An Empirical Study Of Chinese EFL Learners’ Conceptual Transfer From Chinese Into The Acquisition Of English Spatial Prepositions

Since the 1950 s,language transfer has been a classic issue in the field of second language acquisition research.Under the influence of cognitive linguistics,Pavlenko(1998)proposed the notion conceptual transfer,which has shifted the focus of language transfer research from the initial transfer of linguistic forms to the conceptual transfer.Since then,conceptual transfer has become a new direction in the study of language transfer.Extensive studies have been conducted abroad so far within the scope of conceptual transfer in several cognitive domains,such as space,time,and motion etc.In contrast,the research in China is still in the initial stage.Chinese scholars have explored the differences between the English and Chinese prepositions and their influence on Chinese English learners’ acquisition of those English prepositions from the perspective of conceptual transfer,yet few empirical studies have been conducted.In the process of English learning,Chinese students still fell hard to master those English spatial prepositions due to differences between Chinese and English spatial categorizations.In view of this,the present study chooses the frequently used prepositions “in”,“on” and “at” to analyze the acquisition of English spatial prepositions of Chinese English learners from the perspective of conceptual transfer.Accordingly,this study examines the following three questions in detail:1.To what extent do Chinese English learners transfer concepts from Chinese to English in the acquisition of spatial prepositions? Is there any difference in their conceptual transfer when set under primed and unprimed condition of Chinese?2.What are the features of Chinese English learners’ conceptual transfer while acquiring the English spatial prepositions?3.Does the language proficiency have a role to play in Chinese English learners’ conceptual transfer while they acquire the English spatial prepositions?This study adopts a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative research.The conceptual transfer of Chinese English learners is investigated in terms of reaction time,accuracy rate and conceptual transfer rate.A total of 90 students of non-English majors from Lanzhou Jiaotong University were selected as subjects.In addition,15 American students were invited from Lanzhou Jiaotong University as the reference group.The experimental materials were randomly presented on a 14-inch computer screen by using E-prime 2.0programming.In the experiment,the subjects were asked to make semantic judgments on the material to determine whether the prepositions they saw could complete the incomplete English sentences correctly they had seen before.The data were collected and then processed into the SPSS16.0 program for statisticalanalysis.The research obtains the following findings:(1)When Chinese English learners choose spatial prepositions,the reaction time is long,the accuracy rate is low,and their concept transfer rate is high,which indicates that the extent of conceptual transfer of Chinese English learners is relatively high.The extent of conceptual transfer was stimulated under the primed condition of Chinese.(2)In language learning,the positive conceptual transfer and negative conceptual transfer originate from the similarities and differences between the two languages in terms of categorization.The complete equivalence of conceptual categories will promote the positive transfer of spatial preposition acquisition;partial equivalence of conceptual categories can promote the acquisition of spatial prepositions,but when learners mistakenly think that the concepts are completely equivalent,the negative transfer will occur;and when the conceptual categories of two languages are nonequivalent,i.e,there is no counterpart of English preposition in Chinese,Chinese English learners mismatch a Chinese concept with the English concept and thereby,the negative transfer will take place.In addition,the acquisition of prototypical meaning of English spatial prepositions is better,while the negative conceptual transfer will occur when the spatial prepositions become more peripheral;(3)English proficiency plays a vital role in Chinese English learners’ conceptual transfer and the conceptual transfer will be weakened with the improvement of English proficiency.Based on these findings,some implications can be drawn for the college English teaching.(1)In the process of English teaching,teachers should cultivate and strengthen the awareness of conceptual differences between the two languages,not only enable the students to understand the differences between the two languages in terms of linguistic form,but also help them recognize the differences in conceptual categories and semantic systems in terms of their cognitive level.(2)Teachers should add teaching content of “conceptual differences”and “conceptual transfer” between English and Chinese to the classroom.The “contrastive analysis” and “error analysis” could be taken as teaching methods to distinguish the positive and negative transfer.In addition,it is necessary to increase the amount of input.In a large number of specific language use process,the students could improve the understanding to these simple words.Consequently,the students could use them correctly.(3)For different language proficiency of the students,teachers should give different guidance according to their learning content and learning methods and guide them to carry out deep-seated language learning of conceptual system gradually in the process of English learning,so as to improve their learning effectiveness.