An empirical study on the production of dou: Is native like performance attainable?

Abstract

This study examines the production data of dou in a controlled elicitation task performed by English-speaking learners of Chinese. The results show that post-intermediate learners produced dou at a similar rate regardless of the type of NP that is intended to be quantified by dou , which indicates that learners in this group have not fully acquired or understood the use of dou. The advanced learners produced dou at a comparable rate to that of native speakers, and the production rate of dou by advanced learners varied in a similar way to that of the native controls, which indicates that, although advanced learners have not fully used dou in a native-like way, they are approaching greater understanding of dou's use. The results show that the syntactically obligatory dou is harder to acquire for English-speaking learners of Chinese than the syntactically optional dou. Based on subjects' performance, it is suggested that more emphasis be placed on the syntactically obligatory use of "dou" in CFL teaching.