The effects of language transfer in Turkish EFL learners

Abstract

Language transfer is defined as the influence resulting from similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired (Odlin, 1989). The notion of transfer was raised with the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) by the behaviorist psychologists. According to this view, native language (NL) affects second language and it was the source of error in production and/or reception (Gass & Selinker, 2001).The present study aims to investigate the transfer effects of Turkish (L1) learners of English (L2). Specifically, the present study examines the acquisition of word order (verb placement) in Turkish EFL learners.  The participants were 19 Turkish EFL learners enrolled in a Language Preparatory Program at a private university in Turkey. Data came from picture description and grammaticality judgment tasks. The results revealed significant evidence for syntactic transfer due to different word order patterns between the two languages. 

Keywords

• language transfer, contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH), word order

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