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Language Transfer

Lan-Hsin Chang

National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences

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I. Behaviorist Views

Stimuli and responses Complex behaviors—component parts

effective learning Habit formation; analogy Impediment to learning: interference from

prior knowledge Degree of difficulty: positive and negative

transfer Errors expected; should be avoided

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Behaviorist Views--II

Chomsky’s (1959) review of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior

Animal behavior in the lab vs. humans language behavior

Value of correction/reinforcement? Reconsideration of L1 in L2 learning

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II. Terminology

Transfer: influence resulting from the similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired

(Odlin 1989:27)

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III. The Manifestations of Transfer

Errors (negative transfer): transfer or intralingual errors?

Facilitation (positive transfer); U-shaped behavior

Avoidance: infrequent use or avoidance?

Over-use: e.g., overgeneralization of the regular past tense inflection

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IV. Contrastive Analysis—1

Difference = difficulty Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CA

H) (Lado 1957) include steps of description, selection, comparison, and prediction

Types/hierarchy of difficulty in L2: (more difficult) split — new — absent

— coalesced — correspondence (less difficult) (p. 307)

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IV. Contrastive Analysis—2

1. Strong form: errors can be predicted

2. Weak form: some are traceable; a posteriori explanation

Strong form: theoretically untenable Work form: impractical/inadequate Lost ground to error analysis in the

1970s

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V. The Minimalist Position--1

Emphasize the universal processes of language learning

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V. The Minimalist Position--2

A. Interference in language contact situations and second language acquisition

Interference in bilinguals: social factors; bidirectional; increased with proficiency in the two languages

Interference in language learning: not motivated by social factors; unidirectional; decreased as the learner became more proficient (Dulay & Burt, 1972)

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V. The Minimalist Position--3

Borrowing transfer (L2 L1) vs. substratum transfer (L1 L2): not always clear-cut

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V. The Minimalist Position--4

B. Empirical research and the CAH Not easy to distinguish interference

errors from developmental errors Error tokens vs. error types (Kellerm

an 1987)

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V. The Minimalist Position--5

C. Word order studies of transfer

Reasons for relatively few instances of basic word order transfer (Odlin 1990):

1. relative lack of research on beginner learners (most likely to have word order transfer)

2. highly conscious of word order (involves arrangement of semantically important elements)

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V. The Minimalist Position--6

D. Minimalist theoretical positions on transfer: the similarity between L2 and L1 acquisition

interference reflected ignorance of the L2 (Newmark & Reibel 1968)

L1 transfer communication strategy (a means of overcoming a communication problem)

Not learning strategy (a device for developing interlanguage)

transfer rejected transfer relocated within a cognitive framework

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VI. Constraints on Transfer--1

Language level: pronunciation, lexis, discourse, and grammar (less affected)

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VI. Constraints on Transfer --2

Sociolinguistic factors the social context: focused (e.g., classroo

m settings) vs. unfocused contexts (e.g., natural settings) macro-sociolinguistic perspective

the relationship between the speaker and the addressee: careful vs. vernacular styles micro-sociolinguistic perspective

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VI. Constraints on Transfer --3

Markedness: core (unmarked) vs. periphery (marked) rules Hypotheses:

unmarked L1 forms more likely be transferred to correspondingly marked L2 forms

marked L1 forms less likely be transferred to correspondingly unmarked L2 forms

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VI. Constraints on Transfer --4

Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman 1977)

more marked forms in TL than in the NL are difficult to language learners

- vagueness of ‘markedness’

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VI. Constraints on Transfer --5

Prototypicality (Kellerman 1977; 1978; 1979; 1986; 1989)

native speakers’ intuitions to determine the unmarkedness or prototypicality of lexical items

learners resist transferring non-prototypical meanings

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VI. Constraints on Transfer --6

Language distance and psychotypology (learners’ perceptions about language distance)

the actual language distance affects positive transfer

learners’ psychotypology governs what they actually transfer

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VI. Constraints on Transfer --7

Developmental factors The learner’s general level of development

restructuring continuum: L1 (starting point of L2)

Natural principles of language acquisition

interlanguage not necessarily a restructuring continuum, except phonology

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VII. Towards a theory of first language transfer

Communication transfer: borrowing (a performance phenomenon not a learning process) (Corder 1983); production and comprehension transfer

Learning transfer: transfer a process of hypothesis construction and testing

A framework for explaining first language transfer (p. 339)

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VIII. Conclusion: problems in the study of transfer

Difficult to distinguish communication transfer from learning transfer