ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on an investigation of the acquisition process of Chinese durative aspect marker zhe among second language learners. It includes a corpus analysis of Korean and Vietnamese learners’ use of zhe throughout four semesters and a longitudinal case study of a Korean learner focusing on how context affected the use of zhe and how verb selection and sentence structures developed as his language proficiency improved. Results show that the frequency of zhe in the learners’ writing was close to that of native speakers’ speech and casual style of writing; the distribution of four types of zhe sentences was consistent across the learners’ and native speakers’ data; existential sentences and serial-verb sentences exhibited the highest accuracy followed by simple pattern sentences; and reduplicative-verb sentences were the most difficult to acquire. Thus a nonlinear developing pattern was found in the acquisition of zhe. The chapter concludes with a list of four types of common errors along with pedagogical recommendations on teaching strategies and instructional order.
