L1 Transfer In The Development Of English Temporality By The Chinese EFL Learners

The present research investigates the influence of L1 transfer on the development of English temporality system by the Chinese EFL learners. A thorough review of the related studies in the area of L2 acquisition of temporality reveals that L2 learners follow similar stages in their acquisition of systems of temporal expression, i.e. from pragmatic to lexical and then to morphological stage. And in the third stage, the emergence and distribution of tense-aspect morphology also exhibits universal developmental pattern as predicted by the Aspect Hypothesis. In addition, the issue of L1 transfer has been examined from a variety of perspectives. Recently, researchers concern themselves with the conditions under which L1 transfer takes place, and how it interacts with other factors and procedures in L2 learning and use. Numerous studies have illustrated that L1 transfer and developmental factors work together in determining the course of interlanguage. Based on this, we generate two general assumptions: 1) the Chinese EFL learners will follow the universal route in their acquisition of English tense/aspect system; 2) L1 Chinese will exert great influence on the Chinese EFL learners' acquisition process of English temporality system.The results from the empirical studies support our hypotheses. The learners in our studies show a tendency of marking simple past initially on telic verbs (accomplishments and achievements), eventually extending it to atelic verbs (statives and activities), and of marking progressive predominantly on activities and accomplishments, whereas very infrequently on achievements and statives. The effect of L1 is evident in various ways: 1) our learners struggle most with progressive marking on achievements and statives due to the fact that these two aspectual categories are incompatible with the progressive marker zai in theChinese language; 2) our learners tend to rely on pragmatic and lexical means to establish temporal reference and show low sensitivity to the use of English tense-aspect morphology. What is more, the convergence between the Chinese way of expressing temporality (mainly through context and lexical adverbials) and the natural developmental pattern reinforces their tendency of relying on pragmatic and lexical devices. The lack of verbal inflections in Chinese also results in the slow development in their productive use of tense-aspect morphology and their insensitivity to the use of tense-aspect morphology to indicate temporal relations in English; and 3) the presence of the Chinese aspect markers le and zai facilitates the learners' use of simple past and progressive marking in the Chinese-English translation, which also indicates their tendency to rely on contextual cues. In short, both the developmental factor and L1 transfer play an important role in the acquisition of English temporality on the part of the Chinese EFL learners.