Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Introduction to the study
For half a century, the study on language transfer has made significant progresswhether in domestic or abroad. Recent years, more and more linguists pay attention tothe relationship between mother tongue and the second language acquisition. From1950s, scholars began to study the language transfer in Second Language Acquisition(SLA). In the field of linguistics, researchers insist that the influence on foreignlanguage learning is often referred to as the ‘transfer’. Long and Richards made apreface for Odlin’s Language Transfer, pointing out that language transfer has been thecore problem of pragmatic linguistics, second language acquisition and language studiesat least a century. In the field of psychology, transfer means that learning A has an effecton another kind of learning B, that is to say, skills, knowledge and attitudes of a certainsituation will influence these of another context. In the past half century, people haddifferent opinions on the influences of language transfer in second language acquisition.Especially in the 1970s, the importance of language transfer in second languagelearning has almost been ignored. Until recent years, language transfer appears widelyin foreign language teaching and learning, and it is again in people’s vision. Then manyresearchers constantly study it with theories and practices to put forward better andnewer ways to solve the teaching problems.
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1.2 Purpose and significance of the study
Studying English for so many years, a large number of English learners stillcannot use English freely and appropriately. Although Chinese college students can passthe CET4 and CET6 even can get a high mark in these tests, in fact some of the studentshave difficulties to use English in a native-like way. They always describe somethingwith correct grammatical structure in a wrong context, or with the wrong language formin an appropriate context. Therefore, both English teachers and students tempt to findout the available methods to acquire the foreign language.Even if language transfer has been an increasingly controversial debate for manyyears, and preceding studies on language transfer have been conducted from variouslinguistic aspects, such as syntax, phonology, semantics, interlanguage pragmatics, andso on. Few researches have explained the phenomenon of language transfer on the basisof contextual factors, especially in the EFL learning environment where the lack of L2input may lead to L1 transfer. This thesis aims to investigate how learners’ L1 influenceSLA, probing into the probable linkage between L2 linguistic forms and learners’ L1contextual knowledge in EFL atmosphere.For a long time, people always deem that the method of using both native languageand foreign language is the same. Once you master the grammatical rules, correctphonology, enough vocabulary, and do more exercises, then you can use a languagenaturally. However, it is still difficult to have a comprehensive application as peoplemeet all above requirements. This shows that there are other factors that restrict the useof language, except for the language itself. According to psychological linguistics, theprocess of learning a foreign language is different between children and adults.
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Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Studies on language transfer in SLA
Language transfer has been the core of research for decades. It involves almost allthe aspects of second language learning. Long and Richards made a preface for Odlin’sLanguage Transfer, pointing out that language transfer has been the central issue ofpragmatic linguistics, second language acquisition and language studies, and it has beenundergone at least a century. The study on language transfer can be dated back to 1940sand 1950s in America. Scholars have experienced a complicated period which mainlydiscusses what role the native language plays in SLA. There exist two dominatingschools: one group insists that mother tongue can promote second language learning,while the other group believes that mother tongue impedes second language learning.Recent years, many scholars point out that language transfer and SLA areinterdependent and interact each other deeply. During the past 50 years, with thedevelopment of SLA, language transfer has experienced Contrastive AnalysisHypothesis and Interlanguage Hypothesis.
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2.2 Studies on context in SLA
“Exactly as in the reality of spoken or written languages, a word without linguisticcontext is a mere figment and stands for nothing by itself, so in the reality of a spokenliving tongue, the utterance has no meaning except in the context of situation”(Malinowski 1923, p.307). Context has been extensively studied in SLA, while it is not easy to give it a simpledefinition. Many scholars investigated context with diverse ways in differentbackgrounds. Malinowski was one of the founders of functionalism, who first probedinto the problem of context. He pointed that “The utterance has no exact meaning onlyif it appears in a certain context of situation.” (Malinowski, 1923). In his opinion,context was the context of situation and context of culture. The context of situationrefers to what happens when people are speaking, is the situation where language takeplaces. And context of culture refers to the cultural background that the speakers own.Malinowski focused on the outside macro context, and paid no attention to the internalmicro context. J. R. Firth, the father of the functional theory of language, inheritedand extended the idea of situational context. He divided context into two kinds: one ofthe context comes from the internal language, which consists of different relationsamong vocabularies, phrases, sentences and paragraphs, in other words linguisticcontext; the other context stems from outside language, which involves the relationbetween language and its social environments, that is situational context. Based onFirth’s situational context, English linguistics M.A.K. Halliday proposed register theory,dividing register into field of discourse, mode of discourse, and tenor of discourse. In1964, Halliday established the systemic-functional theory, put forward the concept of“register”, and analyzed language context theory from the perspective of languagefunction. He took the functional angle to consider language as an instrument of socialcommunication, and believed that all language should be used in a certain context ofsituation. He claimed that context can be divided into situational context and culturalcontext.
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Chapter Three Research Design.......17
3.1Research Questions......17
3.2 Subjects.....18
3.3 Instruments......19
3.4 Procedures.......21
Chapter Four Results and data analysis......24
4.1Results........24
4.2 Discussion on the underlined expressions.......27
4.2.1Classification of internal contextual knowledge......27
4.2.2 Various types of the underlined errors........29
4.3 Influential factors of the underlined expressions.......32
Chapter Five Conclusion and Implications....... 37
5.1 Major findings of the current research......37
5.2 Practical implications of the study......39
5.2.1 Theoretical implications......39
5.2.2 Pedagogical implications.... 39
5.3 Limitations of the study.... 43
5.4 Recommendations.......44

