Title：Language transfer on SLAAbstractThe essay aims to investigate how the language transfer influence the process of SLA,in the field of SLA research, language transfer has long been a controversial research subject. it was initially associated with behaviorist theories of language learning and was seen as an impediment. It was considered to only hinder the acquisition of a L2. However, the development of Interlanguage Theory and the flourishing of psycholinguistics have finally recognized the significance of the role of the L1 in SLA. Learner's L1 is viewed as a resource which the learner actively draws in interlanguage development. The positive role of language transfer in SLA has been gradually acknowledged. Based on this , it will make a exploration of both positive and negative transfer between the L1 and the L2 through learner's interlanguage. Key words: language transfer; positive transfer; negative transfer; second language acquisition (SLA)nguage transfer1.1Definitions of language transferLanguage transfer took its root in the Transfer Theory in psychology. Psychologists defined ' transfer' as a type of learning activities by which learners' previously acquired knowledge about the learning skills will influence the out come of their learning or training behavior. They maintain that transfer can be both be both positive and negative.Behaviorists defined transfer as a consequence of habit formation, which implies the extinction of the learner's primary language when he or she is learning the new language.However, it is now widely accepted that the influence of the learner;s native language cannot be adequately accounted for in terms of habit formation. Nor is transfer simply a matter of interference or of falling back on the native language. Nor is it just a question of the influence of the learner's native language, as other previously acquired 'second' languages can also have an effect (Ellis, 1994). This suggests that the term ' L1 transfer' itself is inadequate. Some scholars have advocated abandoning the term or using it in highly restricted ways. Sharwood and Kellerman (1986) have argued that a superordinate term that is theory-neutral is needed and suggest crosslinguistic influence. They comment:the term 'crosslinguistic influence' is theory-neutral, allowing one to subsume under one heading such phenomena as 'transfer', 'interference', 'avoidance', 'borrowing' and L2-related aspects of language loss and thus permitting discussion of the similarities and differences between these phenomena.(1986:1)Odlin(1989) offers this ' working definition' of transfer as basis for his own thoughtful treatment of such pehenomena: transfer is the influence resulting from the similarities and the differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously acquired91989;27).Many researchers disapprove of the term "language transfer", and prefer "mother tongue influence" proposed by Corder (1983）or "cross-linguistic influence" by Kellerman instead. However, we will stick to the term "language transfer" throughout this thesis, partly because of its convenience, and partly because of its familiarity to most people, with the understanding that here "Language transfer" is used in its broad sense, not restricted to the behaviorist notion.1.2The manifestations of Language TransferIn traditional accounts of language transfer, the research focus was placed on the errors that learners produce. Errors occurred as a result of the negative transfer of mother tongue patterns into learn's L2 (Ellis, 1994). It is possible to identify a number of other manifestations of transfer however, three of which are frequently discussed by transfer researchers:negative transfer,positive transfer.1.2.1.Negative transfer(errors)Negative transfer, also known as interference, is the use of a L1 pattern or rule which heads to an error or inappropriate form in the L2. Negative transfer can befound at all the levels of language structure. A speaker's foreign accent in L2 learning is an evidence of negative transfer at the phonological level. Morphological negative transfer is common. For instance, under the influence of Chinese language, some students will say "big rain" rather "heavy rain". Negative transfer at syntactical level also exists. For example, when a learner is asked to translate the sentence " 我昨天在家做作业" into English, he or she tends to ignore the tense and word order of an English sentence and would translate it according to the Chinese grammatical structure " I yesterday at home do homework".1.2.2.Positive transfer (facilitation)Positive transfer is transfer which makes learning easier, and may occur when both the L1 and L2 have the same form. Similarities between vocabulary can reduce the time needed to develop good reading comprehension; similarities between vowel systems can make the identification of vowel sound easier; similarities between writing systems can give learners a fast starting in reading and writing the L2; and similarities in syntactic structures can facilitate the acquisition of grammar. For example, when a learner is asked to translate the sentence "我说汉语" into English, he or she can translate it correctly with the help of his or her L1 "I speak Chinese" because the basic word order of both Chinese and English is S(subject）+ V (verb or predicate) + O (object).So , positive transfer is beneficial while negative transfer is a hindrance to SLA. From the above discussion, we can see it is clearly insufficient to focus exclusively on production errors, since transfer is a complex phenomenon which involves not only L1 knowledge but also other factors that interact with L1 knowledge.2.The Historical Development and Recent Situation of the Study on LanguageTransfer in SLALanguage transfer has exerted considerable effect on SLA. People in the past have conducted detailed investigation and research on transfer phenomena in learning a L2. From the historical point of view, the research of language transfer in SLA has undergone three stages.2.1. Domination of Behaviorist Point of ViewEarly language transfer research can be traced back to the 1940s and 1950s. The first two influential people who systematically studied the role of language transfer in SLA were Charles C. Fries and Robert Lado. Fries (1945) put forward the issue from the angle of the compilation of teaching materials. He formulated the need for contrastive analyses through observations. He states that the most efficient materials are those based upon a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner.