L1 Transfer Of Connectors In English Oral Narratives By Chinese EFL Learners

Connector refers to a kind of semantic relation which used for expressing the logical relation between two or more sentences.Due to its role in achieving coherent discourses,connector has received increasing attention in the field of SLA.Although previous studies on connectors(e.g.Field & Yip,1992;Xu,2000;Ma,2001;Chen,2006)have pointed out that L1 transfer is one of the causes of errors in L2 learners’ use of connectors,there are still some gaps to fill in.1)Previous studies mainly elicited data from written argumentative essays,but the use of connectors in oral narratives was ignored.2)Most previous studies took synchronic design,making it impossible to examine the dynamic relationship between L2 proficiency and L1 transfer.3)The method of judging L1 transfer was subjective judgment in previous studies.Based on above gaps,the current study aims to answer the following questions:1)How do Chinese EFL learners use connectors in English oral narratives over the first two years?2)How does Chinese influence Chinese EFL learners’ use of connectors in English oral narratives over the first two years?2a)On the individual level,how does Chinese affect L2 learners’ use of connectors over the first two years?2b)On the group level,how does Chinese affect L2 learners’ use of connectors the first two years?As a part of National Social Sciences Project(No.11CYY021),the data in the current study were collected by the project members.By means of picture description,the current study collected 165 English oral narratives and 165 Chinese oral narratives by 21 students from Jiangnan University(Jiangsu)and 12 students from Qufu Normal University(Qufu)in the first two years.Based on the 1,333 connectors extracted from English oral narratives,the current study firstly studies the overall situation of using connectors by Chinese EFL learners.According to Cai(2015)’s comparison-induction methodological framework,the current study conducts detailed synchronic and diachronic analysis for the relation between L1 and L2learners’ mastery of English connectors on the individual level and group level respectively.After data coding and data analysis,the following findings are obtained:1)In oral narratives,the percentage of correct connectors amounts to 78.92%,and the percentages in the four types of connectors(additive,adversative,causal and temporal)are57.71%,89.54%,85.80% and 87.11% respectively.Diachronically,the percentages of each type of correct connectors present different fluctuating trends in the five tests.With regard toinappropriate connectors,diachronic distributions of overuse,misuse and underuse also show different fluctuating trends in the five tests.2)On the individual level,by analyzing the use of connectors within four typical participants from synchronic perspective,it finds that the percentages of different types of L1 transfer vary from person to person.In other words,individual variation exists in L1 transfer.From diachronic perspective,by exploring the changes of different types of L1 transfer in participant s4g2n12’s use of each type of connectors,it gets two findings: one is that different types of L1 transfer have different change rules in the five tests;the other one is that L1 transfer develops non-linearly with the improvement of English proficiency over the first two years.3)On the group level,the findings include the following aspects:Synchronically,for additive connectors,positive transfer is lower than negative transfer,but with no significant differences.On the contrary,the percentages of positive transfer in the other three types of connectors are significantly higher than negative transfer.Regarding to negative transfer,for additive and causal connectors,the percentages of inhibitive transfer are significantly higher than that of intrusive transfer.For adversative connectors,the percentage of intrusive transfer is the same as inhibitive transfer.For temporal connectors,the percentage of intrusive transfer is higher than inhibitive transfer,but there are no significant differences.Diachronically,the percentages of intrusive transfer and inhibitive transfer in each type of connectors do not show significant increasing or decreasing trend in the five tests.With regard to positive transfer,the percentages of adversative and temporal connectors do not show significant increasing trend.While for additive connectors,it shows a significant decreasing trend between test 2 and test 3,and the percentage of positive transfer in causal connectors shows a significant increasing trend between test 3 and test 4.To sum up,the results indicate that the mastery of the four types of connectors does not get significant improvement with the improvement of L2learners’ English proficiency.Based on above findings,the current study makes some suggestions for the acquisition and teaching of connectors.First,L2 learners should increase reading quantity and expand reading range.Second,both teachers and students should pay attention to the similarities and differences of connectors between English and Chinese.Third,teachers should give specific individual guidance to different students.