LANGUAGE TRANSFER IN THE ACQUISITION OF ECOLOGICAL LANGUAGE: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 1332-1337

DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.192 1332

L

ANGUAGE

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RANSFER IN THE

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CQUISITION OF

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COLOGICAL

L

ANGUAGE

:

A

N

A

NALYSIS

B

ASED ON

C

OGNITIVE

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SYCHOLOGY

Li Wang

Abstract

Language transfer is the application of linguistic features from one language to another by a bilingual or multilingual speaker. This unavoidable phenomenon has a great impact on language acquisition. Based on cognitive psychology and linguistic theory, this paper explores the language transfer in acquisition of ecological language. First, the author briefly introduced the relevant theories of eco-linguistics, language transfer, cognitive psychology and language acquisition. Then, an empirical analysis was performed on the Chinese language transfer among learners of English as a second language in the acquisition of English. The data of the analysis were collected through questionnaire survey and interview. The results show that language transfer is helpful to the acquisition of the second language, if the learner is aware of the similarities and differences between the two languages and willing to transfer the knowledge and skills of the mother tongue to the second language learning; contrastive teaching promotes the positive transfer of language acquisition, and suppresses the negative transfer, enhancing the learning efficiency of the second language. The research results shed new light on promoting English teaching methods.

Key words: Cognitive Psychology, Ecological Language, Language Acquisition, Language Transfer.

Received: 18-04-19 | Accepted: 20-08-19

INTRODUCTION

During the learning process, the learner’s mother tongue has an influence on the learning of new language knowledge, which is called the phenomenon of language transfer (Winke, 2007). As a kind of psychological activity, Language transfer is an unavoidable problem in the field of linguistics, and also the focus of language learning. The combination of linguistic and psychological factors can constrain language transfer (Goebel, 2007). Thus, more psychologists and linguists are beginning to focus on the study of language migration.

Cognition is an intrinsic psychological acquisition process of individuals in a targeted manner. It is a reasonable and inevitable

1_{Heilongjiang University, Heilongjiang 150080, China.} 2_{Daqing Normal University, Daqing 163712, China.}

E-Mail: [email protected]

learning strategy for learners to learn the target language using the mother tongue, which is in line with the cognitive law of human beings. Gestalt psychology believes that acquisition is a kind of comprehension, and the individual's acquisition of knowledge is a process from stress to tension, from imbalance to balance (Dent, 1990). Piaget Academy emphasizes that learning ability is the result of the interaction between individuals and environment (social environment and physical environment (Whitehurst, 1978). According to cognitive psychology, the acquisition process of the second language is an information processing process involving three stages of input, central processing and output (Marchetto and Bonatti, 2013). Ausubel explained the transfer from a cognitive point of view and proposed the theory of cognitive structure migration, arguing that the mother tongue is inevitably involved in new language learning (Joanne & Koss, 2012). Professor Xu

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Ziliang was the first scholar to combine teaching Chinese as a foreign language, Chinese language literature and cognitive psychology (Schumann, 2011). Professor Wu Qianlong integrated neuroscience and cognitive science to analyse the cognitive psychology in the acquisition process of a second language (Bock, 1982). In the late 1990s, Chinese scholars began to pay attention to the learning psychology of learners whose native language is Chinese in the process of English learning. From the perspective of cognitive psychology, Zhang Shaolin studied the accumulation of English vocabulary and believed that the positive migration of Chinese cognitive psychology is helpful for the accumulation of vocabulary in English interlanguage. Lu Xiao has shown through empirical research that Chinese has a certain role in promoting English learning (Akiyama, 1984). Jin Shengxia analysed the negative transfer effect and causes of Chinese in English writing (Tomlin and Villa, 1994). But as of now, the research on language transfer in cognitive psychology is still not mature enough, while the theoretical and practical research results are also insufficient.

Based on the above, this paper attempts to study the language transfer phenomena in the process of language acquisition using the theoretical framework of eco-linguistics from the perspective of cognitive psychology. It firstly gives a brief introduction on related theories such as eco-linguistics, language transfer, cognitive psychology and language acquisition, and then designs a questionnaire on English and Chinese language acquisition by selecting the four variables of total awareness, common awareness, difference awareness and willingness to transfer. The combination of questionnaires and interviews was applied to study the transfer phenomena. It’s expected to provide new enlightenment for English teaching ideas and methods.

