Difficulties of Native Chinese Speakers in Learning Passive Voice in English and Recommendations for Teaching in the Context of Multilingualism

Difficulties of Native Chinese Speakers in Learning Passive Voice in English and Recommendations for Teaching in the Context of Multilingualism

Manfred Man-fat Wu
Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 28
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-8888-8.ch017
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Abstract

The acquisition of grammar, in addition to being a key aspect of development in language competence, helps learners overcome monolingual bias. Among the various grammar items, the English passive, especially in the written form, is a pre-requisite for academic success in higher education. This chapter reports the findings of a corpus research study on the difficulties faced by Chinese learners of English in learning English passive. This study proposed that four major factors that contribute to the difficulties for Chinese learners in learning English passive. Two corpora containing written academic essays by Chinese learners of English who were mainly undergraduates were selected in this study for analysis. Data from two corpora were extracted and analysed, and results from both sources provide support to most of the types of difficulties proposed in this study. Based on the results of this study, four recommendations are offered.
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Introduction

The acquisition of grammar is a key aspect in learners’ development of competence in language, and it helps learners to overcome monolingual bias in the context of multilingualism. More and more research findings and discussions have been pointing out that grammar learning involves much more than the mastery of syntactical and lexical elements (e.g. Kim, 2020; Pawlak, 2021; Wu, 2019).

Passive voice in English is a pre-requisite for academic writing and academic success in higher education. Compared to many languages such as Chinese, passive voice in English plays a more important role in higher education and workplace because of its prevalence (e.g. McEnery & Xiao, 2007; Granger, 2013; Lin, Chen, & Chang, 2020; Miština, 2017; Ursic & Zoghbor, 2021). Correct usage of passive voice in English, especially in the written form, is very often a basic requirement not only for academic but also for career success. With increasing job mobility and fluidity caused by globalisation, the successful mastery of English passive is important in the contemporary multilingual world (Doiz et al., 2013; Gao & Zheng, 2019). This chapter reports the findings of a corpus research study on the difficulties faced by Chinese learners of English in learning passive voice in English.

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