中国儿童早期英语否定转移习得:基于使用的语言习得理论下的个案研究

Chinese Children's Acquisition of English Transferred Negation:A Case Study with the Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition

英语否定转移是中国儿童英语习得的难点之一,目前学界研究成果数量较少,方法单一,尤其缺乏纵向个案研究,习得效果不理想。对一名随父母在澳大利亚生活并在当地就读小学的中国儿童A进行时长13个月的纵向追踪,建立语料库分6个阶段进行研究。结果显示,中国儿童的英语否定转移习得以高频典型范例为基础逐渐扩张,儿童二语习得遵循基于高频典型范例的习得机制。中国儿童在早期英语否定转移中出现习得错误,源于一种“固化、杂糅、连带固化机制”,在语言习得过程中,频率会带来固化效应从而有利于语言的习得,但高频率的构式也有可能与相关构式产生杂糅并引起习得错误,习得错误通过连带固化效应进一步在竞争中占据优势,最终产生顽固错误。中国儿童二语习得,一是要利用高频典型范例的锚定作用促进儿童语言习得,二是要警惕高频典型范例与相关构式的杂糅而产生的习得错误,三是要对习得错误及时干预从而避免连带固化现象。

English transferred negation is one of the challenges Chinese children face in acquiring English.Currently,there is a dearth of research in this field,accompanied by limited research methods,particularly longitudinal case studies.Furthermore,the learning outcomes of transferred negation have been unsatisfactory.This study conducted a 13-month longitudinal study of a Chinese child,referred to as A,who lived with his parents in Australia and attended a local primary school.The research was divided into six stages,and a corpus was established to analyze the data.The results revealed that the Chinese child s acquisition of English transferred negation was primarily based on a prototypical high-frequency exemplar and gradually expanded around it.This aligns with the mechanism that children's second language acquisition is based on prototypical high-frequency exemplars.The child made errors in his early acquisition of English transferred negation due to a mechanism of“entrenchment,mingling,and associate entrenchment”.While high-frequency constructions facilitated language acquisition through entrenchment,they also gave rise to errors when mingled with relevant constructions.These errors prevailed in competition because of the associate entrenchment mechanism,and ultimately resulted in persistent errors.The implications for Chinese children's second language acquisition involve three aspects:firstly,utilizing the anchoring effect of prototypical high-frequency exemplars to facilitate language acquisition;secondly,being cautious about the acquisition errors arising from the mingling of prototypical high-frequency exemplars and relevant constructions;and lastly,carrying out timely intervention to address acquisition errors and avoid associative entrenchment.