NOTICE OF THESIS EXAM LIN XINYI

---

NOTICE OF THESIS EXAM

 

LIN XINYI

202400010011

 

 

JULY 09, 2026, 13:00 PM

Building C, 7th fl., Room: C706

 

Adviser           : Dr. Engliana

Examiners     : Dr. Anna Marietta da Silva & Ferdinan Okki Kurniawan, Ph.D.

 

Title

 REFERENTIAL COMMUNICATION IN CHINESE EFL LEARNERS’ NARRATIVES

ABSTRACT

Referential communication is a core function of communication, impacting the efficiency of cross cultural communication, it may also lead to misunderstandings in cross cultural communication. The difficulties faced by native Mandarin speakers in English referential expression stem from the differences between the referential systems of Mandarin and English: Mandarin lacks an article system and relies more on context and word order for expression. This study, involving nine Chinese English learners at different proficiency levels, employed oral and written narrative tasks and two semi structured interviews. Based on Tarone and Swierzbin’s (2009) exploratory learner language analysis, and Swain’s (2000) output hypothesis, it explored the types of referential errors and the use of communicative strategies in narrative tasks. The study found that learners’ referential errors could be categorized into four types: Referential ambiguity, Referential omission, Referential redundancy, Article Misuse, with their distribution closely related to language proficiency. Regarding communicative strategies could be categorized into five types: requesting help, self/others’ correction, code switching, approximation and avoidance, the requesting help strategy was the most effective one, followed by self correction and approximation, while the avoidance strategy was the least effective. This study provides empirical evidence for in depth analysis of strategy use and the cultivation of referential competence.

Keywords: referential communication, narrative task, referential errors, communicative strategies, Chinese EFL learners