A Study Of The Effect Of Alignment On Second Language Acquisition Of English Motion Event Expressions

Alignment is defined as the complex processes through which human beings effect coordinated interaction and argued to play a critical role in second language acquisition(Atkinson,et al.,2007).Recently,a large number of linguists have shown great concern about alignment effect in terms of second language research.Wang(2012)began with the study of alignment in second language writing,and proved that the essence of alignment belongs to a kind of learning effect for the purpose of alignment to facilitate writing,and strengthens learners' linguistic representations.The second language learning is inseparable from language comprehension and language production.The joint combination of both can give rise to alignment effect in language learning.Following Wang & Wang(2014),the present study aims to explore whether alignment influences on Chinese EFL learners' description of English motion events.Motion event is one of the most basic and pervasive cognitive experiences in human life.However,its linguistic representation varies across different languages,depending whether manner or path is encoded in motion events.This typological difference enables us to further examine whether alignment influences Chinese EFL learners' choice of English motion verbs.More specifically,the present study attempts to investigate whether alignment occurs in a continuation writing task and whether manipulation of motion verb types influences Chinese EFL learners' use of English motion verb types.A continuation task with five versions was developed in the study,including M-version reading text and the whole pictures,P-version reading text and the whole pictures,the whole pictures only,M-version reading text and P-version reading text.The texts are descriptions of the wordless story book “Frog,where are you”,which is frequently used in L2 study of motion event acquisition.One hundred and twenty four junior students who specialize in English major participated in current study.Continuation task data were elicited from four groups,and writing with pictures data were sorted out from one group in accordance with24 pictures frog story only.Reading texts consist of M-version and P-version.The results show that 1)Linguistic alignment has significant impact upon Chinese EFL learners' description of English motion events.Chinese EFL learners made full use of Manner verbs and Path verbs presented in reading texts,whose written production showed sufficient motion verbs and described ample path trajectories.2)There is no correlation between different reading texts and Chinese EFL learners' use of English motion verb types.3)Situational alignment to some extent influences Chinese EFL learners' English motion event expressions.The empirical study suggests that alignment has impact upon Chinese EFL learners' description of English motion events,and situational alignment appears to have more significant impact than linguistic alignment alone.However,linguistic typology has a mediating effect upon alignment.