Appliying Contrastive Analysis To Study Of Transfer In Chinese College EFL Learners' Acquisition Of Conditionals

This thesis is an endeavor to apply contrastive analysis to the study of first language transfer in Chinese college EFL learners' acquisition of English conditionals.According to Odlin, language transfer is the influence resulting from the similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired (Odlin, 1989: 27). The notion of language transfer enjoyed a great popularity in the 1950's when the learner's first language was generally regarded as the major influencing factor in second language acquisition. It is out of this pedagogical concern that contrastive analysis grows. According to contrastive analysis hypothesis, a systematic comparison of two languages helps to establish the similarities and dissimilarities between L1 and L2 and in turn to predict the possible areas in which L1 interferes the acquisition of L2. Although the significance of language transfer and contrastive analysis were played down by new theories and empirical studies in the 1960s and 1970s, they have gained a renewed recognition in recent years. Presently, transfer study is further developed as it looks into not only linguistic factors but also the nonlinguistic factors constraining transfer process. With the renewed study of language transfer, contrastive analysis has been greatly enriched theoretically and methodologically. In China, contrastive study of English and Chinese has developed rapidly, however, contrastive analysis of English and Chinese conditionals and its pedagogical application have been scant. Thereby this thesis is an attempt to contrast English and Chinese conditionals and in turn to shed light on the study of language transfer in Chinese college EFL learners' acquisition of conditionals.The contrastive study of English and Chinese conditionals in this thesis is conducted on the surface structure. It follows, in a flexible fashion, the procedures proposed by Lado and James. First, various elements and patterns of conditional structures in the two languages, namely, conditionals subordinators and their positions, the correlation pattern within conditionals, the position of conditional clauses, conditionals without subordinators, verb forms in open conditionals, hypothetical conditionals, rhetorical conditionals and unless/除非 conditionals, are described in parallel in terms of meaning, form and distribution. Then based on the description, a contrastive analysis is conducted on a limited scale to illustrate the similarities and differences between English and Chinese conditionals, which in turn helps toforesee the area of possible L1 transfer.The contrastive analysis indicates that English and Chinese conditionals share certain similarities in terms of general pattern. They have similar correlative pattern within sentence between conditional subordinator and conjunctive adverbial, the similar position of conditional subordinators and conditional clauses. In terms of the omission of subordinators, although Chinese conditionals have more variety patterns, there is always one that is formally similar to its English equivalent. A comparison of some specific patterns reveals that both English and Chinese have similar conditional structures to denote necessary conditions and the only attributed reason why certain situation will not occur. Therefore, it is predicted that in those areas of similarity, college EFL learners are less likely to be interfered by their native language.On the other hand, contrastive analysis of English and Chinese conditionals reveals differences in the distribution of correlative pattern, subject-operator inversion, verb forms in conditionals of assumed future actuality, the way hypothetical conditionals are marked, and in two patterns of unless/除非 conditional. Therefore it is assumed that negative transfer is likely to occur in these areas.Based on the contrastive analysis of English and Chinese conditionals, a case study is conducted on a group of Chinese college EFL learners of different proficiency to...