r incompletel y stored , onl y part o f th e wor d ma y be remembered. Thi s partial learning of new words leads to uncertainty ove r the correc t form an d s o words such a s aboard and abroad are easil y confused . Errors i n th e spoke n o r writte n for m o f a wor d ar e usuall y relate d t o th e spelling, pronunciation an d morphology, or component parts that make up a word. Research o n word error s made by Chinese learners in Beijing and Hon g Kong shows that the 'overwhelmin g majority' o f recognition error s were du e to spelling or sound confusions (G u and Leung, 2002). This may account fo r the numbe r o f for m relate d error s mad e b y Hong Kon g student s o f who m over 32% mix up precious with previous. 1 2 8฀HARS H฀WORDS !฀ENGLIS H฀WORD S฀FO R฀CHINES E฀LEARNER S฀ When learnin g English , mainlan d Chines e student s 'normall y lear n th e International Phoneti c Alphabe t (IPA ) t o represen t th e Englis h sounds' . Nevertheless, G u an d Leun g foun d tha t Chines e learner s i n genera l ten d t o confuse word s wit h simila r pronunciation , suc h a s hostel an d hostile; simila r meanings, suc h a s cotton with linen o r maize; similar for m an d meanin g inhabit with habit, o r no habit, an d par t o f speec h error s e.g . inhabit wit h inhabitant, habitation an d inhabitable. C o m m o n Error s In chapte r 2 we looke d a t some o f th e difficultie s involve d i n learnin g a wor d and thes e i n tur n relat e t o frequen t errors . I n th e followin g exampl e severa l kinds o f error s ar e apparent : Last weekend I went out with my friends. W e went t o see a movie j 1 o n the weekend morning. After that we went to Pizze Hut had lunch. After th e lunch, we went to shopping // bough t lots of cloths. We i met our class teachers, while we were leaving mall. We had dinne r | with our teachers last weekend evening. After die dinner, we talked ! somethin g about film the n I went home and caught my school bag to bedroom. M y mum an d I discussed abou t m y homework. , Misuse o f article s i s frequent wit h Chines e learners , s o we hav e after the lunch and after the dinner, wit h unnecessar y insertion o f the. The absenc e o f the is see n in leaving mall and agai n the or my in to bedroom...

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