AN ANALYSIS OF ERRORS IN USING THE MODEL VERB “要” MADE BY CHINESE – MAJOR STUDENTS AT THE SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES – THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Modal verbs (also called auxiliary verbs) play an important role in modern Chinese grammar system. Their grammatical characteristics differs from normal verbs. Therefore, these verbs are a relatively complex grammatical phenomenon in Chinese which challenges foreign students when studying Chinese. In the model verb system, the verb “要” is one of the most frequently used that has complex grammar and a variety of meanings. Foreign students, especially beginners who learn Chinese often make mistakes when using “要”. By means of a survey among 160 Chinese-major freshmen at the School of Foreign Language, this article summarized the mistakes that students often meet in using “要”, find out the causes and make some recommendations for the process of teaching and learning of the verb.