Backward Transfer of L3s With/Without Articles in the L2 Acquisition of English Articles by Chinese Learners
Transfer,also known as cross-linguistic influence,is bidirectional in nature,viz.forward and backward.Chinese is a language without articles([‒article])while English is a language with articles([+article]).According to Cook's multicompetence model,it can be predicted that the presence or absence of articles([±article])in L3s has a reverse transfer effect on learners'acquisition of articles in L2 English.To test this prediction,we conducted an elicitation experiment of forced article choice among 179 Chinese learners of English whose L3s either have articles such as German and French or lack articles such as Russian and Japanese,and who have no L3s.The results show that an L3 with articles has a significant backward transfer impact on the acquisition of L2 English articles.An L3 with articles has a coupling effect with its proficiency in the L2 acquisition whereas an L3 without articles has no such effect with its proficiency in the L2 acquisition.These indicate that an L3 with articles,a prerequisite for language proficiency to play a role,determines the source and direction of transfer,and the greater the L3 proficiency is,the more pronounced the backward transfer effect becomes.
cross-linguistic influencebackward transferEnglish articlesmulticompetence model
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
