An Empirical Study Of Reverse Conceptual Transfer In Chinese Compliment Responses In English Learners In China

In the field of the second language acquisition, language transfer has been being a topic of concern. The previous studies mainly deal with language transfer under the perspective of Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis and Nativist Approaches. But their explanatory power and effectiveness for the second language acquisition have been controversial and questioned. Conceptual Transfer Hypothesis starts a new period. Nowadays, conceptual approach has been attached great importance in the study of SLA.The thesis, based on the theoretical framework of Conceptual Transfer Hypothesis, studies if the Chinese compliment responses of English learners in China are influenced by their second language and if the influences received by English learners at different levels are the same. The thesis is an empirical study of Reverse Conceptual Transfer in the Chinese compliment responses. In order to enrich the data from different perspectives,the major research instruments are the discourse completion test questionnaire and interview. Based on their classification of Chinese compliment response strategies, the thesis divides the Chinese compliment responses into the 3 macro strategies and 19 types of micro strategies, and calculates the frequencies of macro and micro strategies of kinds of Chinese compliment responses in different situations and analyses the collected corpus.The results shows:(1) In general, Accepting strategy has obvious advantages in the choice of the macro strategies of Chinese compliment responses, indicating that the Chinese compliment responses of the three groups of subjects have been influenced by their second language to some extent. In four different scenarios such as the appearance/clothing, personality, ability and property, Accepting strategy is the three groups of subjects’ first choice in macro strategies, indicating that the strategies of Chinese compliment responses adopted by three groups of English learners have been influenced by their second language. Namely, from the pragmatic perspective, there is reverse conceptual transfer on the 3 macro strategies of Chinese compliment responses adopted by three groups of subjects in general and in the four different situations such as appearance/clothing,personality, ability and property.(2) As for the choice of micro strategies of Chinese compliment responses of three groups of subjects, there are some differences among the use of each micro strategy of three groups of subjects in general and in the four different situations such as appearance/clothing, personality, ability and property. Accepting micro strategies’ ratio is also higher than other micro strategies, showing that micro strategies of the learners are also affected by their second language-English. Therefore, there is reverse conceptual transfer on the 19 micro strategies of Chinese compliment responses adopted by three groups of students in general and in the four different situations such as appearance/clothing, personality, ability andproperty.(3) However, as for longitudinal comparison of three groups of students, there are differences among three groups of students in the choice of macro and micro strategies to some degree, but there are no significant differences, only subtle differences among the three groups of students in the choice of macro and micro strategies to some degree. That is, the learners who have studied English for a relatively short time are different from the learners that have studied English for a longer time in Chinese compliment response strategies. But the results doesn’t show us that with the improvement of the second language proficiency, the second language learners’ reverse conceptual transfer would reduce or increase. That is to say, English learners at different levels have no significant differences in the choice of compliment response strategies, and the degree that English learners at different levels are affected by their second language is not significant. This limited reverse conceptual transfer may be related with economic development, language contact, social reforms, politeness principle, Common Underlying Conceptual Base as well as the proficiency of the second language learners,learning environment and other factors.