RELATED THEORIES

Eco-linguistics

In the 1990s, eco-linguistics officially became a branch of linguistics. It mainly studies the interaction of language ecology, language and environment. Van Lier pointed out the four aspects of eco-linguistics: the relationship between language and sociocultural environment, the relationship between language and material environment, the relationship

between language learners (especially second language learners and children) and the learning environment, and the diversity of languages and languages. We studied the phenomenon of language transfer in the process of second language learning acquisition under the framework of eco-linguistics.

Language transfer

Transfer is an important concept of learning psychology, that is, the learning of A task will affect the learning of B task. Language transfer means that A language learning will affect the learning of B language, where A language refers to the basic language, that is, the mother tongue, and B language is the second language. Most researchers divide language transfer into positive transfer and negative transfer. The closeness between the mother tongue and the target language facilitates the acquisition of the target language, which is called positive transfer; when the rule or form of native language is applied mechanically, a negative migration occurs when it doesn’t match with that of the target language or an error occurs. Besides, overuse and avoidance are other main manifestations of language transfer, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

.

The main form of language transfer

The main form of language transfer

Forward migration

Negative migration

Acquisition time varies

Overuse

Avoidance

Cognitive psychology and language

acquisition

Cognitive psychology is a psychology with language processing as the core, emphasizing that human being is an information processing system like computers. It believes that people's existing knowledge structure has a decisive effect on human behaviour and psychological

LANGUAGE TRANSFER IN THE ACQUISITION OF ECOLOGICAL LANGUAGE: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY ₁₃₃₄

activities, which focuses on the interconnection between human internal and other activities. According to cognitive psychology, human being is born with a learning mechanism for mastering language, and the acquisition of the second language is the information processing process including input, central processing and output, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2

.

Language acquisition information

processing model

Surroundings

Effector

Receiver

Control execution

Reaction generator

Expectation

Sensor recorder

Short-term memory

Long-term memory

LANGUAGE TRANSFER IN THE LANGUAGE LEARNING PROCESS OF ECO-LINGUISTICS BASED ON COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Research methods and processes

1) The main variables

Using the four variables of total awareness, common awareness, difference awareness and willingness to transfer, we studied the language transfer in the process of language acquisition from the perspective of cognitive psychology. The specific explanations of each variable are shown in Table 1.

2) Methods and processes

Taking English grammar teaching as the research target, the questionnaire for the English and Chinese language acquisition was compiled using the four variables above. Before the final draft, the experts and teachers were

consulted several times. 80 students majoring in Foreign language in Grade 3 from one university in Hangzhou were selected; they were ranked from high to low in terms of the exam scores of English Grammar course in the first semester of 2017-2018 school year, with the top 40 students in the high-score group, and the last 40 in the low-score group. SPSS software was adopted to analyse the experimental data and a t-test was performed to analyse whether there were significant differences between the high-score and low-score groups on the four variables.

Analysis of research results

1) The difference of test results between two groups

Figure 3

.

Mean score of each part of the two

groups

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Willingness to move Difference

awareness Common

awareness Total

awareness

Low grouping High grouping

Figure 3 shows the average scores of the high-score group and low-high-score group high-scores in each variable of the questionnaire. Figure 4 shows the t-test results of the difference between the two groups. It can be seen from the figures that

Table 1.

Explanation of the main variables

Main variable Specific meaning

Total awareness

Learners who use Chinese as their mother tongue and learn English as a second language can notice the differences and similarities between the two languages during the English learning process, and realize

that the similarities and differences between the two languages can help English learning.

Common awareness

Whether English learners can often notice the similarities between the two languages and realize that the commonality of the two languages contributes to English learning.

Difference awareness

Whether English learners can often notice the difference between the two languages and realize that a lack of understanding of the differences between the two languages may hinder the learning of English.

Willingness to move

It refers to whether English learners are willing to use the transfer of Chinese knowledge and skills to promote English learning, that is, whether they are willing to take the initiative t o conduct comparative

analysis of the similarities and differences between the two languages, and agree that understanding the similarities and differences between the two languages can promote English grammar learning.

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there were significant differences in the four variables of total awareness, common awareness, difference awareness, and willingness to transfer between the two groups; the t values were -12.678, -6.793, -8.74, -9.315, and p<0.01, indicating that the two groups were significantly different in the three variables of involved in Chinese migration. There were significant differences in the three variables of common awareness, difference awareness, and willingness to transfer, and the high-score group scored higher than the low-score group.

