On Pragmatic Transfer In Second Language Acquisition

Studies on pragmatic transfer involve carrying out interdisciplinary research relating to both the field of Interlanguage (IL) pragmatics and the area of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Transfer studies date back to the period of 1940s to 1950s even before these two fields of research emerged as they are known today. However, transfer studies did not address pragmatic issues until recently. The author of this thesis tries to explore pragmatic transfer in second language acquisition by observing different types of compliment responses.This thesis consists of six parts. The first part is an introduction, in which the topic sources, the objectives and the significance of this study are presented.The second part is Chapter 1. This chapter is an overview of the studies about pragmatic transfer. This covers the definition and classification of pragmatic transfer, some related concepts and a brief historical review of the studies on pragmatic transfer. And in this chapter, a brief review of the studies of compliment responses and pragmatic transfer of compliment responses is also presented as the basis for the discussion of pragmatic transfer in the later chapters.Chapter 2 introduces the research method of the empirical studies. In this study, the method of Discourse Completion Task (DCT) is used to elicit and collect information about the first language (L1) and second language (L2) norms in compliment responses by three different groups. And the similarities and differences of compliment responses in both L1 and L2 will be discussed in order to observe transfers existing in compliment responses.In Chapter 3, evidences of pragmatic transfer are firstly discussed in the use of different types of compliment responses which prove the fact that pragmatic transfer is prevalent in the performance of speech acts in L2 learners'speeches. And then, based on the evidences found in the use of different types of compliment responses, factors that influence pragmatic transfer are discussed. The relationship between cultural differences and pragmatic transfer is discussed as the first factor. Then linguistic differences are discovered as important causes of pragmatic transfer. This result lends support to the"difference=difficulty"hypothesis. Gender difference is also found influential on pragmatic transfer and females are found to be more inclined to transfer than males. And the effects of pragmatic transfer on communication and SLA are also discussed according to the data analysis in the study. Pragmatic transfer may lead to pragmatic failure in some cases, and may lead to pragmatic success in some others.In the light of the research results and the discussion of the results, chapter 4 in this thesis provides some preliminary suggestions and insightful implications for second language learning and teaching, with a view to facilitating the development of the study on SLA and intercultural communication.And the last part is a conclusion of the thesis. In this part, the author summarized the research methods and results of the empirical study. Although some achievements have been found in this perspective, there is still a long way to go before reaching a thorough understanding of pragmatic transfer in the process of second language learning.