(1945:9). Robert lado proposed a potentially rigorous model, Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis(CAH) (Lado.1957), which was based on this assumption: the student who comes into with a foreign language will find some features of it quite easy and others extremely difficult. Those elements that are similar to his native language will be simple for him, and those elements that are different will be difficult.(1957:2)During 1950s, behaviorist behaviorist views of language learning and language teaching were predominant. Language transfer was always integrated with behaviorism, and thus became the theoretical basis of comparative analysis. For one thing, the behaviorist notions of transfer often implies the extinction of early habits, whereas the acquisition of a L2 need not lead to any replacement of the learner's primary language. This and other considerations suggest that behaviorism may never have been relevant to the study of transfer (Odlin, 1989).2.2.Prevalence of Mentalist Point of ViewFrom the late 1960s to the 1970s , the behaviorist point of view was severely criticized due to the influence caused by Chomsky's linguistic theory. Chomsky (1965) advocates a strong version of the innateness hypothesis. He argues that children are born with a specific and unique kind of knowledge which equips them for language learning. This knowledge is embodied in a mechanism called a language acquisition device (LAD). He believes that a child must be predisposed to learn any language as a native language and that the LAD must contain language universals. He then seeks to identify linguistic universals by the in-depth study of a single language. He argues that only in this way is it possible to discover the highly abstract principles of grammar that constrain the form of any specific grammar. He refers to these principles as Universal Grammar. While Greenberg (1966) and some followers establish universals by examining a wide range of languages from different language families in order to discover what features they have in common, which are referred to as typological universals. Therefore, followeing Chomsky's attack on behaviorism, its drawbacks were exposed gradually and the function of language transfer was largely held in contempt in SLA. Both behaviorism and transfer phenomena were treated coldly and ignored, and the role of L1 was played down. This minimalist view of L1 transfer, however, has not withstood the test of time (Ellis, 2000).2.3.Influence of Cognitive Point of ViewDuring the mid-to-late 1970s, the emphasis was on the determination of how and wehn learners used their L1 and on explanations for the phenomena. Little by little, the study of language transfer has come into a cognitive period. The word ' language transfer ' did not merely refer to the meachanical transfer from L1 to L2. It was treated as a kind of important learning strategy in SLA, a complicated cognitive procedure that is influenced by various factors. Ellis (1994) points out that one clear advance in transfer research has been the reconceptualizaton of the influence of the L1;in behaviorist accounts it was seen as impediment, whereas in cognitive accounts it is viewed as a resource which the learner actively draws in interlanguage development. The positive role of language transfer in SLA has gradually been acknowledged.nguage transfer in SLAIt is a popular belief that second language acquisition (SLA) is strongly influenced by the learner's first language (L1). The clearest support for this belief comes from "foreign" accents in the second language (L2) speech of learners (Ellis, 1985). When a French man speaks English, his English sounds French. When a Chinese speaks English, his English sounds Chinese. In addition to accents, L1 habits also influence the way learners use to express themselves in L2. For example, such Chinese expression as "*department company"(department store 百货公司), "*family computer" (personal computer 家用电脑) can often be heard (陆效用，2002). Furthermore , there are lots of Chinglish expression in the syntactical level, for instance, "我昨天在家做作业" would be translated into English according to the Chinese grammatical structure "*Ｉyesterday at home do homework". ( I did my homework at home yesterday.) as far as thinking mode is concerned, Chinglish sentences "*His body is very healthy" (He is very healthy) and "* Good good study, day day up" (If you study hard, you will make progress very day) are highly likely to be produced by Chinese learners of English. Common Chinese greetings around meal time "吃了吗？" "Have you eaten yet?" or "Have you had your lunch?" would be transfered when Chinese learners of English meet native-speaker of English. All these phenomena all show how language transfer influence second language acquisition.Traditional linguistics holds that the role of the L1 in SLA is a negative on (陆效用，2002). That is , the L1 gets in the way or interferes with the learning of the L2, such that features of the L1 are