Abstract
Empirical evidence suggests that the first language (L1) has a fundamental role in the second language (L2) development, especially at the lexical level. Studies of L2 development have reported a relationship between negative L1 transfer and L2 poor comprehension. It is evident that cross-linguistic transfer might also take place during the course of third language (L3) development and that the impact may be from L1. At the lexico-semantic level, this study examines onomatopoeia as a property of L3 acquisition that requires Arabic learners of Chinese to identify some new lexicons with meanings and functions that might not exist in their L1. Given that onomatopoeia, in general, is often not taught sufficiently and explicitly in many language classroom contexts across the world, the purpose of the current study is to determine the extent to which transfer from L1 influence L3 comprehension and to establish the conditions in which L1 was the prevailing impact. A total of 45 Arabic native speakers were asked to translate a number of Mandarin Chinese onomatopoeic expressions (n = 20) into Arabic. The findings suggest that Arabic learners find Mandarin Chinese onomatopoeic expressions, that neither have Arabic nor English direct counterparts, significantly challenging. The study concludes that enhancing awareness of lexical transfer through a focused consideration of the common difficulties seems crucial for L3 learners to attain comprehensive mastery.
Highlights
Chinese language will soon be introduced as a curriculum at all stages of education across Saudi Arabia (Arab News, February 22, 2019)
Afterwards, and in order to answer the research question related to the methods that Arabic learners of Mandarin Chinese use to identify the target expressions and if the L2 has any role in L3 development, there was an open-ended interview in which the participants were asked why they translated a particular item into a specific equivalent so as to find out their justifications
It is evident that cross-linguistic transfer takes place during the course of L3 development and that the influence may be attributed to L1 and L2
Summary
Chinese language will soon be introduced as a curriculum at all stages of education across Saudi Arabia (Arab News, February 22, 2019). Learning Chinese is expected to enhance cultural and financial ties. Due to cross linguistic differences and cultural diversity, several learnability issues are expected to arise at different levels after the introduction of Chinese language in the KSA. Mandarin Chinese is one of the languages rich in onomatopoeia. There seems a scarcity of studies investigating how learners having L1 (such as Arabic) with a small number of onomatopoeic expressions acquire languages (such as Mandarin Chinese) as compared to L1 that possesses a lot of onomatopoeic expressions. This paper investigates the role of previously acquired languages L1 (Arabic) on the L3 (Mandarin Chinese) development especially at early stages. This study aims to contribute to this somewhat neglected area of research by exploring the role of L1 in L3 development in a new context
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