Language transfer has always been the focus of research in the field of second language acquisition. Conceptual transfer, as the development of language transfer, inspires scholars to explore the first language influe...Language transfer has always been the focus of research in the field of second language acquisition. Conceptual transfer, as the development of language transfer, inspires scholars to explore the first language influence on second language acquisition from a new perspective. Differences between Chinese and English lead to great difficulty to Chinese learners of English. Misuses in syntax may originate from different conceptions between Chinese and English. Mistakes such as sentence localization, prediction relation, word disorder, or sentence with null subject are also prevalent in English compositions. Based on the analysis of language differences between Chinese and English, this paper aims to explore the impact of Chinese on grammar capability in English writing by Chinese learners of English, so as to shed light on English teaching and learning.展开更多
Within the framework of Conceptual Transfer Hypothesis （Jarvis, 2007; 2011）, this paper investigates Chinese-speaking L2-English learners＇ computation of the uniqueness of noun phrases （NPs）, which further leads ...Within the framework of Conceptual Transfer Hypothesis （Jarvis, 2007; 2011）, this paper investigates Chinese-speaking L2-English learners＇ computation of the uniqueness of noun phrases （NPs）, which further leads to their selection of English articles in marking the target NPs. An acceptability judgment task and a written interview task were used to collect data of L2 learners＇ interpretation of English articles. The results reveal that the L2 learners differ from native speakers in their computation of uniqueness of target NPs and in their L2-English article choices, and this difference can be attributed to their conceptual knowledge formed in the acquisition of the mother tongue and to their processing of such knowledge. Pedagogically, this study provides an explanation of L2-English article substitution errors from the perspective of conceptual transfer.展开更多
The theory of conceptual transfer investigates the extent to which the perception of a previously learned language influences the conceptualization of a language learned subsequently.To provide further evidence suppor...The theory of conceptual transfer investigates the extent to which the perception of a previously learned language influences the conceptualization of a language learned subsequently.To provide further evidence supporting such hypotheses,the present study invites three groups of native Chinese-speaking college students to finish selected language tasks with an aim to explore whether the perception of L3 French motion verbs presents itself in the acquisition of L2 English path particles.All three participating groups have learned English as L2 and reached intermediate level,with one group being Chinese majors and the other two specializing in French with different proficiency levels.The findings suggest L3 would exhibit negative transfer in the acquisition of motion events in L2 English.Based on the analysis of participants’retrospective data and the comparison between Chinese group and French groups,the nature of such transfer is claimed to be conceptual.Results also reveal L3 proficiency exerts no influence on conceptual transfer.展开更多
文摘Language transfer has always been the focus of research in the field of second language acquisition. Conceptual transfer, as the development of language transfer, inspires scholars to explore the first language influence on second language acquisition from a new perspective. Differences between Chinese and English lead to great difficulty to Chinese learners of English. Misuses in syntax may originate from different conceptions between Chinese and English. Mistakes such as sentence localization, prediction relation, word disorder, or sentence with null subject are also prevalent in English compositions. Based on the analysis of language differences between Chinese and English, this paper aims to explore the impact of Chinese on grammar capability in English writing by Chinese learners of English, so as to shed light on English teaching and learning.
基金I am grateful to Prof. Chuming Wang （GDUFS, China） and Dr. Tania Ionin （UIUC, USA） for their guidance in writing this paper. Thanks to two anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments and suggestions thanks also to the support from Social Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China （Grant No. GD11YWW04）. All remaining errors are my own.
文摘Within the framework of Conceptual Transfer Hypothesis （Jarvis, 2007; 2011）, this paper investigates Chinese-speaking L2-English learners＇ computation of the uniqueness of noun phrases （NPs）, which further leads to their selection of English articles in marking the target NPs. An acceptability judgment task and a written interview task were used to collect data of L2 learners＇ interpretation of English articles. The results reveal that the L2 learners differ from native speakers in their computation of uniqueness of target NPs and in their L2-English article choices, and this difference can be attributed to their conceptual knowledge formed in the acquisition of the mother tongue and to their processing of such knowledge. Pedagogically, this study provides an explanation of L2-English article substitution errors from the perspective of conceptual transfer.
文摘The theory of conceptual transfer investigates the extent to which the perception of a previously learned language influences the conceptualization of a language learned subsequently.To provide further evidence supporting such hypotheses,the present study invites three groups of native Chinese-speaking college students to finish selected language tasks with an aim to explore whether the perception of L3 French motion verbs presents itself in the acquisition of L2 English path particles.All three participating groups have learned English as L2 and reached intermediate level,with one group being Chinese majors and the other two specializing in French with different proficiency levels.The findings suggest L3 would exhibit negative transfer in the acquisition of motion events in L2 English.Based on the analysis of participants’retrospective data and the comparison between Chinese group and French groups,the nature of such transfer is claimed to be conceptual.Results also reveal L3 proficiency exerts no influence on conceptual transfer.
