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A Study on the Acquisition of L2 Motion Verbs by Chinese Learners of English and French
MA Yuxue
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DOI:10.17265/1539-8072/2026.02.001
University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
Using written narratives elicited by a wordless picture book from six groups of participants (N = 22 per group), this study investigates whether Chinese learners of English and French have acquired the characteristic usage patterns of motion verbs in expressing motion events in English and French. The results show that there are no significant differences in the frequency tokens of manner verbs and path verbs produced by the two groups of English learners and the English native speakers. When comparing the two groups of French learners and French native speakers, only the advanced French learners produced significantly fewer path verb tokens than the French native speakers. Both groups of English learners produced significantly fewer path verb types than the English native speakers. Both groups of French learners produced significantly fewer manner verb and path verb types than the French native speakers. The researcher speculates that proficiency plays a decisive role in the use of motion verbs, while the role of language typology appears insignificant.
Chinese foreign language learners, motion event, lexicalization pattern, verb use
MA Yuxue. A Study on the Acquisition of L2 Motion Verbs by Chinese Learners of English and French. Sino-US English Teaching, Mar.-Apr. 2026, Vol. 23, No. 3-4, 41-51 doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2026.02.001
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