Native Language Effect

Abstracts of the 10 papers:

Adrian, Maria Martinez. 2010. On L2 english transfer effects in L3 syntax. VIAL – Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics 7. 75-98.

This article focuses on the acquisition of L3 German by high school learners whose L2 is English. The main aim is to study the possible influence of English as an L2 on the acquisition of word order in L3 German in light of proposals along Minimalist lines (Chomsky 1995; Zwart 1997ab). Taking into account the description of parameters in terms of feature strength within the Minimalist Program, the hypothesis is entertained that there would be transfer of the value of feature strength under functional categories from the L2 to the L3. In order to test this hypothesis, written production data and grammaticality judgements have been collected from two groups of participants who learn German as L3 and from one control group with L2 German. The results do not support the hypothesis of L2 transfer at the syntactic level. However, evidence has been found of optional movements of the verb and the object, as reported in previous studies by Beck (1998). This optionality will be explained by the underspecification of feature values under functional categories.



Chen, Fred Jyun-gwang. 2006. Interplay between forward and backward transfer in L2 and L1 writing: The case of chinese ESL learners in the US. Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 32. 147-96.

This paper focuses on the issue of language transfer in an L2 environment. Research has shown that forward transfer from L1 to L2 appears at early stages and decreases as L2 proficiency increases. Additionally, there is evidence to suggest that backward transfer from L2 to L1 may occur in an L2 environment in which subsequent contact to L2 is limited or in an L2 academic community in which confirming evidence that L1 syntax is correct is lacking. The study of this paper investigates Chinese and Spanish learners across three English proficiency levels, who wrote in L1 and L2 at U.S. graduate schools. All participants completed sentence and discourse tasks. It is found that forward transfer occurred in the Chinese learners' L2 writing at the discourse level and that backward transfer occurred in their L1 writing at the sentence level. Moreover, both forward transfer and backward transfer are mitigated by L2 proficiency. Furthermore, among the Level 2 Chinese learners, the relationship between forward transfer and L2 proficiency in the English sentence task follows a U-shaped curve, and the relationship between backward transfer and L2 proficiency in the Chinese sentence task also follows a U-shaped curve. The results of this study point to the complexity of language transfer and its interactions with L2 proficiency and distinctive task types.



Geranpayeh, Ardeshir. 2000. The acquisition of the english article system by persian speakers. Edinburgh Working Papers in Applied Linguistics 10. 37-51.

It has been argued that the acquisition of the English article system is delayed for most second-language (L2) learners until the very final stages of learning. This paper examines the difficulties of the acquisition of this system by Persian speakers. It will be argued that no single available theory can account for the causes of the learners' errors but a combination of contrastive analysis & an analysis of these errors might be illuminating. English & Persian differ in that the former uses definite markers, while the latter uses specific markers. It will also be shown that syntax has a major role in the use of the definite marker in English, whereas semantics has that role in Persian. It is predicted that if any transfer from the first language (L1) were to occur, it would most likely happen where the noun phrase carrying the article appears in subject position. An analysis of the subjects' performance on two article elicitation tasks suggests that Persian L2 learners of English have problems identifying the English definite marker when it is subject position. 6 Tables, 3 Figures, 1 Appendix, 18 References.



Hasan, Ahmad. 2001. The interference of arabic syntax in EFL learning. Arab Journal for the
Humanities 19. 245-61.

The phenomenon of first language (L1) interference in the learning of a foreign language has been extensively discussed; however, most of the accounts that approach this problem are unsatisfactory as they fail to explain this issue systematically. One aspect of L1 interference in learning a foreign language, namely the interference of Arabic syntax in the learning of English by Arab students, is addressed. Errors in grammar resulting from L1 interference have been dealt with from the error analysis & contrastive analysis perspectives. The author argues that these two models are inadequate as they both fail to attain explanatory power. As an alternative, Chomsky's (1981, 1986, & 1995) model of grammar, as presented in the Government & Binding theory, is adequate not only to describe but also to explain these errors. The author's account enables us to explain the predictability of these errors in that it predicts which errors are likely to occur as a result of Arabic interference in learning English as a foreign language (EFL). More significantly, the author shows how the Government & Binding framework, through its principles & parameters, offers more insight into what happens in the learner's mind than the other models do.



Hawkins, Roger, and Hajime Hattori. 2006. Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by japanese speakers: A missing uninterpretable feature account. Second Language Research 22. 269-301.

In recent work by Tsimpli (2003) & Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou (to appear) an explicit claim is made about the nature of end-state grammars in older second language (L2) learners: uninterpretable syntactic features that have not been selected during first language (L1) acquisition will not be available for L2 grammar construction. Interpretable syntactic features, on the other hand, remain available (as well as the computational procedures & principles of the language faculty), even those not selected by the L1. The present study investigates this hypothesis in relation to the acquisition of the uninterpretable feature that forces wh-movement in interrogatives in English. Nineteen L1 speakers of Japanese (a wh-in-situ language that lacks the movement-forcing feature) who are highly proficient speakers of English were asked to interpret bi-clausal multiple wh-questions in English (like Where did the professor say the students studied when?). Their responses were compared with those of a native speaker control group. It is argued that the results are consistent with the unavailability of the uninterpretable feature. Two conclusions are drawn: first, that there is a critical period for the selection of uninterpretable syntactic features for the construction of mental grammars; second, that despite the observation of target-like performance by L1 Japanese speakers on English wh-interrogatives reported in a number of existing studies, caution is required in interpreting target-like performance as evidence that L2 speakers have the same underlying grammatical representations as native speakers.



