1. Through the findings of the research, syntactic

order of difficulty emerges when Chinese

learners of English learn English relative clauses

and SS type and SO type are the hardest, which

supports Kuno (1974)’s Perceptual Difficulty

Hypothesis PHD.

CONCTRIBUTIONS-1

2. Based on the productive data, seven types of errors

were categorized and showed in descending order as follows.

(1)wrong choice of relative pronouns(2)confusion of non-restrictive RCs with

restrictive RCs and vice versa(3) misusing expressions of quantity in

relative clauses(4)redundant use of pronouns(5)wrong omission of the preposition after or

before a relative clause(6)lack of agreement in number between the

relative pronoun and the following verb (7)wrong omission of relative pronouns.

CONCTRIBUTIONS-2

Suggested Procedures and Drills for Teaching English RCs

1. English teachers must be aware of the following three

concepts:

(1) what the structural differences are

(2) what tendencies Chinese learners have in acquiring the RC

grammatical feature

(3) what options are available for teaching

2. General Introduction to RCs

(1) Relative clauses modify nouns and they are placed after the head.

(2) RP (Relative Pronoun) is needed and has two functions:

conjunction and sentential function in subject and object.

CONCTRIBUTIONS-3

Suggested Procedures and Drills for Teaching English RCs

3. Combining Sentences

According to Paulston (1978:26), integration drills are useful

in practicing relative clause formation.

Step 1. Find the noun that occurs in both sentences.

Step 2. Decide the main clause and the embedded sentence.

(a) I know the boy. – main clause

(b) The boy ran out of the classroom. – embedded sentence

Step 3. Insert the embedded sentence in a bracket, after the

noun that will be modified.

Steps to combine sentencesStep 4. Replace the noun in the embedded sentence with a

proper relative pronoun and move it to the initial

position of the embedded sentence.

I know the boy who ran out of the classroom.

Drill: (a) The woman works in my office.

(b) She goes out with Bill.

→ The woman who goes out with Bill works in my office.

→ The woman who works in my office goes out with Bill.

(C) I don’t like her.

→ I don’t like the woman in my office who goes out with Bill.

Translation Analyze basic word-order patterns in English and Chinese.

•An English adjective is usually placed before the head noun.•A prepositional phrase usually follows the head noun in English.•An English relative clause always follows the head noun.＊ adj. → adj. ph → RC

Modifier Head noun

1.

好（的） good

書 books

2. 在桌上的 on the desk

書 books

3. 我（所）買的 which I bought

書 books

1. Source of participants: the third-grade students at

four senior high schools in Kaohsiung.

As Tremblay and Gardner (1995) indicated, the

larger the sample was, the more stable the results

would be across similar samples. a broader sample of participants from

different levels of English learners

Suggestions for Further Research

Limitations:

2. Alternatives of evaluation: compositions, fill-in-the-blanks tests, true- false

distinctions 3. Complements of survey: questionnaire to investigate students’

process and strategies in learning English relative

clauses 4. Inquiry of English teachers’ teaching

(1) what to teach (2) how to teach (3) how much time spent

Limitations:

Critique 1. Pilot study 可以多找一個學校學生測試以提高

信度， 或找英文老師審題以提高題目鑑別度。 2. 勿先告知學生要列入成績計算，可能研究結果會不同。 3. 只看文法不看語意，是否 OK ？因為寫作時還是不算對。 4. Error type1 ( 用錯 RP 是因為 RP 種類多，犯錯機率跟著提

高，不代表是最難的題型 )

5. Error type 4 (Quantity in RC) 和 6 (NRRC / RRC) 在實際教

學情況中，難度排行可能提高。6. 教學步驟、結構說明的補充是否有需要？

Future Study

1. Apply the same research method to investigate the result when the participants are replaced with the third graders in junior high school.

2. Compare the findings from the future study with those in this present research to see whether the result will be similar.

3. Exploration of the reasons for few creation of relative clauses in English writing even though students possess the competence of RC.

Problem

S

NP VP

D N

ART S

you

ordered

ART book

the

has arrived this morning

book

the NP VP

V NP

D N

The End

Thank you for your time and consideration!