Error analysis of Chinese as a second language student's online writing

Abstract

This study aims to identify CSL students’ Chinse learning difficulties by systematically analysed their online writings. Three thousand pieces of online Chinese scripts written by 160 CSL students from three secondary schools in Hong Kong have been collected. It is found that 54% of these collected scripts contained at least one mistake, such as incorrect pronunciations, typos, mismatched written forms and meanings, incomplete vocabularies and grammatical errors. Based on the research findings, it is suggested that the teachers to provide more opportunities for CSL students to practice their Chinese language skills, e-learning platform with recording function can assist students in reviewing and correcting their pronunciation errors. For the learning of Chinese grammar, teachers can guide the students to compare the patterns of Chinese and English sentences, which can consolidate their learning and to overcome their learning difficulties.