L1 Transfer Research Articles

Null Subject Sentences in ‘Because’ Subordinate Clauses and L1 Transfer in English Writing by Korean Learners of English

The null subject parameter holds significant implications for L1 transfer in language acquisition. English learners whose native language permits null subject sentences often exhibit a tendency to omit subjects in their English expressions (Tati, 2021). This research investigates whether Korean English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners demonstrate a similar inclination toward using null subject sentences in their English writing. This inquiry is particularly pertinent as Korean, akin to Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, is characterized by subject-drop features. Moreover, the study endeavors to elucidate the impact of the topic-prominence feature in Korean on the writing proficiency of Korean learners of English. To achieve these objectives, a thorough analysis was conducted on 20 compositions written by advanced EFL learners enrolled in an all-English University Program in South Korea. The error analysis revealed that 16 students consistently made subject-omission errors, with a pronounced frequency in subordinate clauses introduced by ‘because.’ Intriguingly, these learners also employed fragment ‘because’-clauses as a means to organize information in a topic-comment structure. This study contributes valuable insights into the manifestation of L1 transfer in the writing skills of Korean EFL learners and highlights the nuanced ways in which topic-prominence influences their English language performance.

Is a quantifier mismatch a problem for L1 Japanese learners of English?

After identifying a linguistic difference between the English quantifier most and the Japanese quantifier hotondo ‘most’ we set out to find if the semantic difference between the two would constitute a learning problem for Japanese second language (L2) learners of English. The difference we hypothesized between the two is that English most is considered “more than half,” while hotondo is “nearly all.” As this semantic difference is not explicitly taught in a classroom environment, acquisition by learners would need to take place through experiencing most in contexts where they might receive contextual clues. An examination of a corpus indicated that contextual clues towards such a semantic difference would be unavailable or rarely available. Two sets of experiments (Experiments 1 and 2) were conducted using the Truth Value Judgment Task methodology. The results of Experiment 1 showed that L2 speakers treated most as meaning “nearly all” but that the level of learner proficiency has an effect. The upper intermediate L2 learner group (Experiment 1a) behaved more like the L1 English speaker group (Experiment 1b) than the lower proficiency L2 group (Experiment 1c). Experiment 2, testing Japanese L1 speakers on their interpretation of Japanese hotondo ‘most,’ revealed that while a majority of participants treated hotondo as “almost all,” there was, somewhat unexpectedly, a group of speakers who interpreted hotondo to mean “more than half.” Therefore, although the possibility cannot completely be eliminated that the result of Experiment 1a is due to L1 transfer, if some Japanese learners of English can unlearn the incorrect meaning, then some prior, if not innate, knowledge that makes the process possible must be available to them.

Grammatical Error Made By Students in Speaking English

Purpose: In today's world English is by far the most important language than any other and more spoken than it ever has been. English speaking plays a vital role in every human's life as it means to express ideas thoughts and feelings. This study is aimed to reveal the types of grammatical error and the cause of errors made by students while speaking English. Communication in English as a second language with the right use of grammar is not an easy task because a learner has to deal with so many problems to overcome and improve grammar.
 Methodology: So it is important to classify and describe the various grammatical error to build a standardized structure for students to use and to know the rules of grammar.
 Findings: The student highest grammatical errors were omission, misinformation. The Interlingua factors were misinformation and overuse of prepositions and incorrect word order which were based on their first language L1 transfer. Lastly, the last cause was the monotonous learning environment that cause anxiety which lack student confidence and they commit error in speaking.
 Unique contributor to theory, policy and practice: Therefore, the present study aimed to examine grammatical errors made by students in speaking A quantitative method paradigm was applied utilizing questionnaire as a tool to collect data. The participants of the research are the students of BS all department of a private university. This method uses to analyze the data through purposive sampling. The study reveals the grammatical error that student strategies to a great extent and will focus on speaking, grammar and vocabulary.

Critical contingency competition in L2 clause positioning acquisition: the case of concessive clause by Chinese EFL learners

Abstract Concessive clause positioning as a result of multi-cue competition has been widely examined in L1 and L2 English learners. This study furthers the present research by examining competition patterns among contingency, L1 transfer, and salience factors in concessive clause positioning by Chinese EFL learners. We extracted 1,356 concessive subordinations conjoined by although and though from native and learner argumentative essays, and used multifactorial models to examine the effectiveness, tuning tendency, and power ranking of the cues that tune concessive clause positions. A critical contingency competition was tentatively concluded in concessive clause positioning by Chinese EFL learners. That is, in cue consistency across native and learner datasets, contingency values assume the baseline role, which L1 transfer hinders while salience promotes. In addition, a critical contingency value exists, above which L1 transfer effects are not stronger than contingency and salience effects, so that cue consistency would usually be maintained and vice versa.

