L1 Influence on the Use of English Deictic Motion Verbs for Chinese EFL Learners and French EFL Learners

Xu Ziyan

doi:10.5539/elt.v6n10p219

Abstract

Based on Sloin’s (1996b) thinking for speaking approach, the study examines L1 influence on the use of English deictic Motion verbs for Chinese EFL learners and French EFL learners. The aim is to find out whether language learners will be influenced by the particular Thinking for Speaking acquired in L1in the process of L2 acquisition. It is revealed that there is an overuse of English deictic Motion verbs among French EFL learners due to boundary crossing constraint in French, which results from L1 transfer. On the other hand, Chinese EFL leaners benefit from positive transfer due to the similarity between L1 and L2 and their overuse of English deictic Motion verbs results from simplification. Whereas L1 influence exists among Chinese EFL learners in the use of go rather than the more target like come.

Highlights

Rather than taking the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in its strong, extreme, or deterministic form, many accept a weak, more moderate Whorfianism, that is, people’s thinking is influenced rather than determined by language
It is revealed that there is an overuse of English deictic Motion verbs among French EFL learners due to boundary crossing constraint in French, which results from L1 transfer
Chinese EFL leaners benefit from positive transfer due to the similarity between L1 and L2 and their overuse of English deictic Motion verbs results from simplification

Summary

Introduction

Rather than taking the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in its strong, extreme, or deterministic form, many accept a weak, more moderate Whorfianism, that is, people’s thinking is influenced rather than determined by language. This example illustrates that languages are subjective instead of objective systems which affect our way of thinking while speaking. Özyürek and Özçalıskan (2000) support Slobin’s (1996b)view and claim that English and Turkish speaking children are sensitive to the typological characteristics of the native language. This sensitivity is displayed in linguistic encodings of Motion events as well as in gestures. There is a boundary-crossing constraint in Turkish while the constraint does not exist in German

Results

Discussion

Conclusion