The Role of L1 in Chinese College Students' English Learning: A Study of Kellerman's Theory of Language Transfer

Abstract

From a psycholinguistic perspective, Kellerman suggested that L1 transfer is determined by learners' perception of the distance between the native language and the target language (psychotypology), and learners' perception of certain L1 rules or items in terms of language specificity/neutrality (psychotypicality). Apart from the two factors, however, L2 learners' proficiency in the target language may also affect L1 transfer. 80 non-English first-year undergraduates participated and a language proficiency test and two questionnaires were employed in the study to investigate the influences of Chinese on English learning. The results showed that the Chinese EFL learners' perception of the specificity of Chinese topic-prominent structures, English proficiency, and the interaction between the two factors all significantly affected the transferability of the Chinese topic-prominent structures to their acquisition of the English subject-prominent structures. In contrast, no statistically significant effect was found for learners' perception of Chinese-English distance.

Influencia de la Sintaxis del español en el Aprendizaje de‏ inglés

“…La transferencia lingüística es bidireccional (Albirini y Benmamoun, 2014). La forma en que los estudiantes organizan las ideas en su lengua materna influye en la transferibilidad a la segunda lengua (Huang, 2017). Mientras mejor establecida esté la lengua materna al momento del aprendizaje del L2, mayor será su influencia en la segunda lengua (Guion, Flege, Liu, y Yeni-Komshian, 2000).…”