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L1 transfer in SLA. Adapted from Franceschina (2003). What is transfer?. “ [transfer is evidenced as] those instances of deviation from the norms of either language which occur in the speech of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with more than one language ” Weinreich (1953: 1).
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L1 transfer in SLA Adapted from Franceschina (2003)
What is transfer? “[transfer is evidenced as] those instances of deviation from the norms of either language which occur in the speech of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with more than one language” Weinreich (1953: 1)
“[transfer is] the use of the native language (or other language) information in the acquisition of an L2 (or additional language)” Gass (1996: 321)
“[transfer is] influence that the learner’s L1 exerts on the acquisition of an L2” Ellis (1997: 51)
Other terms • Transfer • Mother tongue influence (Corder, 1967) • Native language influence (Gass, 1996) • Cross-linguistic influence (Kellerman and Sharwood-Smith, 1986; Odlin, 1989) • Cross-linguistic generalization (Zobl, 1984)
Early research • 1950s-1960s • Behaviourism • Lado (1957), Fries (1945) • Positive transfer (facilitation) vs Negative transfer (interference)
Contrastive Analysis • Methodology (strong version of CAH):1. Find out what the differences are between pairs of languages2. On the basis of 1, you can predict areas in which L2 learners will have difficulties and those where they won’t • Pedagogical uses
Lado’s hierarchy of difficulty: • Differentiation • New category • Absent category • Coalescing • Correspondence
Problems with CAH CAH was empirically unsupported: • It predicted some difficulties that were not observed in L2 learners • It failed to predict some difficulties that were observed in L2 learners
Error Analysis • Corder (1967) • Mistake vs Error • EA methodology: • Collect data • Identify errors • Classify errors • Quantify errors • Identify source • Remedy
Classifying errors Source or errors: • Interlingual • Intralingual
Problems with E.A. • Total reliance on errors (not the whole picture) • Difficulties identifying source of errors
Morpheme order studies • Dulay and Burt (1973, 1974)Bailey, Madden and Krashen (1974) • Claim: there is little or no influence of the L1 in L2 development
Problems with no-L1-influence-on-SLA views • There IS empirical evidence of L1 influence • Methodological drawbacks of morphemes studies
Krashen’s account of L1 transfer • No L1 influence in the acquired system • L1 influence is a communication strategy (Krashen, 1982, 1985)
Current views on transfer General consensus: the L1 and general developmental processes shape SLA. No agreement on what exactly each contributes, or how.
Transfer may be realised as: • Errors • Facilitation • Avoidance strategies • ...
Where can transfer manifest itself? • Rate of acquisition • Route of development • Frequency of occurrence of errors/omissions • Perception and production
Recent developments • Transfer in L3 acquisition (Cenoz and Jessner, 2000) • L2 effects on the L1 (Cook, 2003)
References • Bailey, N., C. G. Madden and S. D. Krashen. 1974: Is there a ‘natural sequence’ in adult second language learning? Language Learning 24, 235-243. • Cenoz, J. and U. Jessner. (eds.) 2000: English in Europe: the acquisition of a third language. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. • Corder, P. 1967: The significance of learner errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics (IRAL) 5, 2/3:161-170. • Cook, V. J. (ed.) 2003: Effects of the second language on the first. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. • Dulay, H. and M. Burt. 1973: Should we teach children syntax? Language Learning 23, 245-258. • Dulay, H. and M. Burt.1974: Natural sequences in child second language acquisition. Language Learning 24, 37-53. • Ellis, R. 1997: Second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. • Fries, C. 1945: Teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. • Gass, S. M. 1996: Second language acquisition and linguistic theory: the role of language transfer, in W. C. Ritchie and T. K. Bhatia, eds. The handbook of second language acquisition. San Diego: Academic Press. Pp. 317-345. • Kellerman, E. 1979: Transfer and non-transfer: where we are now. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 2, 37-57. • Kellerman, E. and M. Sharwood Smith. 1986: Crosslinguistic influence in second language acquisition. New York: Oxford University Press.
References • Krashen, S. D. 1982: Principles and practice in SLA. Oxford: Pergamon Press. • Krashen, S. D. 1985: The Input Hypothesis: issues and implications. London: Longman. • Lado, R. 1957: Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. • Odlin, T. 1989: Language transfer: cross-linguistic influence in language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Reading • Gass, S. 1996: Second language acquisition and linguistic theory: the role of language transfer. In W. Ritchie and T. Bhatia (eds.): Handbook of second language acquisition. San Diego: Academic Press. Pp. 317-345.