Master of Arts

The primary aim of this study is to investigate the trend and profile of different categories of improper vocabulary usage in Chinese composition by students from 14 junior colleges in Singapore. This study, in presenting and analyzing the various error categories and contributory causes, provides for consideration some proposals to arrest and correct the errors committed by students. It is hoped that the findings of this study would be of contribution to Chinese Language teachers in their classroom teaching as well as to textbook writers in their devising of instructional materials.

This study is organized into 11 chapters. An introduction is given in Chapter One on the underlying intention, objectives, scope, significance and outline of this study. Chapter Two describes the complexity of language environment in Singapore since its independence. Chapter Three points out that there are many loan-words used in students' compositions, and at times these loan-words may mar effective communication.

Chapter Four addresses the theory of Contrastive Linguistics and Error Analysis, and how this study builds upon the theory, supplemented with the Interlingual and Intralingual Categorization Model developed by Jack C Richards (1971), as framework for examination.

In Chapter Five, a review of previous related studies carried out by local and overseas researchers is presented, with an account of the inspiring strengths and shortcomings in terms of methodologies adopted by these researches. Chapter Six not only discusses the research questions and research methodology used, but also details the sample targets, data collection and analysis process.

Chapter Seven explains the basic considerations for and the detailed composition of the 15-category Error Model that was formulated based on literature reviewed in the earlier chapters. In Chapter Eight, attempts are made to explain and align the fundamental concepts pertaining to vocabulary usage, setting as background for the subsequent discussion of related topics.

Chapter Nine presents the research findings and statistical analysis. The analysis of the data showed that, of the 15 categories of errors, the most common ones among the junior college students in Singapore are those due to Mistake in Character Structure (20.24%), followed by Mistake in Pronunciation (18.21%), Derivatives from Chinese Dialects (12.14%), and Derivatives from English, Malay and Indian Languages (12.14%). The errors due to Splitting Morpheme (0.21%) are least common. It is also interesting to note that 54.6% of Chinese junior college students speak English and dialects as the most common language at home. In addition, the chapter also analyses the contributory causes for the 15 categories of error identified, and shows how the 15 categories of errors are further grouped into 5 main domains and how analysis is performed to assess the statistical distribution of the errors made among various groups of students by level of studies, gender and academic discipline.

Chapter Ten describes the special characteristics of students' vocabulary usage in their compositions in Singapore's junior colleges. Chapter Eleven first highlights the essential principles that should be considered in vocabulary standardization and next, suggests the use of Contrastive Linguistics, supplemented by Error Analyses in order to arrest and correct the errors made by students.