In terms of practical perspective, its importance cannot be too much emphasized。 Interlanguage studies enable researchers to get a general idea of which stage students are in, what features are accordingly reflected in their language and what learning strategies are to be adopted。 These are served as messages for second language teaching。 Thus they function as teaching assistance, telling teachers the major problems and promoting teachers to find solutions, which thus enhances the second language teaching (Chen 2011)。

1。3 Research Questions

The major research questions are as follows:

1) What errors do Senior High School students often make in using adverbial clause?

2) What are the major reasons leading to their errors?

2。 Literature Review

This chapter intends to have a literature review of key knowledge which the author will discuss in the following part。 Studies and theories on interlanguage, error analysis as well as adverbial clause are to be reviewed。 From优Y尔E论W文W网wWw.YouERw.com 加QQ75201,8766

2。1 The Introduction to Adverbial Clause 

2。1。1 Definition of Adverbial Clause

According to Zhang (2002), an adverbial clause is a subordinate clause which, as an entire unit, functions as an adverbial modifier of a verb or a sentence。 Due to complexity of the adverbs in English, Zhang pided adverbial clauses into many types, such as adverbial clause of time, place, reason, concession, result, and manner and so on。 Adverbial clause modifies the article with more proper structure, more explicit meaning and stricter logic。

2。1。2 Definition of Conjunctive Word

In English, the study on conjunctive words provides solid foundation for the study on subordinate clauses, because subordinate clauses are always led by conjunctive words。 The properties of subordinate clauses also vary from each other as the conjunctive words do。 Conjunctive words which consist of a word or phrases are used to connect two sentences logically and semantically。 This article tends to focus on the conjunctive words which students use to form a logical relation between two sentences in using adverbial clauses。

2。1。3 Definition of Errors in Adverbial Clause 

According to Corder (1973) and James (2001), an error can be defined as an unintentional deviation from the norms of the target language。 It is utilized to refer to the result of making faulty inferences about the rules of the target language (Chen 2011)。

James (1980) classified students’ errors appearing in their writings into three types。 The first one is ontological error, which refers to the error made in spelling or handwriting。 The second one is contextual error, which contains error made in vocabulary or grammar usage。 The last one is discourse error, which means the error made in conjunctive word usage or connection of two sentences。 This article tends to mainly talk about the last two types of errors which either violate English grammar and norm or block the transmission of information。

2。2 Introduction to Interlanguage

2。2。1 Definition of Interlanguage

The early interlanguage theories suggest that there exists a traditional system for the English learners, which is called interlanguage, an essential concept in second language acquisition on top of the language system of the mother tongue and the target language, 

The term “interlanguage” was first proposed in 1969 by Larry Selinker, who later detailed the term in his published book “Interlanguage” in 1972。 This is regarded as a landmark in the studies of interlanguage theories。

Interlanguage is learners’ language system which has a structurally intermediate status between source and target languages, which leads to the fact that a second language cannot be acquired permanently as the mother tongue (Selinker, 1972:211)。