Cross-linguistic similarity and language proficiency effects on L1 and conceptual transfer in motion events among Chinese learners of Japanese as a foreign language

A large body of empirical evidence has shown that cross-linguistic similarities clearly influence the L1 transfer process. Nevertheless, the precise play role of this factor is still not completely understood. In addition, traditional empirical studies could not clearly depict the relationship between Motion Event acquisition and cognitive science. And it is worth mentioning that there seems to be controversy results of language proficiency on L1 transfer. To address these, the current study targeted the [Motion] domain, trying to identify the following research objectives: 1) to explore how Cai’s (2016) Multidimensional Dynamic Theoretical Framework for language transfer can be fruitful for the investigation, 2) to analyse the effects of varied Cross-linguistic Similarities on Motion Event expressions by Chinese students who learn Japanese as a foreign language (JFL), and 3) to conclude the effects of varied Cross-linguistic Similarities and Language Proficiency on L1 transfer and conceptual transfer. This research presented a quantitative and qualitative analysis to justify the expressions of motion events by JFL learners. Japanese narrative data were elicited using serial six pictures in a comic book titled ‘Father and Son’, from 122 JFL learners. The data were collected with the same requirements and procedures in their second and forth semesters. The participants were required to write following the order first in Japanese and then in Chinese, which could probably avoid inducing L1 transfer. Thinking aloud method was used to record the data. The findings of this study were, 1) Through the investigation under MDFT, there were significant differences in the total number of tokens and motion event types found in different types of Motion Events, 2) varied Cross-linguistic similarities have significant effect on the accuracy of different types of motion events. In Japanese-Chinese congruent constructions, the participants typically produced more accurate ME expressions in all three types. On the contrary, incorrect expressions occurred due to the lack of congruency (e.g. word order incongruence, lexical incongruence, structural incongruence) between Japanese and corresponding Chinese expressions, 3) through the analysis of effects of varied Cross- linguistic similarities on L1 transfer both at the linguistic and conceptual level, the researcher found the following outcomes: Linguistically, apart from the existence of individual variation, cross-linguistic similarities between Japanese and Chinese ME constructions had a significant effect on the occurrence of positive transfer and negative transfer in the participants’ manner and path ME expressions, and only a significant effect on positive transfer in cause ME expressions; At the conceptual level, it was found that JFL learners faced great difficulties when they produced Japanese expressions that were conceptually not equivalent to the Chinese, 4) there was no significant positive relationship between the changes in Japanese proficiency and changes in the frequency of positive transfer or negative transfer, showing a limited role of language proficiency in ME acquisition. This study contributes to current research by examining the applicability of Japanese-Chinese language pair other than Indo-European languages in the MDTF theory. It has important pedagogical implications for further teaching and learning activities.

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