transferred into the L2 (Ellis, 1985). For years, most experts and language teachers have emphasized negative transfer in SLA, and neglected the positive role of the L1. In L2 teaching , therefore, they are strongly opposed to the use of L1.Do L1 really play only a negative role in SLA? Does it only hinder the acquisition of a L2? Is there any positive transfer in SLA? Can L1 also benefit the acquisition of a L2? In L2 teaching, can L1 be used?In our opinion, the so-called L1 negative influence hypothesis or L1 interference hypothesis is one-sided, it neither reflects the nature of language learning nor reveals the inner relationship between L1 and SLA. Taken the above Chinglish expressions for example, superficially, the L1 does influence the L2 expressions, but in fact, it is the L1 that helps the learner finish the communicative task. In the process of SLA, especially in the early stages of proficiency, learners have to fall back on their L1 knowledge in case of emergency in order to communicate effectively. This is a "cognitive process", "a learner's strategy", and also a necessary process in SLA(陆效用，2002）.As a matter of fact, in the field of SLA research, language transfer has lonog been a controversial research subject, especially the influence of learner's L1 on L2. Generally speaking, the research of language transfer in SLA has undergone three stages. In the 1950s, it was seen as an impediment and was deemed as playing an important role in L2 learning when Lado's Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis dominated the field. Language transfer was considered to only hinder the acquisition of a L2. With the popularity of the Chomskyan Universal Grammar which denies the existence of transfer phenomena, the researchers' interest in language transfer has declined since the 1960s,and language transfer was regarded as playing a minor role in the process of SLA. However, the development of Interlanguage Theory and the flourishing of psycholinguistics have finally recognized the significance of the role of the L1 in SLA. Learner's L1 is viewed as a resource which the learner actively draws in interlanguage development. The positive role of language transfer in SLA was gradually acknowledged. As a result, the role of the L1 is not only a negative one but also a positive one; it does not only interfere with the learning of the L2 but also facilitate the learning of the L2.3.1Phonetic transferPhonetic transfer occurs when the learner tends to transfer similar but phonologically different sounds of his or her L1 to those of the L2. It can be both positive and negative resulting from the learner's conventional habit of articulation. 3.1.1.PhonemeIt is known that the Chinese phonetic alphabet is divided into three categories: sehngmu, yunmu and diaozi. A shengmu is equivalent to consonant and a yunmu to a vowel. What often happens is that those who have systematically learned the Chinese phonetic alphabet are good at taking in English phonetic knowledge because most English phonemes have similar counterparts in Chinese and thus quite a number of Chinese pronouncing skills can be transferred into pronouncing English phonemes.For example, the beginning shengmu [k, t , m , l ] in Chinese words "开头" "美丽" are equivalent to English consonants [ k , t , m, l ]; and the yunmu [ai, ou, ei ,i ] have their counterparts in English. Look at some English words: kite [kait], toe [təu], make [meik], lead [li:d]. All of these are similar to the Chinese pinyin.Similarity between the phonemes of the two languages has double functions. On the one hand , it causes generalization in listening and pronouncing English words, which, in turn, makes students mistankenly treat the similarity between the phonemes as being identical, and substitute Chinese phonemes for English ones, resulting in the negative transfer of L1. On the other hand, oweing to the existence of some regularities that govern the differences between the two phonetic systems, it is a very useful step to perfect English pronunciation for most Chinese learners of Englsih. Once the student realizes these regularities through elaborate language comparison and becomes skilled in using them, he or she will soon be able to adapt his or her L1 pronouncing skills and pronounce English phonemes correctly, hence forming the positive transfer of L1. For example , with their vowel component [ə] removed, the Chinese initial consonants b, p, m , f , v , d, t, n , l, g , k, b, s , w, g, ŋ are very similar to English consonants [b], [p], [m], [f], [v], [d], [t], [n], [l], [g ], [k], [h], [s],[w], [ŋ]. This regularity is a very useful step to perfect English pronunciation for most Chinese learners of English. It greatly shortens the natural process of discrimination, which, in ordinary situations, is rather long. Its value may be assessed readily if we point out that quite a few Chinese learners of English fail to discern the difference.Accounting for one third of the total English phonemes, the above 15phonemes may constitute a great deal of negative transfer of L1 when not corrected, or a lot ofpositive transfer of L1 when corrected. Here lies a vast potentiality to save time and energy in SLA.This example indicates that the role of L1 in SLA is not fixed and consistent but changeable, sometimes helps, sometimes hinder. It also shows that phoneme comparison helps to turn the task into an easy one. Moreover, this comparison also enables us to deepen our understanding of our native language---Chinese.Usually, a native speaker of Chinese hardly ever thinks of studing phonetic structure of his mother tongue. Now that he is engaged in leaning English, he sees that the 15 Chinese phonemes have counterparts in English. Whenever he sees one of the contrastive phonemes, he will