ABSTRACT

Self-repair is a universal phenomenon in the process of oral output. Researches on the self-repair behavior in SLA have great important theoretical and pedagogical significance. 

This study adopts corpus analysis, marking the subtypes of self-repair that occurred in the oral production of an non-English major postgraduates’ English speech contest held by Jiangsu University. The study focuses on analyzing the distribution of each subtype of self-repair and the correction rate in view of two variables: oral proficiency and gender. Thus, the relevance between self-repair and oral proficiency and self-repair and gender will be concluded. 

The result of the study shows that, as for the distribution, the same information self-repair has the highest proportion, followed by the appropriateness self-repair, the error self-repair and the different information self-repair. In addition, there is certain relevance between self-repair and non-English major postgraduates’ oral proficiency and their gender. It can be concluded that the higher the oral proficiency is, the more appropriateness self-repair will be used; while the lower the oral proficiency is, the more same information self-repair will be used. Besides, the correction rate of high proficiency level is higher than low proficiency group. In terms of gender, males use error self-repair most while females have preference for appropriateness self-repair, and the correction rate of female group is higher than that of male group. 

This study can help the teachers deepen the understanding of self-repair and obtain enlightenment in second language teaching.

Key words: self-repair; Chinese non-English major postgraduates; oral production

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

Chapter One INTRODUCTION-1

1.1 Need for the Study-1

1.2 Object of the Study-1

1.3 Significance of the Study-2

1.4 Overview of the Thesis-2

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW-4

2.1 The Definitions and Classification of Repair-4

  2.1.1 The definitions of repair-4

  2.1.2 The classification of repair-5

2.2 The Preference for Self-repair-6

  2.2.1 The concept of self-repair-6

  2.2.2 The classification of self-repair-7

2.3 Language Proficiency and Self-repair-8

2.4 Gender and Self-repair-9

Chapter Three METHODOLOGY-10

3.1 Research Questions -10

3.2 Subjects-10

3.3 Data Collection-12

3.4 Data Analysis-15

Chapter Four RESULTS AND DISCUSSION-17

4.1 The Overall Distribution of Self-repairs-17

  4.1.1 Distribution of self-repairs and other-repairs-17

  4.1.2 Distribution of the four subtypes of self-repairs-18

4.2 The Relationship between Oral Proficiency and Self-repairs-19

  4.2.1 Comparison of self-repairs between high and lowproficiency groups-19

  4.2.2 Comparison of self-repair correction rates between high and low  proficiency groups-21

4.3 The Relationship between Gender and Self-repairs-22

  4.3.1 Comparison of self-repairs between male and female learners-22

  4.3.2 Comparison of self-repair correction rates between male and female learners-23

Chapter Five CONCLUSION-25

5.1 Major Research Findings-25

5.2 Implications of the Study-26

5.3 Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Future Research-26

REFERENCES-28