A Cognitive Perspective On Lexical Similarity And Learning Strategy In Language Transfer In Chinese EFL Students

Language transfer is originally an important concept in Learning Psychology.Behaviorist psychologists define it as "the automatic, uncontrolled, and subconscioususe of past learned behaviors in the attempt to produce new responses". Cognitivepsychologists, however, treat it as "strategy", or "cross-linguistic influence". In thepresent research, this concept is understood from the cognitive perspective.Up to now, researches on lexical transfer abroad have attained well-developedachievements. However, these researches are not carried out pervasively in ourcountry. Most of them still remain at the level of grammar. Therefore, bilingualvocabulary research is still a very weak sub-field of SLA.In the research of language transfer, lexical similarity is very crucial to be noted,as Ringbom has mentioned, "Psychologically, similarity is perceived beforedifference". As a result of using lexical similarity, learners' strategies in learning andproduction are also considered to be of importance. In terms of these two interrelatedfactors, this thesis will attempt to investigate them based on the cognitive perspective.From the theoretical point of view, this thesis firstly takes a review on the studiesof language transfer from its historical development. These views show that greatachievements have been made in this field. In addition, it also shows the interactionbetween a learner's native language and his/her perception of lexical similarity. Itprovides a new perspective to language transfer research. From the practical point ofview, the relevant empirical studies on lexical transfer are surveyed from home toabroad, which construct the foundation of the present investigation in Chinese EFLstudents. In this thesis, we will mainly concentrate on some theories in linguistics,namely, vocabulary knowledge framework, cognitive schemata, and psychotypology,which are useful in explaining the results in this research.On the whole, it is an attempt at lexical transfer study from a cognitiveperspective. It avoids some shortcomings in behaviorists' and mentalists' researches.Instead, it gives much attention to the individual's perception, which is believed anorientation of new research perspective.In this research, it is of great interest to the methodology used to explore the L2learner's perception of lexical similarity and his/ her written production between asuccessful learners' group and an unsuccessful learners' group. In light of the researchpurpose, the whole process is divided into two parts. At the first part, Questionnaireand Vocabulary Levels Test are used to get some information about the informants.Then the writing test is carried out to the informants, followed by some interviews.Based on the research in questionnaires, the interview is adopted to investigate howstudents use their mother tongue and learning strategies in their production. Theprogram 'Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS)' (Version 13.0) is used toanalyze the data collected. Besides, error analysis is applied in describing the learner'sinterlanguage.The major findings in this research can be summarized as follows: (1) Due to thegreat differences between Chinese and English, only certain features of lexicalsimilarity can be perceived by Chinese learners of English. The hierarchy of someperceived lexical similarity is different in the two groups. The mean score ofperceived lexical similarity in the successful group is lower than that in theunsuccessful group;(2) the unsuccessful learners who can perceive more lexicalsimilarity produce more words and make more errors while the successful learnersperceive more differences and make fewer errors. It indicates that learners' perceivedlexical similarity is related to their production. To some extent, it can facilitate theirlearning;(3) almost every student is willing to use the language of mother tongue intheir writings. It is reflected in their responses and interlanguage. The results showthat they would like to adopt some strategies in their compositions. But with differentL2 proficiency, the frequency is different.On the one hand, these findings help us to extend the understanding of the rolesof lexical similarity and learning strategy in language transfer. In some degree, theysupport some important ideas proposed by scholars abroad and at home from thedomain of practical research. On the other hand, this research methodology is a newperspective on transfer research. It is a beneficial attempt in exploring. In a word, inthe learning process, transfer should not be looked as interference behavior but as astrategic and cognitive process to renew the understanding of this concept.To transfer the first language features into a second language both as a linguisticphenomenon and a learning strategy has long been recognized as an important issuefor applied linguistic research. In the present research, due to the small samples andthe limited research skills, some limitations are obvious. However, great efforts havebeen made in order to make sure that the research is conducted strictly adhering to theprinciple of maximizing the validity.