Juffs, Alan. 1998. Some effects of first language argument structure and morphosyntax on second language sentence processing. Second Language Research 14. 406-24.

This article explores some effects of first-language verb-argument structure on second-language processing of English as a second language. Speakers of Chinese, Japanese or Korean, & three Romance languages & native English speakers provided word-by-word reading times & grammaticality judgment data in a self-paced reading task. Results suggest that reliable differences in parsing are not restricted to cases where verb-argument structure differs cross-linguistically.



Mori, Yoko. 2005. The initial high pitch in english sentences produced by japanese speakers. English Linguistics / Journal of the English Linguistic Society of Japan 22. 23-55.

This study attempts to explore an initial high pitch characteristically observed in English sentences produced by Japanese speakers. The experimental results have revealed that about half or more native Japanese participants (college students majoring in English) produced unfocused subject pronouns I, they, you, & it in sentence-initial position at a higher pitch than they did lexical verbs that followed. In three sentence-initial articles, however, the phenomenon was not observed, whereas monosyllabic prepositions showed a smaller degree of the initial high pitch depending on their syllable structures. These results suggest that the transfer of Japanese sentence-initial intonation patterns & interference from Japanese phonological & syntactic structures are involved in the occurrence of the initial high pitch.



Perez Tattam, Rocio. 2006. Control in L2 english and spanish: More on grammar at the syntax-semantic interface. Cahiers linguistiques d'Ottawa 34. 99-108.

In this paper we investigate the acquisition of control in second language (L2) English & Spanish by adult native speakers of Spanish & English by means of a bidirectional experimental study which contrasts different control structures according to the type of controlled clause (complement vs. adjunct control structures) & the type of control (obligatory vs. non-obligatory control). Our results will show that our experimental subjects transfer their L1-knowledge when interpreting & producing control structures, & learn language-specific rules.



Schwartz, Bonnie D. 1999. Some Specs on Specs in L2 Acquisition. Specifiers: Minimalist Approaches, ed. by Adger, David, Pintzuk, Susan,Plunkett, Bernadette and George Tsoulas, 299-337. England: Oxford U Press.

Hypotheses in the generative framework regarding the extent of transfer in second-language (L2) acquisition are reviewed & tested by reexamining two studies of children's L2 acquisition involving specifiers. (1) In a critique of Lydia White's (1996) analysis of French clitic acquisition in P. Lightbown's (1977) 3-year study of English-speaking children acquiring Quebecois French in a kindergarten immersion setting (N = 2 males), White's premise that English lacks clitics is contested; L2 clitic development is shown to be early for preverbal subject pronominals & imperative postverbal object pronominals, which can be accommodated by first-language syntax, & late for preverbal object pronominals, which resist English-based analysis. (2) A problematic data set from the earliest period of Belma Haznedar's (1997) study of English acquisition by a Turkish male (aged 4:3 at study onset) is clarified by applying Richard Kayne's proposal that all languages have basic verb + object order: subject's native object raising to a higher specifier position was transferred to English & delearned a year later. Both reanalyses show that the findings of (1) & (2) support B. D. Schwartz & R. A. Sprouse's (1996) full transfer/full access model of L2 acquisition.



Tickoo, Asha. 2001. Re-examining the developmental sequence hypothesis for past tense marking in ESL: Transfer effects and implications. Prospect 16. 17-34.

Recent research on the acquisition of past tense in L2 has suggested that there is a common developmental process for learners of disparate language backgrounds. This universalist hypothesis claims that verbs which are lexico-semantically more event-like are marked for tense first, followed in distinct stages by the marking of increasingly less event-like verbs. In this study, the past tense marking of Chinese learners of ESL in Hong Kong was examined in 120 narratives by students at three learning levels: Form 3 (age 12), Form 6 (age 15), & the second year of university (age 20). An initial quantitative assessment of the data revealed that the above-described developmental pattern does not properly describe the past tense acquisition of ESL learners whose L1 is Cantonese. The data were re-examined using a less traditional, qualitative mode of data analysis, which (1) gave significance to the individual learner's performance & (2) acknowledged the discourse context in which the past tense marking was used, & the speaker intent it served to fulfill. It was then found that across all three proficiency levels some learners use the past tense to mark only foregrounded (that is, informationally salient) situations. Other learners were found to use the past tense on all verbs, in conformity to the target language grammar. It was found that the only change, as these ESL learners advance in their academic career, is a gradual increase in the number of students who use target-like marking. The idiosyncrasy of this pattern of acquisition is interpreted as resulting from the transfer from these learners' tense-free L1 of a feature of its temporal system. Two implications for L2 research & pedagogy are noted. It is suggested that the potential role of L1 in L2 acquisition must be properly acknowledged. It is also suggested that accurate assessment of learners' syntax is achieved via a qualitative analysis of the individual's performance, which recognizes the communicative function the syntax serves in the discourse context in which it occurs.