The Role Of Transfer And Explicit Linguistic Knowledge In Chinese EFL Learning

So far quite a number of theories have been voiced with regard to L2 learning and teaching. Each new theory tends to belittle the previous ones, while itself hardly able to solve all the problems as satisfactorily as it claims. One of the most important models in applied psycholinguistics is Titone's glossodynamic model (Danesi, 1991), which attempts to synthesize behavioristic, cognitive, and humanistic viewpoints of learning. In accordance with this model, the present thesis strives to uphold teaching styles that are as flexible and responsive as possible to the psycholinguistic reality of classroom language learning by arguing for the strategic use of transfer and explicit linguistic knowledge in Chinese college students' EFL learning.This thesis first of all reviews the relevant literature, among which are the Learnability Theory, some cognitive theories, and views on transfer, explicit/implicit linguistic knowledge, and learning and communication strategies. Then, it presents a small-scale research carried out on some non-English majors at Wu Xi Jiang Nan University. Using verbal report as the research methodology, the study finds that the subjects who explicate more often and more correctly on task perform better and are less affected by negative transfer from Chinese, which proves the positive role played by transfer and explicit linguistic knowledge in the EFL context.In view of the findings, the writer proceeds to propose that English teachers should adopt explicit instruction and make explicit cross-linguistic comparison wherever these are helpful to their students, and that explicit language teaching should be regarded as part of the teaching practice and made compatible with communicative teaching. Admittedly, the study contains certain limitations, and the thesis also suggests some possible areas for further study.