L1 Transfer Of Chinese Topic-prominent Features In Chinese Undergraduates’ English Oral Narratives

L1 transfer is one of the hot issues in the field of second language acquisition. It is widely known that Chinese and English are different typologically, with Chinese as a topic-prominent(TP) language and English as a subject-prominent(SP) language. Previous studies have shown that the acquisition of English subject is influenced by Chinese TP features.The present study investigates L1 transfer of Chinese TP features on English subject in terms of TPC(topic-prominent constructions), NE(null elements), and DN(double nominatives).The present study addressed the following three research questions:(1) How do Chinese TP features(TPC, NE, and DN)affect Chinese undergraduates’ use of subject in English oral narratives?(2) How do these effects change with the learners’ improvement of their English proficiency over two years?(3) Is there individual variation in the effects of Chinese TP features in Chinese undergraduates’ English oral narratives?This thesis is a part of longitudinal research on L1 transfer in Chinese tertiary learners’ English production(11CYY021), a National Social Sciences Project. The data were collected collaboratively by the members of the project. The data are 150 English oral narratives together with their Chinese versions from five pictures. 30 Chinese learners whose major is English from Qufu Normal University and North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power participated in the research. In order to trace the change of L1 influence of TP features on the use of English subject, the data were collected five times—at the beginning of the participants’ first semester, at the beginning and the end of their second semester, at the end of their third semester,and at the end of their fourth semester respectively. Furthermore, all the three types were coded for the analysis. Then the present study answered the three questions by applying Cai’s(2013)research methodology for f L1 transfer.The following findings are obtained after data analysis:(1) Even though the participants are all intermediate advanced learners, they are still influenced by Chinese TP features. And the degree of L1 transfer of the three types is different. Among them, the L1 influence of TPC and NE is more remarkable, while that of DN is negligible. In the first oral test, the percentages of the three types are 40%, 85.7%, 0; in the second test, the percentages are 22.2%, 44.4%, 0; in the third test, the percentages are 81.8%, 33.3%, 0; in the fourth test, the percentages are 57.1%,33.3%, 0; in the fifth test, the percentages are 25%, 50%, 50%.(2) L1 influence of the three Chinese TP features fluctuates in oral English narratives with the improvement of undergraduates’ proficiency. Data analysis shows that the percentages of TPC are respectively40%, 22.2%, 81.8%, 57.1%, and 25%, and the percentages of NE are 85.7%, 44.4%, 33.3%,33.3%, and 50%, and the percentages of DN are 0,0,0,0, 50%. According to the results, L1 influence of TPC does not increase or decrease linearly with the increasing proficiency. And L1 influence of NE decreases first, and then remains unchanged, and it increases again, while there is no DN in the first four times, and it occurs in the fifth time.(3) Through the analysis of individual performances, it was found that there exists individual variation in L1 transfer of Chinese TP features. Although the background of the participants is the same, they still perform differently in the aspect of TPC, NE, and DN.The present study is significant for the research of L1 transfer of Chinese TP features. On the one hand, the evidence of identifying language transfer enlightens the future L1 transfer research; on the other hand, it’s helpful for foreign language learning and teaching. Through the contrastive analysis, teachers can help learners know the differences between Chinese TP and English SP. Learners can improve English and make more native-like utterances.