A STUDY ON THE ACQUISITION OF CHINESE “LE” CONSTRUCTION BY THAI UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN THE UPPER NORTHERN THAILAND BASED ON INTER-LANGUAGE CORPUS

Abstract

Abstract

Based on the about 600,000 characters ofinter-language corpus of different grade’s Thai university students who learn Chinese at five universities in the upper northern Thailand, we investigate and explore the acquisition of “le” constructions of Thai university students who are learning Chinese in the upper northern Thailand. The results show that the frequency of use of each construction of “le”constructions is as follows: v+ le₁ +o>v+ o+ le₂>v+ le₁/ le₂>adj.+ le₂>num./quantifier+ le₂>v+ le₁+ o+ le₂; the error rate of each construction from high to low is “v+le₁+o+le₂>v+ o+le₂>v+le₁ +o>num./quantifier+le₂>v+le₁/le₂>adj.+le₂”, the substitution errors is main type; the constructions that are earlyacquired are “v+le₁/le₂, adj.+le₂, num./quantifier+le₂”,the construction that is acquired in the middle period is “v+le₁+o+le₂”and the constructions are Late acquired or not acquired are “v+le₁ +o, v+ o+le₂”.Finally, we suggest teach the first construction“v+le₁/le₂, num./quantifier+le₂,adj.+le₂”,and then teaching construction “v+ o+ le₂”, followed by teaching construction “v+ le₁ +o”, the last teaching
construction“v+le₁+o+le₂”. Key words: Thai University Students, “Le” Constructions, Types of Errors, Acquisition Orders, Teaching Sequence