The Effect of L1 Negative Transfer on EFL Saudi Students’ Use of Grammar in Writing

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of the L1 negative transfer on the writing of EFL Saudi students. It examined the common grammatical errors that Saudi students made while writing in English and analyzed the sources of their errors. The samples consisted of English essays written by 74 freshmen female students enrolled at Majmaah University in Saudi Arabia. The samples were analyzed and the errors classified according to grammatical sub-categories including tenses, singular/plural markers, prepositions, articles and pronouns. This study found that 81% of the students' errors can be accounted for in terms of L1 transfer. Grammatical errors were the most frequent ones, recording 67% of the total rate of errors. More specifically, preposition (40%) and tense (32%) errors constituted the most frequent subcategories of the grammatical errors. It was concluded that learning basic linguistic differences between Saudi students' L1 and English language is a necessary condition for helping the learners to overcome the problem of first language interference in their writing.

Relationship Between Chinese Non-English Majors Students Identification of Negative Transfer of L1 in C-E Translation and Their CET-4 or CET-6 Scores

College English Test Band 4 (CET-4) and College English Test Band 6 (CET-6) are administered nationwide, which is of great significance to non-English major students in China. English is the second language of Chinese college students, so it will inevitably have some negative transfer of L1 (first language, the same as mother tongue) in their second language output, but the relationship between negative transfer of L1 and their CET-4 and CET-6 scores is still lack of a unified explanation. Therefore, this study takes 91 Non-English Majors students identification of negative transfer of their mother tongue in Chinese to English (C-E) translation and their CET-4 or CET-6 scores as the research objects and uses SPSSAU to analyze the data. The results show that: there is a significant negative correlation between the behavior and thinking mode that may lead to negative transfer and CET-4 (CET-6) total score; CET-4 (CET-6) total score and the identification of negative transfer of L1 in translation are significant positive related. Therefore, colleges and universities should teach non-English majors students the phenomenon of negative transfer in mother tongue, and guide students to think and express in the way of second language native speakers when producing second language; Similarly, students should enhance their awareness of the negative transfer of their mother tongue in translation, in order to improve their translation quality, second language ability and CET-4 and CET-6 scores.

The Error Analysis of De Structures: A Corpus-based Research

This article analyzes the errors in de structures produced by learners studying Chinese as a second language based on the Global Chinese Interlanguage Corpus. The research is hoped to open up a new vision for error analysis of de structures with methods of corpus linguistics and provide some empirical evidence that can be used to adjust the teaching of Chinese grammar to make it more problem-oriented. The article begins with a brief review of relevant studies and an explicit definition of the de structure. Data used in the article all come from the Global Chinese Interlanguage Corpus, which has been sifted carefully to make them better adapted to the research objective. Errors in de structures are categorized into five different types based on the ways surface structures are altered. The characteristics of each error type are given by the description and correction of example sentences. Two mechanisms are given as the possible explanation for the roots of errors in de structures: L1 transfer and overgeneralization. The contrastive analysis between Korean, English and Chinese explains the occurrence of serval types of errors, and some erroneous sentences created by CSL learners also confirm the existence of overgeneralization.

Acoustic Analysis of Iraqi Arabic Simple Vowels

Objectives: The study aimed at mapping IBA simple vowels as they are produced by Iraqi speakers. The study also aimed to identify the effect of gender on the pronunciation of Iraqi Arabic simple vowels. The study attempted to compare between the vowel chart proposed in this study and other Iraqi and Arabic vowel charts proposed in the literature. Methods: A quantitative method was adopted in this study. Thus, 10 Iraqis were asked to read stimuli, and their voices were recorded using high quality smart phones. The recordings were analyzed via PRAAT, and the frequencies obtained were descriptively and statistically processed. Results: The chart showed a clear tense-lax dichotomy where each short vowel has a long counterpart except for /ee/. Moreover, the results showed significant differences in vowel formants based on gender variable. Female speakers tend to produce vowels at higher levels, while males tend to produce vowels in more front positions. The results also revealed differences between Iraqi variant in one hand, and Maslawi and other Arabic varieties on the other hand. Conclusions: Iraqi speakers showed a good ability to map vowels in distinct places. Biological differences in male and female vocal apparatuses are behind differences in the pronunciation of vowels. It is recommended that the vowel chart offered here can be used as a reference for teachers of English pronunciation at various levels as it indicates to difficulties Iraqi EFL leaners encounter in the pronunciation of English vowels that are mostly resulting from L1 transfer.