Chapter Four Results and data analysis

4.1Results
The questionnaire, writing task and the interview are one of the most majorresources of the research analysis. There are sixty valid questionnaires have beencollected, which has been divided into three groups on the basis of their scores. Namely,there are twenty-one students in the group1, twenty-two students in the group2, andseventeen students in the group3. The data in the research is reliable. The twelfthquestion: “When you learn a new word, what method will you adopt?” “A. learning thewords by rote B. learning the words by pronunciation C. learning the words in the textD. others” After calculating, it shows that there are eleven (18.3%) students learn newwords in the text, in which group1 has six students, occupies10.0%, group2 has fivestudents, occupies 8.3%, and in group3 nobody study new words in the text, most ofthem learn new words by rote. The thirteenth question is: “If you come across a difficultsentence in the reading comprehension, how will you do?” “A. Guess it based on theco-text B. look it up in the dictionary C. Ask classmates and teacher D. Pass it overdirectly” It presents that there are thirty-one (51.7%) students comprehend aninaccessible sentence through guessing according to the context, in which group1possesses fifteen students, occupies 25%, group2 possesses nine students, occupies 15%,and group3 possesses seven students, occupies 11.7%.

Conclusion

Just as Grass once insisted that (1996) a transfer theory should not merely containthe language transfer phenomenon itself, besides it should illustrate and summarize inwhich conditions the language transfer is likely to occur. Therefore, the following partaims to describe what is probably to happen when there is deficiency of correct L2contextual knowledge in SLA.In the first place, if learners’L1 contextual knowledge is congruent with that of L2:when he is lack of related L2 context in the process of speaking or writing, at the sametime his L1 contextual knowledge will come up and trigger its corresponding L1linguistic forms to compensate, in this case it may come about idiomatic English,namely, L1 plays its positive role.In the second place, if the learners’ L1 contextual knowledge is different from thatof L2: when the learner has trouble in describing what he wants to say or write, whilethe L1 contextual knowledge occurs and activates its correlated L1 linguistic forms tomake up. During this procedure, owing to the lack of L2 contextual knowledge learnershave the habit of translating Chinese to English one by one to convey his intendedmeaning, which may result in wrong expressions or inappropriate description. In thiscase, L1 may play a negative role in SLA.From the interview and collected data, it obviously reveals that if the original ideais accordant with the L2 context, then the L2 linguistic forms and contextual knowledgecan be matched properly and correctly. Otherwise, it may lead to the mismatch of L1contextual knowledge and L2 linguistic forms.
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References (omitted)