The L2 Effects On L1:Evidence From The Use Of Chinese Passive Structure

In the field of second language acquisition(SLA),the effects of the first language(L1)on the second(L2),the forward transfer,have always been one of the most important issues with extensively rich findings.Since the 1980s,scholars abroad have begun to examine the backward transfer,i.e.the L2 effects on L1.The L2 effects on L1 indicate that the learning of L2 might affect L1 at phonological,lexical,syntactic,semantic,pragmatic,and conceptual level.However,there are relatively few studies of the L2 effects on L1 at home.Additionally,by reviewing the previous studies,it could be found that fewer studies address the L2 effects on L1 in the L1-dominant environment,and most of them belong to qualitative rather than quantitative studies.Therefore,the present study would choose the learning of passive voice as the target to investigate whether Chinese bilinguals’ syntactical tolerance would be affected by a period of intensive training of English passive voice.To be specific,there are two research questions in this study:(1)Will L2 intensive training have an immediate and sustained effect on learners’ L1 syntactical tolerance?(2)If yes,what are the possible factors modulating the effects on learners’ L1 syntactical tolerance?The participants of this study were 42 Chinese junior school students who are learning English as a second language.Four tests for judging the acceptability of Chinese passive sentences were carried out before and after an intensive training of English passive voice,that is,two tests immediately before and after the intensive training,and two tests in two and three weeks after the intensive training,respectively.The data collected were analyzed with SPSS 18.0.The results indicated that:(1)Both immediate and sustained L2 effects on L1 are obvious.To be specific,the intensive training of English passive sentences has a significant immediate and sustained effect on learners’ syntactical tolerance in judging Chinese passive sentences;(2)L2 proficiency does modulate the L2 effects on L1,that is,after a period of intensive training on English passive voice,the learners of high proficiency in English possess the highest tolerance of wrong Chinese passive sentences,followed by the learners of middle and low proficiency in English.In addition,gender makes no difference for the L2 effects on L1.