Transfer and Linguistic Context in the Learning Process of English Negative Structures

Abstract

This study looks at two areas related to the theory of linguistic transfer in L2 acquisition (Lado 1957; Odlin 1989): the context in which acquisition takes place, and the role of the learning strategy called avoidance. To this purpose the development of acquisition of the English negation system by Spanish EFL Students was compared with the findings of Cancino et al. (1978) by using measurement system based on Eckman’s (1985) Markedness Differential Hypothesis. Our results show that the different contexts in which acquisition took place lead to different uses of transfer and different sequences in the acquisitional stages which learners go through. Avoidance also seems to be a strategy which must be seriously taken into account in any evaluation of the role of transfer.