An Analysis of Lexical Style and Cultural Connotation in Students' English Writing in China

摘要

This paper probes lexical errors in Chinese college students' writing based on text analysis. The lexical errors involve lexical style and lexical cultural connotation. The choice of words and expression in students' writing is not consistent with the type of writing and students tend to ignore the cultural connotation of words and expressions in conveying their ideas. It then explores the reasons why students are insensitive in the choice of words in writing and find that these errors are mainly caused by the interlingual transfer and the intralingual transfer in second language learning process. Finally, it suggests that teachers need to cultivate their own cultural awareness and increase students lexical stylistic and cultural awareness in English writing.