Error Analysis and Instructional Strategies in Thai Learner’s Acquisition of Chinese Adverbials

Abstract

It's unavoidable for Thai students to make mistakes when learning Chinese grammar. Because Thai and Chinese grammar are very similar, Thai students mistakenly believe that Chinese grammar is easy to learn. However, the study of sentence components in Chinese has always been a hot topic in Chinese language research. Adverbials are particularly important, as they are one of the first grammatical points encountered by second language learners. Although there are many grammatical similarities between Chinese and Thai, Thai learners still make many mistakes when learning Chinese adverbials. I teach Chinese at the Faculty of Education, Burapha University, Thailand, teaching first- and second-year students. In teaching oral and writing classes, I found that students had many problems with Chinese adverbials in their exercises. So I started recording these grammatical errors, and have now collected over 100 examples of grammatical errors made by students when learning Chinese.

What grammatical items do Thai students find difficult when learning Chinese grammar? How can we help students speak and write sentences that conform to Chinese grammar? These are questions I have been pondering. To find the answers, I categorized and analyzed the collected data, systematically studying the specific situations.

This paper specifically includes: summarizing and analyzing errors in Chinese adverbial phrases collected from students at the Faculty of Education, Burapha University, Thailand, during Chinese language teaching; identifying the grammatical items that beginner students encounter difficulties with when learning Chinese; determining the causes of these errors; exploring teaching methods suitable for Thai students learning Chinese adverbial phrases; and attempting to provide relevant learning strategies for Thai students learning adverbial phrases. It is hoped that this will provide inspiration and assistance for Chinese grammar teaching and research for Thai students.