chapter 6 some fundamental problems in the study of transfer 3115

-Carroll1968: the behaviorist notion of transfer is quite different from the notion of native language influence.. -The notion of interference does seem applicable in the description of

CHAPTER 6: SOME FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS IN THE STUDY OF TRANSFER

CONTENTS

I Problems of definition

1 Some observations about what transfer is not

2 The definition of substratum transfer

II Problems of comparison

1 Descriptive and theoretical adequacy

2 Some problems in contrastive descriptions

3 Structural and nonstructural factors

4 Comparison of performances

III Problems of prediction

1 Forecasts and explanations

2 A classification of outcomes

What is transfer ?

I Problems of definition

1 Some observations about what transfer is not

1.1.Transfer is not simply a consequence of habit formation.

-Carroll(1968): the behaviorist notion of transfer is quite different from the

notion of native language influence.

+The behaviorist notion of transfer often implies the extinction of earlier habits.

+The acquisition of a second language need not(and normally does not) lead to

any replacement of the learner’s primary language

Behaviorism may never have been relevant to the study of transfer Behaviorism

is now so widely discredited in the field of psycholinguistics that some leading textbooks in that field give virtually no attention to behaviorist analyses(e.g., Clark and Clark 1977; Foss and Hakes 1978).

-Whitney(1881) used the term transfer to refer to cross-linguistic influences- long

before any linguists thought of linking it to the notion of habit formation.

I Problems of definition

1.2 Transfer is not simply interference.

-The notion of interference does seem applicable in the description of

some aspects of second language performance, such as phonetic inaccuracies that resemble sounds in the learner’s native language.

For example: the number of Spanish-English cognates (e.g., público and

public) is far greater than the number of Arabic-English

cognates.native speakers of Spanish have a tremendous advantage over native speakers of Arabic in the acquisition of English vocabulary.

I Problems of definition

1.3 Transfer is not simply a falling back on the native language

-Krashen (1983): Transfer… can still be regarded as padding, or the result of falling back on

old knowledge, the L1 rule, when new knowledge…is lacking.

-There are several problems with analyzing transfer as merely a falling back:

+First, it ignores the head start that speakers of some languages have in coming to a new

language.

For example: the similarities in vocabulary, writing systems, and other aspects of English and

Spanish reduce the amount that may be utterly new in English for Spanish speakers in comparison with Arabic speakers.

+Second, Krashen’s statements imply that native language influence is always manifested in

some transparent “L1 rule” However, native language influences can interact with other

influences so that sometimes there is no neat correspondence between learners’ native language patterns and their attempts to use the target language.

+Third, transfer may be a mere “production strategy” fails to recognize that cross-linguistic

influences can be beneficial in listening or reading comprehension.

+Fourth, Krashen’s analysis cannot account for the long-term results of language contact in

some settings.

For example: In the case of Ireland, learners of English seem to have fallen back frequently on

knowledge of Irish, but such falling back was never entirely eradicated nor did it halt the wide-scale adoption of English.

I Problems of definition

2 The definition of substratum transfer

Transfer is the influence resulting from similarities and differences

between the target language and any other language that has been

previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired.

*It is only a working definition, since there are problematic terms within the

definition: influence, acquired.

*A fully adequate definition of transfer seems unattainable without

adequate definitions of many other terms, such as strategy, process,

and simplification Such definitions may presuppose an account of

bilingualism that accurately characterizes relations between transfer, over-generalization, simplification, and other second language behaviors.

*Thus, one might plausibly argue that a fully adequate definition of transfer presupposes a fully adequate definition of language.

II PROBLEMS OF COMPARISON

Descriptive and theoretical adequacy

Some problems in contrastive descriptions

Structural and nonstructural factors

Comparison of performances.

Descriptive and theoretical

adequacy

According to Chomsky (1965), an ideal

grammar would be both descriptively and theoretically adequate, and the same criteria apply to contrastive analysis.

Descriptive adequacy is a precondition for

theoretical adequacy.

Some problems in contrastive descriptions

Too much idealization amounts to distortion.

Another challenge for any contrastive

description is the interaction of linguistic

subsystems

Psycholinguistic research has demonstrated a strong interdependence among discourse, syntax, phonology, and other subsystems in the comprehension and production of

language.

Structure (tagmeme) is a unity of form (some definite pattern) and function (some definite use).

What is structure?

Comparison of performances

A contrastive analysis is a necessary condition to

establish the likelihood of transfer, but it is not a sufficient condition

* transfer interacts with other factors

* explanations based only on contrastive analyses are sometimes misleading

 Comparisons of performances of two or more groups of learners with different native languages are necessary

Comparison of performances

Example : I know the man that John gave the book to

him ( an error made by Persian speakers)

- Contrastive analysis: Persian relative clauses often have

resumptive pronouns  error

- Comparison of performances : such errors are also

made by speakers of languages not having resumptive pronouns in equivalent relative clause

Comparison of performances

 In some cases the need for a formal

comparison of performances is not very great.

