Abstract
This paper is an analysis of the similarities and differences in syntactic structure of WHquestions between English and Mandarin Chinese. While Subject-Auxiliary inversion, Do-support, and WH-movement are required processes in forming an interrogative sentence in English, the same types of transformation are not needed in. This can be one of the challenges for native English speakers acquiring Chinese WH-questions. The aim of this study is to provide pedagogical implications to native English speakers of Chinese as a second language and their teachers by providing an overview of how the syntax of WH-questions behaves in both languages and how it can be mentally represented for English speakers. Pedagogical implications will also be discussed.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Faculty Supervisor
Ettien Koffi
Recommended Citation
Youn, Jong-hee and Meng, Wen
(2015)
"A Discussion of the Syntax of WH Questions for Native English Speakers Acquiring Mandarin Chinese as a Second Language,"
Linguistic Portfolios: Vol. 4, Article 11.
Available at:
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/stcloud_ling/vol4/iss1/11
Author Bio
Jonghee Youn is a graduate student in the MA TESL/Applied Linguistics program at Saint Cloud State University. He spent 11 years teaching English in Paiwha Girls’ high school located in Seoul, South Korea. He earned a BA degree from Korea University in English Language Education. His area of interest is implementing extensive reading in the Korean EFL high school context and teacher training. E-mail: sanor7@gmail.com.
Wen Meng is a graduate student in the TESL MA Program at St. Cloud State University (SCSU). She has been teaching ESL courses in the Intensive English Center at SCSU for two years, and is currently writing her thesis. She earned her BA degree in English Translation in China. Her research interest is about ESL learners’ perceptions of their accented speech. E-mail: mengwenciaia@gmail.com.