A Study On Pragmatic Transfer In L2 Apologies By Chinese-speaking Learners Of English

Pragmatic transfer and the acquisition of L2 apology are widely researched in the area of Second Language Acquisition. However, the previous studies mainly focus on whether pragmatic transfer occurs on the choice of apology strategies by L2 learners. The studies about whether the use of direct apologies by learners of English as a second or foreign language is influenced by their first language are rare. According to Jarvis & Pavlenko(2008), the research of pragmatic transfer is conducted from 2 perspectives: the illocutionary perspective and the sociolinguistic perspective. The first perspective usually puts an emphasis on language, while the second on social factors. Seldom have the studies combined the two perspectives. The present study attempts to combine these two perspectives to probe into the pragmatic transfer in the use of direct apologies.Therefore, the present study firstly aims to investigate the manifestations of pragmatic transfer in the use of direct apologies by Chinese-speaking learners of English. And secondly, this study explores the influence of gender and L2 proficiency on the occurrence of pragmatic transfer in the use of direct apologies. According to the research questions, the instrument to collect data on L2 apologies is a questionnaire, which is designed in the form of DCT(Discourse Completion Task). The questionnaire involves 10 situations about apologies, where the students are required to use I’m sorry or Excuse me. Then the questionnaire is translated into Chinese, where the students are required to use dui bu qi or qing yuan liang. The participants are divided into two groups: non-native learners group and native English speakers group. The non-native speakers of English group is composed of 90 Chinese high school students, whose foreign language is English, and the native English speakers group is made up of 22 native English speakers. 45 males and 45 females of Chinese high school students are chosen randomly. They are divided into low English proficiency group, middle English proficiency group and high English proficiency group according to the means of their four formal English exam scores. Every L2 proficiency group consists of 30 students. There are 11 males and 11 females in the native group, whose native language proficiency isn’t considered. The research questions are as follows:1) What are the manifestations of pragmatic transfer in the use of direct apologies by Chinese learners of English as a foreign language?2) How does the gender of the participants affect the pragmatic transfer in the use of direct apologies?3) How does the participants’ English proficiency affect the pragmatic transfer in the use of direct apologies?The present study follows Jarvis’ s(2000, 2010) methodological framework for achieving empirical rigor to justify the occurrence of pragmatic transfer. At first, the independent sample ttest is adopted to explore whether there is significant difference between Chinese-speaking learners of English and native English speakers in the use of direct apologies I’m sorry and Excuse me. Through comparing the use of I’m sorry, Excuse me and dui bu qi, qing yuang liang by the subjects in 10 apology situations, the positive and negative pragmatic transfer are identified. Second, the independent sample t-test is used to investigate whether there is significant difference between the female and male learners in the use of direct apologies. Finally repeated-measures MANOVA is conducted to examine the influence of L2 proficiency over pragmatic transfer in direct apologies.The major findings of the present study are shown as follows:1) Pragmatic transfer really exists in the use of speech act of direct apologies by Chinesespeaking learners of English. Positive transfer happens more frequently than negative transfer when they use I’m sorry, while negative transfer happens more frequently than positive transfer when Excuse me is used. Sometimes the use of direct apologies by Chinese EFL learners is not influenced by their mother tongue.2) The gender of participants has influence on pragmatic transfer in the use of direct apologies. According to the previous studies, more cases of pragmatic transfer occur in the use of apologies by the female than by the male because of the traditional culture and mental makeup peculiar to China. However, in the present study, positive transfer occurs more frequently in the use of direct apologies by the female than by the male, while negative transfer occurs more frequently in the use of direct apologies by the male than by the female.3) The L2 proficiency has influence on pragmatic transfer in the use of direct apologies. Negative transfer occurs more frequently in the low proficiency group than that in middle and high proficiency groups, which might be due to their lack in the knowledge of pragmatic functions of I’m sorry and Excuse me. Positive transfer occurs more frequently in the high proficiency group than that in low and middle proficiency groups.To sum up, this study demonstrates that the use of direct apologies by Chinese-speaking learners of English is influenced by the native language, and that the occurrence of pragmatic transfer might be influenced by gender and L2 proficiency. The results have great implications on the studies of pragmatic transfer in other speech acts, and meanwhile, it has important practical value for how to improve the students’ pragmatic performance in English teaching and learning in China.