Anze Zhang
Pronouns: He/Him
Research Mentor(s): Julie Boland
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Psychology / LSA
Program: CG
Session: Session 3 (11:00am – 11:50am)
Authors:
Abstract
In this study, we investigate how Language transfer effect influences native Chinese speakers with English as Secondary Language to understand English sentences with negation conjunction, although and/or but. Language Transfer Effect can impact secondary language acquisition positively or negatively. When the use of the targeted language matches with the linguistic rules permitted in learners’ native language, there will be a positive language transfer effect observed, and vice versa. The Chinese languages allow both although and but present in the same sentence in order to express the negation relation between two topics. The rules of English, however, only require one negation word to convey the same meaning. Therefore, we expect both the native Chinese speakers and English speakers to understand grammatical English sentences with only one negation word with no pauses. However, when it comes to ungrammatical English sentences containing both negation conjunctions, we expect the Chinese speakers to comprehend faster than the English native speakers with no knowledge of Chinese languages.
