Week 2 The role of L1

Lusi Nurhayat i

THE ROLE OF L1

Ref l ect i on
 Recall (reflect on) your personal experience in
learning English (especially at t he early st age
of your learning).
 How did your first language influence your
learning?
 What influences were t hey?

 How did you express ideas in t he t arget
language at t hat st age?

Under st andi ng TERMS
 First language (L1) = mot her t ongue = nat ive
language

 Second language (L2), foreign language (FL),
t arget language (TL)

 Second Language Acquisit ion (SLA)

Behavi or i st l ear ni ng t heor y:
 Learning is a habit format ion: a habit is
formed when a part icular st imulus becomes
regularly linked wit h a part icular response.

Per cept i on about habi t
 Old habit s inhibit /prevent t he learning of new
habit s. Thus, L1 int erferes SLA.
 This t heory predict s t hat t ransfers (negat ive
and posit ive) will occur from L1 t o L2.

t r ansf er
 Ellis (1994): “L1 t ransfer refers t o t he
incorporat ion of feat ures of t he L1 int o t he
knowledge syst em of t he L2 which t he
learner is t rying t o build.”

t r ansf er

“[transfer is] the use of the native language
(or other language) information in the
acquisition of an L2 (or additional
language)”
Gass (1996: 321)

“[transfer is] influence that the learner’s L1
exerts on the acquisition of an L2”
Ellis (1997: 51

Tr ansf er Real i zat i on
 Facilit ation
 Avoidance

 Over use (overgeneralisat ion)
(Ellis, 1994)

Negat i ve t r ansf er
 Negat ive t ransfer will result in errors (as L1
and L2 are different ).

Posi t i ve t r ansf er
 Posit ive t ransfer WILL NOT result in errors (as
L1 and L2 are similar).

Posi t i ve t r ansf er
 is transfer which makes learning easier, and
may occur when bot h t he nat ive language
and t he t arget language have t he same form.
 E.g., bot h French and English have t he word
t able, which can have t he same meaning in
bot h languages.

(AL. Dict ionary/Longman)

Negat i ve t r ansf er / i nt er f er ence
 The use of a native-language pattern or rule
which leads to an ERROR or inappropriate form
in the TARGET LANGUAGE.
E.g. : a French learner of English may produce the

incorrect sentence
I am here since Monday.
inst ead of
I have been here since Monday
(Je suis ici depuis lundi =“I am here since Monday”).

Di f f er ences of L1 and L2
 Differences in L1 and L2 will creat e learning
difficulties while similarit ies will facilit at e
learning.

Er r or s
 Errors should be avoided. Errors are evidence
of non-learning.
 At t empt s must be made t o predict when
errors will occur by comparing learner’s L1
and L2 (Cont rast ive Analysis/CA).

Cont r ast i ve anal ysi s
 St rong form: all errors can be predict ed by

ident ifying t he differences bet ween L1 and
L2.
 Weak form: only diagnost ic.

Resul t s of compar i son:
1. No difference
2. Convergent phenomena
3. An it em in L1 is absent in L2
4. An it em in L1 has a different dist ribut ion

from t he equivalent it em in L2
5. No similarit y bet ween L1 and L2
6. Divergent phenomena

Or der of di f f i cul t y
 In t erms of learning difficult y, 1 t o 6 above are
ordered from zero t o great est . (Is t his t he
case?)


Cr i t i ci sms of CA hypot hesi s
 Empirical research

 Theoret ical crit icisms: Chomsky’s at t ack on
t he behaviorist t heory
 Pract ical crit icism: linguist ic aspect
(descript ive basis of t he comparison)

CA: Reappr ai sal
 The learning difficult y predict ed by CA might
be realized as avoidance inst ead of error
 Int erference is more likely t o occur when
t here is some similarit y rat her t han when
t here is a t ot al difference
 Error is a mult i-fact or phenomenon

Avoi dance
 when speaking or writ ing a second/foreign
language, a speaker will oft en t ry t o avoid
using a difficult word or st ruct ure, and will

use a simplerword or st ruct ure inst ead.
 This is called an avoidance st rat egy.

Avoi dance St r at egy
a st udent who is not sure of t he use of t he
relat ive clause in English may avoid using it
and use t wo simpler sent ences inst ead:

 That ’s my building. I live t here.
inst ead of

 That ’s t he building where I live.