Study On Reflexives Transfer Of EFL Students

Although the acquisition of English reflexives is only a slight section, it remains valuable significance in Second Language Acquisition study. Since Chinese reflexives and English reflexives have both similarities and differences, the study of the transfer effect of Chinese reflexives on English reflexives needs to be further explored. 36 subjects of Grade 2 from Foreign Languages department are participate in this study in total. Firstly, a test is conducted to the subjects to examine the acquisition of English reflexives in Bi-clausal Finite Sentences,Bi-clausal Nonfinite Sentences, Mono-Clausal Sentences and Sentences with Dative Construction. Secondly, a questionnaire concerns the subjects background information and their feedbacks on the test is conducted. Finally,a further study is conducted to examine the transfer manifestation by collecting and categorizing the English reflexives that occur in the subjects weekly compositions. The final purpose is to reveal the transfer effect of Chinese reflexives on English reflexives. The study results show that all subjects have not fully acquire the properties of English reflexives; the more proficient the subjects are in Chinese reflexives, the better they can acquire the binding property of English reflexives; during English writing, the subjects always overuse the Mono-Clausal Sentences or compound sentences with single reference to avoid the ambiguity of reflexives; the binding property and subject-orientation property of Chinese reflexive taziji are inclined to be transferred to English reflexives acquisition and interferes with their acquisition process. At last,this study presents some implications for more efficient teaching in English reflexives.