EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON THE ACQUISITION PROCESS OF ENGLISH SENTENCE STRUCTURES AND THE COGNITIVE SKILLS PROMOTING THEIR ACQUISITION AMONG JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

为了研究基本句型是如何习得的，以及哪些认知技能有助于基本句型的习得，本研究在两年多的时间里对初中生进行了六组不同的测试。这六组测试的目的是从横向和纵向两方面分析初级英语学习者习得基本句子结构的过程。这些测试的结果显示，首先，基本句子结构的习得程度在很大程度上不同，这取决于每个句子结构中作为语法主语和谓语动词的块的内容，即使测试中使用的这些句子属于相同的基本句子结构。这表明，在英语学习的初始阶段，基本句子结构的习得程度不仅取决于基本句子结构的句法特征，而且还取决于对句子结构中组成块的词汇项的熟悉程度。研究还表明，所谓的慢学习者倾向于使用所谓的项目学习策略作为一个整体来习得句子结构，而好的学习者往往对基本句子结构中隐藏在表层词汇项目背后的内在关系更为敏感。慢学习者和好学习者对基本句子结构的不同态度被认为是本研究取得显著结果的原因。

IN ORDER TO INVESTIGATE HOW BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURES ARE ACQUIRED AND WHAT COGNITEVE SKILLS ARE CONDUCIVE TO THEIR ACQUISION, SIX DIFFERENT SETS OF TESTS WERE CONDUCTED OVER TWO YEARS AGAINST FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL. THE AIMS OF THESE SIX SETS OF TESTS WERE TO ANALYZE BOTH CROSS-SECTIONALLY AND LONGITUDINALLY THE PROCESS IN WHICH BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURES ARE ACQUIRED BY BEGINNING EFL LEARNERS. THE RESULTS OF THESE TESTS REVEALED, FIRST OF ALL, THAT THE DEGREE OF ACQUISITION LF BASIC SENTENCESTRUCTURES VARIED TO A SIGNIFICANT DEGREE, DEPENDING UPON THE CONTENTS OF THE CHUNKS FUNCTIONING AS THE GRAMMATICAL SUBJECT AND THE PREDICATE VERB WITHIN EACH SENTECE STRUCTURE, EVEN THOUGH THOSE SENTENCES USED IN THE TESTS BELONGED TO THE SAME BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURES. THIS SUGGESTS THAT IN THE BEGINNING STAGE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING, THE DEGREE OF ACQUISITION OF BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURES WILL VARY CONSIDERABLY DEPENDING NOT ONLY UPON THE SYNTACTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURES BUT ALSO UPON THE FAMILIARITY OF THE LEXICAL ITEMS COMPRISING THE CHUNKS WITHIN THE SENTENCE STRUCTURES. IT WAS ALSO MADE CLEAR THAT SO-CALLED SLOW LEARNERS TEND TO ACQUIRE SENTENCE STRUCTURES AS A WHOLE, USING THE SO-CALLED ITEM LEARNING STRATEGY, WHILE GOOD LEARNERS TEND TO BY MORE SENSITIVE TO THE INTERNAL RELATIONSHIPS HIDDEN BEHIND THE SURFACE LEXECAL ITEMS WITHIN THE BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURES. THIS DIFFERING ATTITUDE TOWARD BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURES BETWEEN SLOW LEARENRS AND GOOD LEARNERS IS CONSIDERED TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE STRIKING RESULTS OF THE PRESENT RESEARCH.