Does Mismatch Of English Forms With Chinese Contextual Knowledge Give Rise To Chinglish?

The present study aims to examine Chinglish in light of the Compensation Hypothesis (Wang 2003). The hypothesis states that lack of authentic L2 context compatible with L2 use is likely to incur a mismatch of L2 forms with L1 contextual knowledge, thus giving rise to L1 transfer. That is, L1 contextual knowledge mediates transfer from L1 to L2. Accordingly, Chinglish, which largely stems from L1 transfer, can be attributed to the function of L1 Chinese contextual knowledge. This conceptualization differs from the traditional notion of language transfer in that L1 transfer is due more to contextual knowledge than to ignorance of L2 forms. However, few attempts have thus far been made to investigate the process of language transfer from this contextual perspective.This study sets out to verify the Compensation Hypothesis by investigating whether Chinglish expressions come about as a result of mismatch between English forms and Chinese contextual knowledge. For this purpose, a qualitative study was conducted. A total of thirty-six junior English majors in a Chinese university participated in both the written and error-correction tasks. In the first task, the subjects wrote an English composition based on a comic strip selected from Father and Son. Then Chinglish was identified and underlined through the joint effort of a native-speaker of English and four Chinese graduate students. In the second task, the subjects were asked to verbalize their thoughts while identifying and correcting Chinglish in their compositions, followed by interviews to dig up the contextual knowledge that goes with the Chinglish expressions.Supporting evidence for the Compensation Hypothesis emerged from the subjects' think-aloud protocols and interview recordings. Results show that English expressions with correct contextual support were not susceptible to Chinese influence, but those without English contextual support were intertwined with Chinese contextual knowledge, and these erroneous mappings generated Chinglish. This L1 transfer was mainly due to compensation of Chinese contextual knowledge rather than ignorance of English forms. In most cases, the subjects were not capable of making successful corrections for the underlined Chinglish expressions.The study shows that L1-specific contextual knowledge usually does not get transferred, while the L1-neutral element is more likely to be transferred. Consequently, in the L2 learners' internal context, most L2 forms match with L1 contextual knowledge, and the faulty mappings might fossilize unless L2 forms are properly contextualized. The conclusions deserve special consideration in the second language instruction. Students should be provided with rich and contextually appropriate L2 input in foreign language learning.