Doctoral Dissertation Research: Native Language Transfer and Second Language Acquisition

本研究在生成性第二语言习得的理论框架下，对第二语言习得中学习者的母语迁移进行了实验研究。调查的重点是法语中的代词特征，这些特征在理论上与英语代词系统中的特征有所不同，但与西班牙语中的特征相似。为了测试迁移的效果和特征重组的额外困难，研究对象包括母语为英语和西班牙语的二语法语学习者(除了以法语为母语的人)，并将在两个实验任务中进行测试，一个离线任务和一个在线任务。这项研究解决了语言教师每天在课堂上遇到的具体困难。因此，它将使社会受益，因为它将使语言教育工作者能够更好地了解学习过程，并通过根据学习者的需要创建适应的课程，以直接的方式针对具体问题。定语和强代词的习得，特别是它们的语义解释，是一门新语言发展中的一个难点，只有通过系统的、有理论基础的研究，我们才能增加和推进我们对这一过程的了解。拟议的项目将增加我们对非母语者习得第二语言时中介语语法的发展和创造新的语言表现形式的理解。它结合了理论语言学、二语研究和心理语言学的元素，这三个子领域可以相互启发，然后再启发其他领域，如语言教育学和教师教育。所研究的语言现象，特别是本研究中提出的词项和语义特征的结合，是检验和推进当前非常突出的二语习得假说：特征重组假说的理想领域。本研究调查了母语为英语和西班牙语的人对法语第三人称代词的二语习得情况。FRH指出，特征束从第一语言转移到第二语言，母语和目标语言中可用特征的不匹配可能会成为第二语言学习者的困难来源。由于西班牙语和法语的宾语代词系统在词汇特征编码方面几乎相同，而英语代词系统却有很大的不同，因此母语为英语的英语学习者和母语为法语的西班牙语学习者将表现出不同的错误模式。这项研究着重于强代词和偏斜代词的习得，英语没有这种区别，但法语和西班牙语有这种区别，以及特征[Human]的作用，它是英语代词的特征成分的一部分，而不是法语或西班牙语的特征成分。同样，法语和西班牙语的代词在语法上存在性别差异，但在英语中没有，因为英语中的性别差异是语义的(生物性别)。该比较允许评估转移、特征重组和输入显著。与该领域的许多工作不同，该项目寻求理论和应用知识的结合，通过考虑学习者的问题？内部表述以及输入和指示。

The proposed study consists of an experimental investigation of transfer from a learner's first language (L1) in the acquisition of a second language (L2), couched within the theoretical framework of generative second language acquisition. The focus of the investigation is on pronominal features in French, which differ in theoretically relevant ways from those instantiated in the English pronominal system, but are similar to those in Spanish. In order to test effects of transfer and the additional difficulties of feature reassembly, both English- and Spanish-speaking L1 learners of L2 French are included (in addition to French native speakers), and will be tested on two experimental tasks, one offline and one online. The study addresses specific difficulties that language teachers encounter in class every day. Thus it will benefit society because it will allow language educators to better understand the learning process and target specific problems in a direct way, by creating an adapted curriculum according to the learners' needs. The acquisition of clitic and strong pronouns, and particularly their semantic interpretation, is a difficult aspect in the development of a new language, and only through a systematic and theoretically founded investigation can we increase and advance our knowledge about how this process evolves. The proposed project will increase our understanding of the development of interlanguage grammars and the creation of new linguistic representations when non-native speakers acquire a second language. It combines elements of theoretical linguistics, L2 research and psycholinguistics in a way that the three subfields can inform each other and later inform other fields such as language pedagogy and teacher education. The linguistic phenomenon under investigation, particularly the combination of lexical items and semantic features proposed in this study, is the ideal area to test and advance the currently very prominent SLA hypothesis: the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (FRH). The study investigates L2 acquisition of French 3rd person pronouns by L1 speakers of English and of Spanish. The FRH states that feature bundles are transferred from L1 to L2, and mismatch in the available features in the native and target language will likely be a source of difficulty for L2 learners. Because the object pronominal system of Spanish and French is almost identical in terms of lexical feature encoding, but the system of English pronouns is vastly different, L1 English and L1 Spanish learners of French are predicted to show different patterns of errors. The study focuses on the acquisition of the strong pronoun vs. clitic pronoun distinction, which English doesn't have, but French and Spanish do, and on the role of the feature [Human], which is part of the feature composition of English pronoun but not those of French or Spanish. Similarly, there is a grammatical distinction of gender encoded on the pronouns of French and Spanish, but not in English, where the distinction of gender is semantic (biological gender). This comparison allows for the evaluation of transfer, feature reassembly and input salience. Unlike much work on the area, the project seeks combined theoretical and applied knowledge gains, by considering both the question of learners? internal representations as well as input and instruction.