Author(s)

Di Sun, Yingliang Liu

Corresponding Author

Di Sun

ABSTRACT

This corpus-based study compares L1-English and L1-Chinese students’ use of preposition with in essays, and explores the acquisition of preposition. Data consist of two corpora of student-produced essays: 38 essays written by L1-English students and 54 essays written by L1-Chinese students. In light of Co-selection theory and the diagnostics of McKercher (2001), we identify the frequency, collocation, colligation and semantic proportion of L1-Chinese students. The study reveals that there is no significant difference in the overall frequency used by EFL learners and that by native English speakers. For EFL learners, the frequently used semantic items are comparatively limited to absolute with and accompaniment with. Some other semantic items like manner with and cause with are respectively of the lowest proportion. When it refers to with-collocation, phrases like communicate with and compare with are very popular. It indicates that L2 students rely heavily on idiomatic collocation of with but neglect any other usages in their writing. Therefore, prepositions should neither be taught in isolation nor as fixed phrase. Teachers need to focus on providing students with enough input rather than just the basic sense of prepositions.

KEYWORDS

Preposition with, Contrastive analysis, Corpus-based analysis, Second language writing