Language Transfer And The Acquisition Of English Light Verb + Noun Collocations By Chinese Learners

Transfer has been a controversial issue in the study of second language acquisition (SLA) for at least a century and its importance as a property of L2 has been evaluated differently through the history of SLA research. This paper is concerned with language transfer at the lexical level and focuses on the transfer phenomena existing in Chinese college students'acquisition of English light verb + noun collocations.Chapter One introduces the theory of language transfer which is the theoretical basis for the present study, analyzes the focus of the present study, that is, the transfer phenomena existing in Chinese college students'acquisition of English light verb + noun collocations, and points out the general aim and the organization of the present study.Chapter Two is a general introduction of the concept of language transfer, including the definition of transfer, the growth of this theory, some related work and the objective of the present study. Behaviorism assumes that the habits established in L1 will naturally influence the establishment of a different set of habits in the acquisition of L2. It emphasizes the important role that language transfer plays in second language acquisition. Later, mentalism downplays the role of the first language and sees universal elements as the only explanatory factor for second language acquisition. With the development of Interlanguage Theory, the function of transfer has been reassessed.Chapter Three gives the definitions of light verbs and light verb constructions, introduces the light verb systems in Mandarin Chinese and English respectively, analyzes the different situations of using light verbs to form collocations between Chinese and English, and classifies these different situations into seven types.Chapter Four presents the research design of the present study, including its subjects----150 Chinese first-year college non-English majors, the experimental materials----three collocation tests, the detailed procedures of data collecting and analyzing.Chapter Five analyzes the experimental data extracted from the three tests in detail, discusses the subjects'L1 influence on their acquisition of English light verb + noun collocations in relation to seven types of situations, and gives answers to the three research questions.Conclusion stresses the importance of transfer in SLA. Based on the study, the paper works out some pedagogical implications for language teaching and learning. And some limitations of the present study and suggestions for further study are also presented in this part.