Effects of L1 Transfer on L2: A Contrastive Analysis of Urdu and English Coordinating Conjunctions /and/ and /aur/

Effects of L1 Transfer on L2: A Contrastive Analysis of Urdu and English Coordinating Conjunctions /and/ and /aur/

An Analysis of L1 Influence of Delexical Verbs Collocations on Turkish EFL Learners’ Performances

Mainly involving congruent and non-congruent collocations across English and Turkish, this study aimed to examine EFL learners’ performances in associating the given delexical verbs collocations between English and Turkish. The study involved a corpus-based selection of delexical verbs collocations. Data were collected from 43 participants who were applied a translation test with 24 items. The findings were examined according to error analysis. Employing a mixed method design, the study involved descriptive analysis of learners' scores, sources of learners’ errors, and an evaluation of L1 influence on learners’ test results. The findings showed that EFL learners’ score was higher with congruent delexical verbs collocations compared to non-congruent collocations. The findings also elicited L1 transfer had influence on EFL learning and assumed similarity might cause errors in associating verb collocations with their target language equivalents. The study offers some significant implications for both the learners and language instructors.

Acquisition of kind-reference by Arabic, Chinese, and Turkish L2 learners of English

AbstractThis study examines the acquisition of kind-referring expressions such as The dodo is extinct. The objective is to investigate whether second language (L2) learners’ acquisition of nominal number marking and articles expressing kind-reference in English is affected by their first language (L1), their L2 proficiency in English, or the syntactic position of the kind-referring noun phrase (NP). L2 learners of English with Arabic, Chinese, and Turkish L1 backgrounds and a control group of native English speakers (NSs) participated in the study. The results from a Fill in the Gaps Task (FGT) and an Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT) demonstrated that L2 learners were more successful in their production and acceptability judgments when the expression of kind-reference in the target language was similar to that in their L1. The results also showed non-facilitative L1 transfer in the domain of bare singulars, as well as a positive effect of higher L2 proficiency on kind-referring NPs. Finally, the study revealed a subject/object asymmetry in the acquisition of kind-referring NPs in L2 English.

Competing factors in SLA: how the CASP model of SLA explains the acquisition of English restrictive relative clauses by native speakers of Arabic and Korean

Abstract The Complex Adaptive Systems Principles (CASP) model of SLA claims that L1 transfer results when language processing effort is minimized. This claim was investigated by a self-paced on-line sentence judgment task in which L1 Arabic and Korean speakers and a control group of L1 English speakers read and judged English subject, direct object, and oblique relative clauses (RCs) in gapped and resumptive pronoun (RP) conditions. It was hypothesized that L1 influence would cause the Arabic speakers to accept English RCs with RPs more frequently than Korean speakers because RPs are acceptable in Arabic direct object and oblique RCs, whereas Korean bans RPs in these RC types. It was also hypothesized that the L2 English speakers would accept RPs more often than the L1 English speakers because RPs would ease L2 sentence processing. As predicted, L1 Arabic speakers accepted RPs more frequently than L1 Korean speakers, a transfer effect, and both L2 English groups accepted RPs more frequently than L1 English speakers, a processing effect. The results thus support the CASP model’s claim that L1 transfer is conditioned by language processing and other complex SLA processes that interact with one another.

Feature reassembly and L1 preemption: Acquiring CLLD in L2 Italian and L2 Romanian.

This study investigates feature acquisition and feature reassembly associated with Clitic Left Dislocation (CLLD). The article compares the acquisition of CLLD in second language (L2) Italian to L2 Romanian to examine effects of first language (L1) transfer, construction frequency and the type of interface involved (external vs. internal interface) within the same syntactic construction. The results from an acceptability judgment task and a written elicitation task show that while English near-native speakers of Italian/Romanian acquired the L2 constraints on CLLD, which is [+anaphor] for Italian and [+specific] for Romanian, data from both Romanian L2 learners of Italian and Italian L2 learners of Romanian showed persistent L1 transfer effects. Target-like acquisition for these groups requires both grammatical expansion and retraction; Romanian CLLD requires the addition of an L1-unavailable [+specific] feature and the loss of a [+anaphor] feature, while Italian CLLD requires the addition of an L1-unavailable [+anaphor] and the loss of a [+specific] feature. The reported findings extend evidence in favour of the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis to the syntax-discourse interface, as reassembly of interpretational features associated with CLLD proved more difficult than feature acquisition. While learners at the near-native levels were able to broaden the contexts that allow a clitic in the L2 (grammatical expansion), L1 preemption difficulties were attested as well. This was the case regardless of the frequency of the relevant construction in the input and the type of L2 feature that needed to be added/removed.

