Treść książki
Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
10
DorotaLipińska
LanguageTransfer
Transferoflinguisticpropertiesfromone’smothertongueintothetarget
languageissaidtobeoneofthemostobviousandatthesametimepervasive
featuresoftheprocessofsecondlanguageacquisition(Towell&Hawkins,
1994;Arabski,1997;Arabski,2006).Thediscussiononthistopicbeganwith
theworkofAmericanlinguists,RobertLadoandCharlesFries,inthe1940s
and1950s.AlthoughtheworkofLadoandFrieswasobviouslyakindofcata-
lystforsubsequentresearch,onecanarguethatseriousthinkingaboutcross-
linguisticinfluencescouldbedatedeventothenineteenthcenturyhistorical
linguistics(Odlin,1989;Gass&Selinker,2008).Sincethebeginningofthe
twentiethcenturytherehasbeenagreatacceptanceoftheideathatnative
languageanditscharacteristicscouldseriouslyinfluencetheprocessofSLA
(Odlin,1989;Bley-Vroman,1990;Bohn,1998).Formanyyearstransferwas
perceivedasthemajorsourceofseveraldifficultiesforL2learners(Richards
&Sampson,1974;Broselow,1984).Attheverybeginningoftheresearchin
thissubjectpotentialdifficultieswereexpectedtohappenonlyinthoseareas
oftwolanguageswheretheyweremostvisiblydifferent(Arabski,1997).At
thesametime,thestructuraldistancebetweenlanguageswasthoughttobe
animportantfactoreitherfacilitatingorhinderingsecondlanguageacquisition
(Crystal,1998).SLAwassupposedtobedealingwithandovercomingthose
differences.Yet,laterresearchshowedthatthedifferencesandsimilarities
betweentwolanguagesareusuallynotcomparabletodifficultiesinacquiring
oneofthemasthesecondlanguageandthattransferitselfisaverycomplex
anddeepphenomenon(Arabski,1997;Crystal,1998).
Moreover,itturnedoutthattherearedifferentkindsoftransferandthatit
maybeeitherpositiveornegative.Inthecaseofvisiblesimilaritiesbetween
themothertongueandthetargetlanguageonecouldspeakaboutaphenom-
enonofpositivetransfer(Ellis,1994;Arabski,2006).Fromthebehaviorist
perspectivepositivetransferishelpfulinacquiringsecondlanguagehabits
(Littlewood,1994).Yet,thedifferencesandcontrastingelementsbetween
languagesusuallytendtocontributetonegativetransfer(Ellis,1994;Arabski,
2006).NegativetransferofL1habitshindersalearner’sacquisitionofatarget
language(Littlewood,1994).Itwasobservedthatnotonlystructures,vocabu-
lary,andgrammarrulesaretransferredinSLA,butalsootherhabitsfromL1
mayundergothisprocess(Corder,1967).
Anotherunarguableissueisthefactthattransferchangesaslearners’in-
terlanguagesdevelop(Arabski,1997).AccordingtoTowellandHawkins(1994)
theacquisitionofsecondlanguagesandthedevelopmentofone’sinterlanguage
istypicallystaged.Atbeginnerandelementarylevels,studentstendtobevery
sensitivetotheinfluenceoftheirmothertongue.Whentheirinterlanguage