Figure 4

.

T Test results of differences in

scores between the two groups on related

variables

-13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5

Willingness to move Difference

awareness Common

awareness Total

awareness **

2) Analysis results for the correlation between English grammar scores and various variables

Figure 5

.

Analysis of the correlation

between the variables of English grammar

scores and English and Chinese

0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

Willingness to move Difference

awareness Common

awareness Total

awareness **

Figure 5 shows the Pearson correlation coefficients between each variable and English grammar score. It can be seen that the correlation coefficient between English grammar scores and the four variables was 0.821, 0.642, 0.702, and 0.698, respectively, which all reached a significant level of 0.000, indicating that each pair of variables has a positive correlation linear relationship. This further explained that the students' total awareness, common awareness, difference awareness and transfer ability in English and Chinese learning are directly proportional to their English grammar scores.

3) Statistical results of independence test

Figure 6

.

Frequency distribution of attitudes

between English and Chinese grammar in

two groups of students

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

High grouping Low grouping

Disapproval In favor

Figure 6 shows the survey results on whether the students agree that the teacher should inform them of the similarities and differences between the English and Chinese languages when explaining the grammar rules. It can be seen from the figure that the high-score group students preferred the teacher’s contrastive teaching method for finding similarities and differences between English and Chinese grammar; the chi-square test results showed

𝜒2_{= 6.674, 𝑑𝑓 = 1, 𝜒}

0.012 = 6.59, 𝑝 < 0.01 ,

indicating that there are significant differences between the two groups of students in the attitude towards the contrastive teaching of English grammar.

LANGUAGE TRANSFER IN THE ACQUISITION OF ECOLOGICAL LANGUAGE: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY ₁₃₃₆

Figure 7

.

Student interview record results

0 20 40 60 80 100

between the two langua

gesmar lea rning

the similaritie s and differe

nces In favor of i

nforming

helps Engli sh grammar

learning and Chines

e grammatic al difference

s Understand

ing English and Chines

e grammar Often contr

asting Engli sh

4) Statistical results of interview records Figure 7 shows the results of the students’ interview record. It can be seen from the figure that 70% of the students agreed that the teacher clearly informs them of the similarities and differences between English and Chinese grammar, 97% students thought it helpful for the study of English grammar to understand the similarities and differences between English and Chinese grammar, and 95% often compared it with Chinese grammar when learning English grammar.

Figure 8

.

Whether to carry out

English-Chinese grammar comparison teaching in

the process of English teaching

5% 13% 82%

Often Occasionally

Only when the difference is big or easy to confuse

Figure 8 shows the survey results on whether the teachers perform the contrastive teaching of English and Chinese grammar in the process of English grammar teaching. It can be seen from the figure that 82% of the teachers said that they compare the English and Chinese grammars in English grammar teaching, and only 5 % said that contrastive teaching would only be conducted when there are particularly differences between the two languages or confusing points.

CONCLUSIONS

Taking the English grammar learning as an example, this paper studies the language transfer using the eco-linguistics as the theoretical framework in the process of language acquisition from the perspective of cognitive psychology. The specific conclusions are as follows:

(1) There were significant differences in total awareness, common awareness, difference awareness, and transfer willingness between the high-score group and low-score group, and the high-score group scored higher than low-score group in terms of each variable; there was a positively linear relationship between English grammar scores and each variable, indicating a direct proportional relationship between the four variables and the students' English grammar scores;

(2) Contrastive teaching can effectively improve learners' language transfer awareness and willingness;

(3) In the second language acquisition process, if the learner can recognize the similarities and differences between the two languages and has the willingness to transfer the knowledge and skills of the mother tongue to the second language learning, it will be conductive to the acquisition of second language. And the contrastive teaching helps to achieve positive transfer of language learning, avoid negative transfer, and improve the learning efficiency of the second language.

Acknowledgement

Fund project: 2019 planning research project of philosophy and social science in Heilongjiang province “linguistic research on political ecology” (19ZZD197); 2019 Heilongjiang province economic and social development research project (Foreign Language Subjects) "ecological discourse analysis of literary works from the perspective of system function" (WY2019006—A); 2018 Heilongjiang province economic and social development research project (Foreign Language Subjects) “construction of cross-border e-commerce talent training mode based on actual practice of the Internet ” (WY2018064-B).

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