The Influence of L1(Chinese) on Writing in L2(English): A Case Study

This paper aims to explore the influences of L1 in the aspect of writing in L2, and it serves as a qualitative case study to disclose how Chinese as L1 influences writing in English (L2) in the context of IELTS writing exercises as part of mock exams. The influences of concern include: First, the study objects habitual or frequent misuse and mistakes of the L2 resulting from L1s existing language system; these errors can be grammatical, lexical, syntactic, structural, word choice, tense, etc.; and second, how the study objects previous experience of writing similar texts in L1 is extending its influence in L2 writing. The data were collected from students who used to prepare for IELTS academic tests to achieve the ends mentioned above. Writing tasks prepared for IELTS mock exam were collected for error collection and in-depth word-by-word analysis. The data for the study were collected after the IELTS exam was taken; these essays were part of the preparation for the IELTS exam. Therefore, the analysis can be used as a good indicator of how students perform and write formally in an academic context, not to mention the pressure experienced during the exam. The data analysis shows that there is a wide range of mistakes or misuses in writing in L2, all of which show a link to the interference or transfer of L1 to writing in L2 in aspects of grammar, semantics, and syntax. The interference results in ungrammatical or broken English. The analysis also reveals that the differences between L1 and L2 language systems may have resulted in some common errors and the so-called Chinglish. On the one hand, the linguistic habits and thinking habits of L1 possibly interfere with writing in L2. On the other hand, students unfamiliarity with the English language, including grammatical rules, semantic structures, and correct usage of words and phrases, also contributed to reduced efficiency or miscommunication of writing in L2. Based on the above-mentioned findings, suggestions are made for students on methods to improve L2 acquisition and application.

Chinese EFL Learners’ Perception of English Resultative Constructions

This paper delves into some syntactic and semantic properties of English and Chinese resultative constructions and examines how Chinese EFL learners perceive English RCs via a survey among 32 Chinese college students. The subjects were asked to identify whether 14 RCs of seven different types are grammatical and translate them into Chinese. The findings of the survey reveal that they have difficulties in comprehending English RCs due to cross-linguistic differences between the two languages in terms of the resultative phrase, word order, direct object restriction, dynamic restriction, and animate instigator constraint. These differences are reflected on the seven RC types, which exhibit different accuracy rates in their highest order as follows: selected transitive RCs with AP (STRC-AP, 100%), unselected transitive RCs with PP (UTRC-PP, 100%), intransitive RCs with PP (IRC-PP, 100%), selected transitive RCs with AP (STRC-AP, 75%), unselected transitive RCs with AP (UTRC-AP, 68.75), fake reflexive RCs with AP (FRRC-AP, 45.3%), and intransitive RCs with AP (IRC-AP, 31.5%). We argue that the subjects’ errors in their grammatical judgment are triggered by their L1 transfer into their target language.

A Study on Korean Bridging Inferences Marked by Korean Demonstrative ‘ku’

Bridging inferences (or references) are important in a variety of contexts since they are quite often unconsciously employed by people as one of the most efficient linguistic devices to establish coherence relations in discourse. The present study aims to explore the utilization of the anaphoric demonstrative ku by Korean speakers in the formation of bridging references. 252 occurrences of bridging references identified in 184 Korean argumentative essays were scrutinized and their distributions were compared with those of two other groups - English speakers (ESs) and Korean EFL learners (KEFLs) - which had been examined by Crosthwaite (2019). This study revealed that the implementation of anaphora is distinctively realized in typologically different languages, grammar-based and discourse-based, thus serving as a reminder of linguistic relativity. Furthermore, the study posited that L1 transfer occurred only restrictively in the Attribute category of bridging references among KEFLs. After all, our study provides insights into Korean speakers’ capacity to use contextual information to efficiently form and maintain coherent discourse, in comparison with English speakers’ and KEFL learners’.

