L1 transfer in SLA

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L1 transfer in SLA

• Adapted from Franceschina (2003)

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What is transfer?

transfer is evidenced as those instances of
deviation from the norms of either language which
occur in the speech of bilinguals as a result of
their familiarity with more than one
language Weinreich (1953 1)
3

• transfer is the use of the native language
  (or other language) information in the
  acquisition of an L2 (or additional language)
• Gass (1996 321)

4

• transfer is influence that the learners L1
  exerts on the acquisition of an L2
• Ellis (1997 51)

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Other terms

• Transfer
• Mother tongue influence (Corder, 1967)
• Native language influence (Gass, 1996)
• Cross-linguistic influence (Kellerman and
  Sharwood-Smith, 1986 Odlin, 1989)
• Cross-linguistic generalization (Zobl, 1984)

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Early research

• 1950s-1960s
• Behaviourism
• Lado (1957), Fries (1945)
• Positive transfer (facilitation) vs Negative
  transfer (interference)
• ?

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Contrastive Analysis

• Methodology (strong version of CAH)1. Find out
  what the differences are between pairs of
  languages2. On the basis of 1, you can predict
  areas in which L2 learners will have difficulties
  and those where they wont
• Pedagogical uses

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• Lados hierarchy of difficulty
• Differentiation
• New category
• Absent category
• Coalescing
• Correspondence

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Problems with CAH

• CAH was empirically unsupported
• It predicted some difficulties that were not
  observed in L2 learners
• It failed to predict some difficulties that were
  observed in L2 learners

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Error Analysis

• Corder (1967)
• Mistake vs Error
• EA methodology
• Collect data
• Identify errors
• Classify errors
• Quantify errors
• Identify source
• Remedy

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Classifying errors

• Source or errors
• Interlingual
• Intralingual

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Problems with E.A.

• Total reliance on errors (not the whole picture)
• Difficulties identifying source of errors

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Morpheme order studies

• Dulay and Burt (1973, 1974)Bailey, Madden and
  Krashen (1974)
• Claim there is little or no influence of the L1
  in L2 development

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Problems with no-L1-influence-on-SLA views

• There IS empirical evidence of L1 influence
• Methodological drawbacks of morphemes studies

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Krashens account of L1 transfer

• No L1 influence in the acquired system
• L1 influence is a communication strategy
• (Krashen, 1982, 1985)

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Current views on transfer

• General consensus the L1 and general
  developmental processes shape SLA.
• No agreement on what exactly each contributes,
  or how.

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Transfer may be realised as

• Errors
• Facilitation
• Avoidance strategies
• ...

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Where can transfer manifest itself?

• Rate of acquisition
• Route of development
• Frequency of occurrence of errors/omissions
• Perception and production

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Recent developments

• Transfer in L3 acquisition (Cenoz and Jessner,
  2000)
• L2 effects on the L1 (Cook, 2003)

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References

• Bailey, N., C. G. Madden and S. D. Krashen. 1974
  Is there a natural sequence in adult second
  language learning? Language Learning 24, 235-243.
• Cenoz, J. and U. Jessner. (eds.) 2000 English in
  Europe the acquisition of a third language.
  Clevedon Multilingual Matters.
• Corder, P. 1967 The significance of learner
  errors. International Review of Applied
  Linguistics (IRAL) 5, 2/3 161-170.
• Cook, V. J. (ed.) 2003 Effects of the second
  language on the first. Clevedon Multilingual
  Matters.
• Dulay, H. and M. Burt. 1973 Should we teach
  children syntax? Language Learning 23, 245-258.
• Dulay, H. and M. Burt.1974 Natural sequences in
  child second language acquisition. Language
  Learning 24, 37-53.
• Ellis, R. 1997 Second language acquisition.
  Oxford Oxford University Press.
• Fries, C. 1945 Teaching and learning English as
  a foreign language. Ann Arbor University of
  Michigan Press.
• Gass, S. M. 1996 Second language acquisition and
  linguistic theory the role of language transfer,
  in W. C. Ritchie and T. K. Bhatia, eds. The
  handbook of second language acquisition. San
  Diego Academic Press. Pp. 317-345.
• Kellerman, E. 1979 Transfer and non-transfer
  where we are now. Studies in Second Language
  Acquisition 2, 37-57.
• Kellerman, E. and M. Sharwood Smith. 1986
  Crosslinguistic influence in second language
  acquisition. New York Oxford University Press.

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References

• Krashen, S. D. 1982 Principles and practice in
  SLA. Oxford Pergamon Press.
• Krashen, S. D. 1985 The Input Hypothesis issues
  and implications. London Longman.
• Lado, R. 1957 Linguistics across cultures. Ann
  Arbor University of Michigan Press.
• Odlin, T. 1989 Language transfer
  cross-linguistic influence in language learning.
  Cambridge Cambridge University Press.

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Reading

• Gass, S. 1996 Second language acquisition and
  linguistic theory the role of language transfer.
  In W. Ritchie and T. Bhatia (eds.) Handbook of
  second language acquisition. San Diego Academic
  Press. Pp. 317-345.