immediately think of the other. This kind of contrastive association is certainly very conductive to strengthening memory and comprehension of both languages concerned. Hence this example may be regarded as one showing the reversed positive transfer from L2 to L1.Not every English phoneme has a counterpart in Chinese. A few English phonemes have no counterparts in Chinese. For example, the two English dental sound [ө] is utterly new, thus very troublesome to Chinese learners. Beginning learners tend to replace the sound with approximate Chinese sounds [s] and [z] or [d ]. Some learners fail to discern the two in listening and speaking even after many years' learning.There is a phenomenon of consonant clusters in English. Furthermore, there are words ending in vowel of open syllables and there also exist words ending in consonants of close syllables in the English vocabulary. However, most Chinese characters are monosyllables. When beginning learners read a word beginning or ending with consonant clusters, or when they read an English close syllable subconsciously, they often insert a 'support' vowel sound between the consonants or add a vowel sound at the end of a word. So these are typical negative phonetic transfers in acquiring English.Phonetic negative transfer resulting from English learning is usually very hard to overcome. Even though the learning environment is favorable, and the learner is hard working, his pronunciation cannot be improved to be as perfect as that of the native English sperker. That's why when a French man speaker English, his English sounds French; when a Chinese speaker English, his English sounds Chinese. Therefore, phoneme comparison should be overemphasized at elementary stage so as not to cause too much negative transfer at the beginning of the study.3.1.2IntonationThere exists such a general phenomenon is every language as the falling intonation, which is used basically to express definiteness and completeness, the rising intonation, which expresses suspicion and incompleteness and the blending intonation, which appears with double sides o fpsychology(Danicoff,1980) and is mainly used to express complex feelings.Meaning of intonation patterns in Chinese and English are similar, the falling intonation is more often associated with definiteness, completeness and assertiveness while the rising intonation is more is more often associated with incompleteness, uncertainty and tentativeness. It suggests that something further must be said either bythe speaker or by the hearer. It is also often accompanied with politeness, encouragement, pleading, diffidence or suspicion. The blending intonation expresses feelings of hesitation, contrast, reservation, or doubt. The implication is sometimes that the speaker hesitate to make his statement too confidently, and at other times it conveys a warning or an apology. Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on syllables that need to be perceived as stressed, and in particular the placing of tonic stress on a particular syllable marks out the word to which it belongs as the most important in the tone-unit. Both Chinese and English have such kind of intonation function.most Chinese learners of English have no difficulty in mastering these basic English intonation patterns and their functions. Here, their habitual modes and skills of expressing and thinking formed in previous native language learning can be transferred into Engish learning. This is the favorable side of English intonation learning, where positive transfer of Chinese plays an important role.Nevertheless, the negative transfer of L1 exists here too, which is rather hard to conceive. Chinese is a tone language, it is the kind of language which uses tone to distinguish word meaning while English, an intonation language which uses tone to distinguish word meaning while English, an intonation language, is the kind of language which employs intonation to distinguish the meaning while English, an intonation language, is the kind of language which employs intonation to distinguish the meaning of pared with the relatively smooth and simple intonations of Chinese, English intonation vary in large pitch amplitude and more sophisticated patterns.3.1.3.Syntactical transferSyntactical transfer involves the transference of syntactic structures, such as word order, modification devices, articles, the number, the gender, relative clause and so on ,it can be both positive and negative.Word orderIn some cases, the word order of seven types of simple sentences in English is similar to those in Chinese.1.SV structure2.SVC structure3..SVO structure4..SVOO structure5.SVOC structure6.SVOA structure7..SV A structure4.ConclusionIt is a fact that language transfer exists at all the levels of language structure. From this ,we have found that the mechanism of L1's function in SLA is very complicated, there seldom exists pure positive or negative transfer in the process.we would not be able to exploit fully its positive side unless we profound study in language comparison and mechanism of transfer. We are sure that more example will be found to show that L1 promotes L2 acquisition.BibliographyBrown, H. D. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New York: Prentice Hall Regents, 1994.Chomsky, N . Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, 1965Cook, vivian. Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.Corder, S.P. The Significance of Learners' error.[J]. IRAL, 5, 161-170, 1967 Eckman, F.R. Markedness and the Conrastive Analysis Hypothesis[J]. Language Learning 27,315-30,1997Ellis, Rod. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Langugae Education Press,1986.Ellis, Rod. Second Language Acquisition. 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