Languge Transfer

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Languge Transfer

作者：Chen Jian

来源：《校园英语·下旬》2015年第02期

【Abstract】Language transfer has long been a critical issue in second language

tions of language transfer also reveal reserchers’effort to discover the hard way

towards insights .

【Key words】language Transfer； definitions； consrtaints； manefestations

Generally speaking，the theory of language transfer has been assessed in three stages： approval

and application； criticism and even complete ignorance； and rediscovery and reassessment.

In the 1950s，language transfer used to be regarded as the most essential factor to take into

consideration in the research of second language acquisition and in approaches to foreign language

was believed that similarities between the mother tongue and target language facilitate the

process of target language learning，while differences hinder was also firmly believed that the

learner’s difficulties and errors could be predicted through the scientific contrast of the native and

target languages.

In the late 1960s and the whole 1970s language transfers met with critiques and even total

ignorance on a few y，the hypothesis mentioned above encountered serious

challenges，because it had been proved questionable by the findings of some ly，

some empirical researches showed that not all the errors committed by second language learners were

due to the transfer of their native language and that not all the errors predicted through contrast of the

native and target languages did appear in the output of the learners’ ore，some

researchers even “denied the existence of language transfer in their enthusiasm for UG-oriented

explanations”.（Ringbom，1987，p.1） Since the early 1980s，however，especially after the

Interlanguage Hypothesis came into being，language transfer studies have regained attention.A more

balanced perspective has emerged，in which the role of language transfer is acknowledged so that

language transfer is believed to interact with many other factors in ways not yet fully understood.

Since the issue concerning language transfer was firstly raised by Selinker （1969），many

linguists have attempted to define it from various perspectives，although it is a tough job to give a

clear and convincing ing to Yu Liming （2004），the complication of the

definition shows the immature development on the issue of language ，examining the

definitions of language transfer is bound to offer us more perspectives and perceptions to get insight

into the issue of language transfer.

Færch and Kasper （1987） define language transfer as the process in which second language

learners’ active native language knowledge develops their interlanguage，and point out that it may

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either support or detract from learning.O’Malley and Chamot （1990） regard language transfer as

using previous linguistics or prior skills to help comprehension or k and Reibel

（1968），and Krashen （1983） view native language transfer as a communication strategy，

rather than a learning n （1983） views language transfer as “padding”，the result of

turning to prior knowledge when necessary new knowledge is out of presence in

terms of Dechert （1984），language transfer is activating certain knowledge base，procedure，or

operator in one part of language or Beebe et al （1990），language transfer refers to the

learners’ first language socio-cultural competence.

Odlin （1989，p.27） gives a “working definition” as he calls： “Transfer is the influence

resulting from the similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that

has been previously （and perhaps imperfectly） definition thus suggests that transfer

can occur at any levels，strategic，linguistic，discoursal，and pragmatic.” This view of transfer，

although it seems somewhat vague as Odlin himself admits，is the most widely accepted one.

Ellis （1994） defines language transfer as the influence the learner’s native language exerted

over the acquisition of certain target （1995），who focuses on the pragmatic

level，regards language transfer as the influence exerted by learners’ pragmatic knowledge of

language and culture other than target language （TL） on their comprehension，production，and

acquisition of TL pragmatic for language transfer，Verschuren （1999） regards that

it is code-switching or far as Gui Shichun （1999） is concerned，language transfer

is a kind of learning marks to perfection in the process of mastering a target language.

From the above definitions of language transfer，a conclusion can be drawn that the process of

defining this notion is also the process of understanding it bit by this process，it is gradually

revealed that language transfer is not simply a matter of interference or just falling back on the native

language or any previously learned languages （Ellis，1994； Odlin，2001）.

Nowadays it is universally recognized that language transfer is a complicate mental process and

it interacts with a good number of the 1980s，many researchers have spared no effort to

identify the conditions that promote or inhibit language transfers，and have eventually identified a lot

of differing constraints on language transfer，including linguistic，psycholinguistic，and

sociolinguistic factors.

Ellis （1994，pp.315-335） has examined six general constraints on language transfer，which

incorporate linguistic，psycholinguistic，and sociolinguistic are：

（1） language level；

（2） social factors；

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（3） markedness；

（4） prototypicality；

（5） language distance and psychotypology；

（6） developmental factors.

According to Ellis （1994），the manifestations of transfer are： errors （negative

transfer），facilitation （positive transfer），avoidance （or underproduction），and over-

ing to Odlin （2001），the outcomes of cross-linguistic influence are positive transfer，

negative transfer and differing lengths of rmore，negative transfer falls into

underproduction，overproduction，production errors and misinterpretation.

References：

[1]Ringbom， H.（1987）.The role of the first language in foreign language

on， Avon： Multilingual Matters.

[2]Selinker， L.（1969）.Language l Linguistics， 9， 67-92.

[3]俞理明，（2004），语言迁移与二语习得——回顾、反思和研究.上海：上海外语教育

出版社.

[4]O’Malley， J.& Chamot， A.（1990）.Learning Strategies in Second Language

dge： Cambridge University Press.

[5]Newmark， L.， & Reibel， D.（1968）.Necessity and sufficiency in language

ational Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching， 6， 145-164.

[6]Krashen， S.D.（1983）.Newmark’s ignorance hypothesis and current second language

acquisition & er （Eds.）.Language transfer in language learning （pp.135-

153）.Rowley， Mass： Newbury House.

[7]Dechert， H.（1984）.Second language production： six t，

meier， & D.Fütterer （Eds.） Transfer and interference： a selected bibliography

（pp.35-40）.Amsterdam/Philadelphia： Johns Benjamins.

[8]Beebe， L.， Takahashi， T.& Uliss-Weltz， R.（1990）.Pragmatic transfer in ESL

lla & n.（Eds.） Research in second language acquisition （pp.124-

130）.Rowley， MA： Newbury House.

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[9]Odlin， T.（1989）.Language dge： Cambridge University Press.

[10]Ellis， R.（1994）.The study of second language ： Oxford University

Press.

[11]Kasper， G.（1995）.Interlanguage uren et al.（Eds.） Handbook

of Pragmatics （pp.1-17）.Amsterdam： John Benjamins.

[12]Verschueren， G.（1999）.Understanding ： Edward Arnold.

[13]桂诗春，（1999），再论语言学研究方法.山东师大外国语学院学报.第1期.

[14]Odlin， T.（2001）.Language transfer： cross-linguistic influence in language

ai： Shanghai Foreign Language Teaching Press.

作者简介：陈剑，（1978.9—），男，云南镇雄人，昭通学院讲师，硕士，研究方向：翻

译；英语语言学。