L1 Transfer In Motion Event Expressions In Chinese EFL Learners' English Oral Narratives

As one of the most common expressions in communication,motion event(ME)expressions have attracted increasing attention in the field of SLA.Most studies,however,focus on thinking-for-speaking(TFS)hypothesis by comparing learners' L2 performance with typologically same or different L1 s within Talmy's(1985,1991,2000)typological framework.While acknowledging the relationship between language and thought,cross-linguistic similarity is also an important factor that constrains the occurrence of L1 transfer.However,in terms of the effect of cross-linguistic similarity on ME acquisition,it has been a rather neglected area.Moreover,the findings are conflicting as to the role of L2 proficiency in using motion event expressions.Hence,in order to further address these issues,this study puts its focus on the effect of cross-linguistic similarity between English and Chinese on Chinese EFL learners' ME expressions.Specifically,the following questions are addressed:1.How are motion events expressed in the English oral narratives by Chinese undergraduates over the first two years?2.How does the varying degree of similarity in motion event expressions between Chinese and English affect Chinese EFL learners' ME expressions in oral narratives dynamically?2a).On the individual level,how do the varied similarities between Chinese and English affect the participants' use of ME expressions in oral narratives over the first two years?2b).On the group level,how do the varied similarities between Chinese and English affect the participants' use of ME expressions in oral narratives over the first two years?This thesis is a part of the National Social Science Project(No.11CYY021).The 30 participants were undergraduates majoring in English at Luoyang Normal University and North China University of Water Resource and Electric Power.Their oral narrative data were collected in five tests over 2 years,at the beginning of the first semester,the beginning and end of the second semester,and the end of the third and fourth semester by project members.The data were then transcribed,coded and analyzed with the guidance of Cai's(2015)comparison-induction methodological framework.And the findings are summarized as follows.(1)Although the accurate rate of the participants' English ME expressions is more than 50%on average,a thorough examination of the data reveals that they typically made errors in verb forms,verbs,prepositions,verb collocations and articles respectively at 31.1%,10.8%,7.8%,4.2% and 2.4%.A further examination on the changes of the top three types of errors in the five tests suggests that they did not decline linearly as learners improve their L2 proficiency.Furthermore,an analysis of the correctness of participants' ME expressions in different typesEnglish-Chinese similarity constructions reveals the following: the congruence between English and Chinese tends to promote the accuracy of learners' ME expressions;the lexical incongruence between English and Chinese seems to induce inappropriate verbs;the word order,structural and semi-structural incongruence between English and Chinese do not induce more erroneous expressions;the verb form errors are frequently made in all types of English-Chinese similarity constructions.(2)On the individual level,comparisons of the same participant's ME expressions in different tests as well as different participants' ME expressions within the same test reveal that L1 transfer varies within the same learners and among different learners.On the group level,the effect of varied similarities between English and Chinese on the three types of ME expressions show a group tendency of L1 transfer,though with subtle differences across them.For all three types of ME expressions,English-Chinese congruence promotes the occurrence of positive transfer;negative transfer is more likely to occur in lexical incongruent constructions;the word order,structural and semi-structural incongruence between English and Chinese do not induce negative transfer.Besides,the changes of L1 transfer in different types of English-Chinese similarity constructions among the three types of ME expressions exhibit a non-linear developmental trend.Positive transfer and inhibitive transfer increase or decrease significantly with the improvement of learners' L2 proficiency in English-Chinese congruent and lexical incongruent constructions.For example,positive transfer occurs in 35.7%,63.6%,45%,25%and 69.2% of English-Chinese congruent neutral ME tokens over the five tests.A significant change occurs between test 4 and test 5 at.10 level as the Z-value between them was 1.785(>1.645).However,intrusive transfer in this respect does not increase or decrease significantly.In English-Chinese word order,structural and semi-structural incongruent ME constructions,L1 transfer also develops non-linearly but no significant change occurs.The findings are of significance both theoretically and pedagogically.It serves to enrich the studies on L1 transfer and motion events based on cross-linguistic similarity and it also provides the characteristics of Chinese EFL learners' ME expressions.Practically,awareness-raising activities,explicit language teaching and practicing seem to facilitate Chinese EFL learners' ME acquisition.