Multi-dimensional Study On The Influence Of English Concepts On Kinesics Usage By Chinese English Learners

Conceptual Transfer Theory-a new perspective in language transfer study-explores language transfer phenomenon from the angles of concept and cognition, but not only limited to the researches on language surface structure transfer. It has been proved that conceptual reverse transfer occur on the levels of phonology, lexicon, syntax, semantics and so on and so forth. So far, few studies have laid stress on conceptual transfer in kinesics. Kinesics plays a role as essential as language in information dissemination, idea exchange and daily communication, serving as a supplementary part in verbal communication. It has been proved that 65 percent of human emotion was expressed by non-verbal behaviors, therefore, acquisition of kinesics used in target language is also of importance in second language acquisition.This paper compares the usage of English kinesics between senior English majors group and first-year non-English majors group in their Chinese narrative and expression from output quantity, frequency and fluency dimensions, aiming to accurately describe the similarities and differences in kinesics usage between two groups when they are in Chinese conversations, proving that the acquisition of second language concepts affects learner’s kinesics use in their native language.This paper takes institutional dialogues as the test tool, supplemented with questionnaire, to collect data about kinesics usage by Chinese college English learners. Adopting Conceptual Fluency Theory as theoretical framework, this paper aims to prove the influence of target language system on the learners’kinesics usage. This paper selects randomly thirty senior English majors, taken as advanced English learners, and thirty first-year non-English majors, taken as common English learners, as two test groups of subjects. This paper analyses and concludes the general characteristics of kinesics usage of both two groups from three dimensions of output quantity, frequency and fluency, proving that second language conceptual system exerts influence on the kinesics output of Chinese college English learners to a certain extent and demonstrating the mechanism of it. At last, this paper elaborates the application and significance of this study to foreign language teachings.