Because punctuation marks are not specially taught in Chinese language courses, many overseas students will ignore the use of punctuation marks in their written Chinese. A study on misuse of punctuation marks among a group of Korean students who are learning Chinese in China indicates that Korean students will always make mistakes on using punctuation marks, among which the phenomenon of punctuation addition is quite frequent.
Addition of full stop behind the right quotation mark:
1) 近来见朋友的时候朋友们都跟我说：“你别走了，我舍不得你啊！怎么办？”
Quotation mark in direct quotation and colon in front of it have had the function of marking, thus full stop need not to be used to mark the finish of a sentence behind the quotation mark. This kind of error is because of the generalization of sentence-completion function of full stop by students in Chinese language courses.
Addition of commas:
2) 可是，老虎不能马上吃狐狸。因为，它不但不惊恐，而且不逃奔。
3) 他急急忙忙地回村里去追查，除了阿二以外的其他人了。
In sentence with two or more clauses, the use of comma should be flexible and not be too frequent in principle. Not every stop of tone should be paused by using comma, for it will break up the entire meaning of the sentence, such as the No. 2 sentence. In the No. 3 sentence, it changes the sentence structure and breaks up the close semantic relations of verb and object because of the irrelevant pauses so that the expression becomes unclear. Maybe students of Chinese language courses can’t notice this by themselves; teachers should take the responsibility of reminding these Korean students who are learning Chinese in China.
Addition of dashes:
4) 司机——小李开卡车，卡车上满载着煤炭。
5) 什么样的人才叫做“盲人”？——一般指的是双眼失明的人。
A dash is added between “司机”and “小李”, which forms a explanation relationship between these two words. But “司机” is a general term and can’t form an explanation relationship with designated ”小李“. For example, we can say ”我们单位的司机——小李“ in written Chinese language, but can’t say ”司机——小李“。 When ”司机“ and ”小李“ form an anaphoric relationship, dash is not necessary between the two words and the expression should be direct “司机小李”. Sentence No. 5 is a rhetorical question picked from the homework of a students in Chinese language courses, “一般指的是双眼失明的人“is not the explanation for ”盲人“, but the answer for the question content in the above paragraphs. Therefore, dash can’t be used.
Addition of slight-pause mark: it mainly appears as the joint use of slight-pause mark with conjunction words “和”，“及”and “以及”. For instance,
6) 我家人总共7口人，奶奶、父母、哥哥、一对双胞胎妹妹、和我。
Besides, we found another phenomenon that Korean students of Chinese language courses misused punctuation marks——link these punctuation marks. Such as,
Link two exclamation marks together: 我觉得对有些事情来说后悔了。不过后悔不及！！
Link exclamation mark with comma together: 可是怎么回事？那只大雁在天上没有了！，早就飞走了。
Link exclamation mark with full stop together: 他突然想起来：坛子的主人会不会怀疑是他偷的呢！。
Link ellipsis with full mark together: 做菜的时候自己考虑做什么菜，自己知道生活中有什么问题等……
Link question mark with full stop together: 我说“哎呦，又来了，你这样说已经500多次了，今天又是什么理由喝了很多酒呢？”
There are also some other examples about misuse punctuation marks in homework or exercise of students in Chinese language courses.
These phenomena all indicate the confusion of overseas students on punctuation mark functions and remind teachers to pay attention to the teaching of punctuation marks.