6.1 Major Findings
Based on samples extracted from spoken corpus of English learners (SCEL) and results of interview, under the guidance of language transfer theory and language exposure hypothesis, this research obtained the following three major findings.
(1) The use of the status quo
The number of attributive clauses in the spoken English of all these three grades is not high, and most attributive clauses are restrictive. In addition, types of errors can be divided into three major categories, that is, errors of relative words, errors related to predicate words, other errors. The three major types can then be roughly divided into ten subtypes. They are errors of relative pronouns, errors of relative adverbs, erroneously omitted relatives, errors of voice, errors of subject-predicate agreement, errors of tense, lack of predicate, lack of antecedent, incomplete clauses (except the lack of predicate) and clause redundancy.
(2) The developmental trends
Attributive clauses, attributive clause errors, and different types of errors are distributed unevenly in these three grades. They show different developmental trends. The number of attributive clauses increases first and then decreases with grade. The number of attributive clause errors reduces gradually with grade. When it comes to the three major error types, first, errors of relative words, compared with grade one at senior middle school, there is an obvious reduction in grade one at university. Compared with grade one at university, there is an obvious increase in grade four at university. There are significant differences between adjacent grades. Second, errors related to predicate verbs, after a slight increase in grade one at university, there is a significant decrease in grade four at university. Third, the number of other errors slowly decreases with grade. From the perspective of ten subtypes, errors of relative pronouns, errors of tense, and incomplete clauses gradually decrease with grade. Errors of voice, lack of predicate verbs, errors of subject-predicate agreement and lack of antecedents increase first and then decrease with grade. Errors of relative adverbs, erroneous omission of relative words and clause redundancy decrease first and then increase with grade.
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