Development of the Mean Length and the Distribution of Utterance of Korean Chinese learners

What is it about?

Based on a sentence automatic segmentation and manual proofreading, this paper analyzes the mean length and the distribution of utterances in Korean Chinese learner’ interlanguage materials amount to 1,000,000 Chinese characters, comparing with those in native speakers’ language materials and the teaching materials. The paper includes the following three aspects: Firstly, the development of the mean length and the distribution of utterances of Korean Chinese learners in different proficiency levels has been explored. There are 90370 utterances among the 1,000,000 Chinese characters interlanguage materials. The mean length of utterance(MLU) of Chinese interlanguage by Korean students is 10.11 characters /6.62 words, and the range of utterance length is 1-44 characters /1-28 words. Comparing with those in native speakers’ language materials, the study shows that the MLU of Korean Chinese learners is not short, and the reasons are related to the complete conceptual system and sound thinking ability of second language learners. The need of expressing complex information in the process of communication requires the utterance length is sufficient. The MLU in Chinese interlanguage by Korean students is respectively 8.94 characters/5.97 words,10.07 characters/6.57 words, and 10.87 characters/7.08 words in elementary, intermediate and advanced level, which has increased from beginning to advanced level gradually. The intervals of most high-frequently used utterance length are within 6-10 characters/4-7 words, and of the most commonly used utterances length are within 4-15 characters/3-10 words(accounting for about 80% of all utterances), both of which are relatively fixed and gradually increased in the corresponding language proficiency levels. Secondly, the similarities and differences of the mean length and distribution of utterances between Korean Chinese learners and Chinese native speakers have been discussed. The MLU of interlanguage of Korean students is lower than that of the Chinese native speakers’ language materials. It indicates that the MLU in interlanguage has increased from elementary to advanced level and approached the target language gradually. The range of utterance length of native speakers is larger than that of Korean Chinese learners, and the reason lies in the limited language proficiency of second language learners and the stylistic differences in the two kinds of language materials. There are significant similarities in the intervals of most high-frequently used utterance length(6-10 characters/4-7 words) between Korean Chinese learners and native speakers. The utterances in this range of length accounts for a large amounts of Chinese clause in speech, and is consistent with the short-term memory principle of information processing, that is, the ideal length of human short-term memory is usually 7 ± 2 modules. The range of the most commonly used utterances length (4-15 characters/3-10 words) of the interlanguage materials is smaller than that of the native speakers’ materials. It shows that certain length of utterances in native speakers’ materials, such as less than 3 characters/2 words or more than 18 characters/13 words, is more prominent than that of the interlanguage materials. The Korean Chinese learners shows inferiority to Chinese native speakers in long and short utterances. Thirdly, the similarities and differences of the mean length and distribution of utterances between Korean Chinese learners and the teaching materials have been investigated. The MLU of interlanguage of Korean Chinese learners is higher than that of the teaching materials at three language levels. The MLU of the teaching materials is intermediate level > advanced level > elementary level, while that of interlanguage materials is elementary level > intermediate level> advanced level, increasing from elementary to advanced level gradually. The differences of MLU between the interlanguage materials and the teaching materials show that the output in utterance length of the second language learners is not restricted by the input language used in teaching. The range of utterance length in teaching materials is larger than that of the interlanguage materials at all levels. Both materials share similarities on the most high-frequently used utterance length, but the use of short utterances in teaching materials is more prominent than interlanguage materials. Through the statistical analysis of the utterance length in large-scale corpus of interlanguage, Chinese native speakers’ and teaching materials amount to 3,200,000 Chinese characters, this study demonstrates the systematic development of interlanguage of Korean Chinese learners. The systematicness is firstly manifested in the development of MLU of interlanguage, which is a dynamic process that is increasing from primary to advanced levels and approaching the target language gradually. Meanwhile, the MLU of interlanguage material is higher than the corresponding level of teaching material. The development of interlanguage of Korean Chinese learners is not restricted by the input of textbooks, showing its systematicness and regularity. Finally, the paper discusses the application values of this study in teaching Chinese as a second language to Korean, which are mainly embodied in the formulation of the syllabus, the compilation of teaching materials, classroom teaching and language testing.

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