L1-transfer effects and the role of computational complexity in L2 pronoun interpretation

This study investigates pronoun interpretation by second language (L2) learners of English, focusing on whether first language (L1) transfer and/or processing difficulty affect L2 learners’ pronoun resolution. It is hypothesized that L2 learners’ non-target performance in L2-pronoun interpretation is attributable to two sources. The first is the computational complexity required for pronoun resolution, as argued in L1 acquisition by Grodzinsky and Reinhart and L2 acquisition by Slabakova et al. The second is how pronoun interpretation operates in L1. The hypothesis is tested by comparing Korean and Spanish L2-English learners’ interpretation of English pronouns using a Truth Value Judgment Task. Both groups had difficulty rejecting pronouns with local-referential antecedents when their proficiency levels were low. Additionally, Korean speakers showed more non-target responses than Spanish speakers due to their knowledge of pronoun interpretation in Korean. These results indicate that both L1 transfer and processing difficulty may be sources of L2 learners’ non-target pronoun interpretation, supporting the hypothesis of the study.

The Acquisition of the English Spatial Prepositions: in, on, and at by Saudi EFL Students

This study investigates the acquisition of the three English spatial prepositions: ‘in’, ‘on’, and ‘at’ by 100 Saudi EFL students within the framework of the Markedness Theory. From the markedness point of view, marked/infrequent structures are more difficult in acquisition compared to their corresponding unmarked/frequent structures. English and Arabic differ in the way they express the semantic relations of these prepositions. This is assumed to pose difficulties in learning for EFL students where learners compare the English prepositional system to that of Arabic and resort to literal translation; thus, L1 transfer takes place. The study aims to provide insight into the challenges that Arab EFL learners encounter when learning English and to fill a gap in the literature of second language acquisition regarding the acquisition of prepositions by Arab EFL learners when semantic asymmetries are attested. Results show that the unmarked preposition ‘in’ is learned easily because its Arabic equivalent ‘fi’ covers more functions in the native language. As for the prepositions ‘on’ and ‘at’, results show that participants are struggling to learn them because only a few meanings correspond between ‘on’ and its Arabic equivalent ‘ʕala’, and that Arabic lacks an equivalent for ‘at’.

L1 Transfer in the Acquisition of Word Order in the Adjective-Added Korean Classifier Phrases by L1-Chinese and L1-Russian Children

This study explored first language (L1) transfer in child second language (L2) acquisition, testing whether L1-Chinese children learning L2 Korean show an advantage over L1-Russian children in the acquisition of adjective-added Korean classifier phrases. Chinese, like Korean, has classifier phrases with similar word orders, while Russian does not. L1-Chinese (n = 18) and L1-Russian (n = 27) children (age = 11-12 years) with L2 Korean completed an acceptability judgment task (AJT) designed to explore grammaticality in the orderings of Korean classifier phrases. The L1-Chinese children also completed a Chinese-version AJT, a translation equivalent to the Korean AJT. The study resulted in two main findings. First, in the Korean AJT, the L1-Chinese children showed more target-like performance than proficiency-matching L1-Russian children. Second, the L1-Chinese children showed comparable ratings between the Korean AJT and the Chinese AJT. The results suggest that L1 transfer takes place during child L2 acquisition, countering claims of a limited role of L1 transfer in child L2 acquisition.

Processing of Numeral + Noun structures by L1 Persian learners of L2 English, using an online reading task

Within the last two decades, researchers have begun to investigate how L2 learners process syntactic, morpho-syntactic, and lexical information during the comprehension of L2 sentences. The present study aimed to add to research by investigating how L1 influences L2 processing of sentences indicating plurality in constructions involving numerals. More specifically, the research investigated whether Persian speaking low-proficient L2 learners of English showed L1 transfer effects performing a self-paced online reading task. To address this issue, employing the IBEX software, reaction times on critical regions and accuracy rates of learners’ performance were measured on four types of structures (i.e., Numeral + Count Noun, Numeral + Classifier + Mass Noun, Numeral + Classifier + Count Noun, and Numeral + Non-referential Noun + Noun) and two sentence types (ill-formed vs. well-formed). Statistical analysis indicated the effect of both structure and sentence type on reaction times on the critical regions studied. Results also indicated traces of L1 effect in processing Numeral + Classifier + Mass Noun and Numeral + Classifier + Count Noun structures. Concerning the Numeral + Count Noun and Numeral + Classifier + Non-referential Noun + Noun, no clear evidence for L1 transfer effect was observed. Further studies employing a larger sample size, investigating the issue at higher proficiency levels, and having native English speakers as control group are suggested.