Chinese Learner Challenges in English Subject-Verb Agreement

Qian Zhang

doi:10.54097/jeer.v3i3.9647

Authors

Qian Zhang

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54097/jeer.v3i3.9647

Keywords:

Learner Challenge, Chinese ELL, Subject-Verb Agreement, English Language Learning

Abstract

The second language learners are experiencing manifold challenges when acquiring a new language. English is one of the most prevalent languages nowadays. The English speakers hail from around the world. Therefore, English has become a compulsory course in China since the late 1980s. As Chinese is my first language and English is the second, I can intermittently perceive the learner challenges especially the English grammar. Grammar is the set of rules in fields of phonology, morphology, and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. Chinese grammar differs from English to a great extent, including subject-verb (S-V) agreement. It is sometimes really hard to compose grammatically correct sentences due to the influence of Chinese grammar patterns as well as the sociocultural context. Consequently, the aim of the paper is to define the challenges that the learners face whose first language is Chinese and seek for answers to this problem in second language acquisition.

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