 Two kinds of comparison:

* Implicit comparison: Certain spelling errors or grammatical errors reflect characteristic

problems of speakers of particular native languages.

E.g : the spelling of playing as blaying is more

likely to be the spelling error of an Arabic speaker than of a Spanish speaker.

Comparison of performances

speakers of several different native languages

E.g : the omission of articles is common among

speakers of several languages

( Picture is very dark )

* While explicit comparisons are often desirable in

determining negative transfer, they are indispensable

in determining positive transfer

While explicit comparisons are often desirable in determining negative transfer, they are indispensable

in determining positive transfer

Comparison of performances

Some studies suggest that some positive transfer occurs even when the contrastive prediction is stated in a very crude way.

Other studies suggest that schooling may decrease - not increase - the likelihood of negative transfer.

Some fundamental problems in the

study of transfer

Problems of prediction

Forecast and explanations

 The literature on contrastive analysis frequently refers to predictions that are determined by cross-linguistic

comparisons

 In reality, however, the “predictions” of learners’

behavior are often derived after the fact: What counts as

a prediction is frequently based on data about learner performances already known to a linguist who has

interpreted the data record with the help of linguistic comparisons (Wardhaugh 1970)

 A record of errors in French made by

English-speaking students in previous year can serve as

a predictor of errors that English-speaking students will make in a French course next year.

 However, such predictions are clearly different from the kind made before the actual

performance of learners is investigated.

make it easier to explain why

transfer will or will not occur in any given instance.

A classification of outcomes

some idea of the varied effects that cross-linguistic similarities and

differences can produce:

1 Positive transfer

 The effects of positive transfer are only

determinable through comparisons of the success of groups with different native

languages

 Similarities between native language and target language vocabulary can reduce the time needed to develop good reading

comprihension.

 Similarities between vowel systems can

make the identification of vowel sound easier.

 Similarities between the writing systems can give learners a head start in reading a writing

in the target language.

that cross-linguistic similarities in other areas will also promote

acquisition.

2 Negative transfer

 Negative transfer involves divergences from norms in the target language, it is often

relatively easy to identify

 Negative transfer tends to be equated with production errors.

A Underproduction

target language structure

underproduction related to language distance:

avoidance (If learners sense that particular structures in the target language are very different from counterparts in the native language, they may try to avoid using those structure).

 For example:

Schacter found that Chinese and Japanese students of ESL tended to use fewer relatice clause than did students whose languages have relative clause structures more like those of English.

Now I live home with my parents But

sometimes I must go bort.

D Misinterpretation

Native language structures can influence the interpretation of target message, and sometimes that influence leads to learners inferring something very different from what speakers of the target language would infer.

3 Differing lengths of acquisition

Several years of study of one foreign languge can greatly

reduce the time needed to acquire a similar language.

38

distinctive approaches to the studies of universals

-The intensive analysis of one language to identify abstract principles of a Universal Grammar

- Various characteristics of the syntax of standard written English

-Cross-linguistic comparisons

variations seen in particular structures : word order

Language universals

The Chomskyan approach advances many claims about language structure, language acquisition and linguistic theory

One key hypothesis : Universal Grammar is a biological inheritance which simply requires activation in child language acquisition

Infants’ efforts to walk Infants’ efforts to talk

Biological “program”

Language universals

Chomskyan analyses Empirical investigations in

second language acquisition lead to

The extent to which Universal Grammar is still

“available” to guide the progress of adults learning a second language.

determine

Grammar Subjects Verb/Verb phrase Object

Ex : John bought the car.

Language universals

Greenberg found two orders also to be common :

Order Examples Cross-linguistic frequency

VSO Irish, Classical Arabic Somewhat common

SVO English, Russian Very common

SOV Persian, Japanese Very common

VOS Malagasy Rare

OVS Hixkaryana Very rare

OSV Apurina Very rare

Linguistic universals

Three word order types (SVO, VSO, SOV) account for the vast majority of languages is itself highly significant

Other word-order patterns were often predict from basic word order

* Typology, the study of such classifications, benefits work in

many fields, including historical linguistics, grammatical theory, and contractive analysis.

Language Inflectional Basic Resumptive Lexical tones ? morphology word order Pronouns?

Linguistic typologies

in term of systemic influences.

understanding of relations between transfer and

developmental sequences

Typologically common patterns:

- in first language acquisition, are both as errors and as correct forms.

- in the second language acquisition, the negative patterns may sometimes reflect native language influences, sometimes developmental factors, and sometimes perhaps both transfer and developmental factors.

Linguistic typologies

Universalist assumption

- One of the most important is the assumption that there are categories applicable to the analysis of all language

Ex: Greenberg’s classification of language in term of basic word order assumes that categories such as

“Subject”are universal

- Another crucial universalist assumption in typological and contrastive analyses  “meaning” that are equivalent in the discourse and semantic system of all human language

Universalist assumption

There is one assumption of universalist analyses that is found in many other kinds of research- that a reasonably good sample of behavior allow for reasonable inferences about all such behavior

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