从中介语角度研究第二语言词汇习得

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Chapter I Introduction

In second language acquisition (SLA), interlanguages are specific to the learners,

and take forms of unique language properties. The concepts of interlanguage explain the

features of the learner language, which belong to neither the native language nor the

target language, and meanwhile are changing and progressing. Thus, an interlanguage

approach may be taken to study the complicated L2 acquisition. From an interlanguage

perspective, L2 acquisition is affected by all kinds of external and internal factors.

Vocabulary acquisition is one of the most important topics of language acquisition

and often directly affects broader language proficiency. In this paper, second language

vocabulary acquisition (SLVA) of intermediate English learners at USST is studied. To

study a learner’s vocabulary knowledge requires sufficient understanding of different

aspects of his vocabulary knowledge, which needs to be supported by effective testing.

The concept of vocabulary knowledge is introduced and a number of well-known

testing tools are reviewed. Having decided on the purpose of research, and selected the

subjects, the author conducted five experiments in order to measure the English majors’

vocabulary acquisition, including vocabulary size, receptive-productive vocabulary, and

depth of vocabulary knowledge, etc. From the comparison of the hypotheses and the

outcomes of the experiments, several findings have been obtained and discussed.

Testing two groups of subjects makes it possible to observe the development of

vocabulary acquisition among them. It has been found that vocabulary acquisition can

be affected by the linguistic, social, cultural and psychological factors, which sometimes

create problems in interlanguage progress. For example, the subjects rely heavily on

language transfer, and the absence of direct L2-L1 translation results in their failure to

complete the vocabulary task. In addition, some culturally loaded phenomena such as a

“radical” change can hardly elicit a quick response from the Chinese students.

Furthermore, the subjects have been found to be weak at depth of vocabulary

knowledge, manifested by their problems in vocabulary richness and productive

vocabulary knowledge. After the experiments, hypotheses made before the tests are

proved to be true or false, which can be of enormous interests to the readers. The

findings of the research may add to the work of many other vocabulary researchers, and

help language teachers and learners to understand some of the most important concepts

of SLVA.

A Study of Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition from an Interlanguage Perspective

This paper intends to describe vocabulary acquisition from an interlanguage

perspective and to propose the scientific measurement of vocabulary knowledge. The

outcomes of the experiments expose some problems in vocabulary acquisition among

the Chinese students and thus shed light on possible modification of vocabulary

teaching and learning strategies.

Here is a brief introduction of the main ideas in each chapter.

In Chapter II, the key notions that appear throughout this paper are introduced,

such as interlanguage, SLA, and SLVA. Theories of how learners develop their

interlanguages and how SLVA progresses are discussed in order to pave the way for the

later research on English learners’ vocabulary acquisition.

Chapter III reviews a number of widely used vocabulary testing tools and their

applications. These tools measure different aspects of vocabulary knowledge. For

instance, Paul Nation’s Vocabulary Levels Test can be applied to assessing learners’

receptive-productive vocabulary from a specific word band. Effective testing tools need

to be carefully selected according to their applications and the purpose of tests, so that

they may provide an effective measurement of one or more aspects of vocabulary

knowledge.

In Chapter IV, English majors at USST are taken as subjects in the vocabulary

knowledge tests. Two grades have been chosen to take part in the tests that measure

vocabulary size, depth of knowledge, and receptive-productive vocabulary. The subjects

and the testing tools are discussed in detail, and hypotheses are made based on the three

vocabulary dimensions.

In Chapter V, results obtained are compared with the hypotheses, which are proven

to be true or false. Hence, a new understanding of the learners’ vocabulary acquisition

can be achieved. Furthermore, several factors are found to be affecting their vocabulary

acquisition, which helps create their unique interlanguages. These factors can be

linguistic, social, cultural, psychological, etc.

Chapter VI intends to look into possible problems in L2 vocabulary acquisition

according to the experiment results. A number of proposals are made to adjust the

vocabulary learning and teaching strategies so as to advance the learners’ vocabulary

acquisition as well as interlanguage development.

Chapter II Interlanguage and Second Language Aquisition

Chapter II Interlanguage and Second Language

Acquisition

At the wake of global economy and international exchanges, there is a nationwide

drive for learning foreign languages to facilitate communication. This brings about the

fact that over 300 million Chinese are learning English or some other foreign languages.

However, despite their determination and efforts, the effects of learning are not always

satisfactory. Therefore, it’s meaningful to examine what are their language problems,

and what are the causes behind them. In this thesis, I refer to Chinese students learning

English as a kind of second language acquisition, which doesn’t mean to distinguish

from foreign language learning, although the two are not exactly of the same sense.

§ 2.1 Interlanguage

Foreign language learners at different learning stages can be influenced by their

native languages, especially when L1 and L2 resemble in some way. For example,

French learners of English may find it easier to learn English words than other L2

speakers, probably because French words are cognate to English words. Therefore,

some of the mistakes learners make may be attributed to the transfer of L1 to L2. But

through error analysis, researchers have found that language transfer does not account

for the cause of the mistakes which resemble either L1 or L2. Not all the inappropriate

uses are errors, and sometimes people are not even aware of them. A popular term

“Chinglish” was created to refer to some linguistic features of Chinese-speaking English

learners. Linguist Larry Selinker (1972) proposes the notion of a system somewhere

between the native language and the target language, which he termed “interlanguage”.

Interlanguage is a language system “composed of numerous elements, not the least

of which are elements from the NL and the TL.” (Gass & Selinker, 2001: 12) The idea

of interlanguage is founded upon the assumption that an L2 learner, at any particular

moment in his learning sequence, is using a language system which is neither of L1, nor

of L2. It is like a “third” language, with its own grammar, its own lexicon and its own

language features. The rules used by the learner may not be found in his mother tongue,

or in the target language.

Interlanguage is not constant, but instead a recreation continuum. (Corder, 1981)

It’s easy to understand because speakers of one language do not suddenly become

speakers of another language. The fact is that “the learners themselves impose structure

A Study of Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition from an Interlanguage Perspective

on the available linguistic data and formulate and internalized system.” (Gass &

Selinker, 2001: 12) Second language learners go through a process of making and

testing assumptions of the target language, or in other words, they learn by inferring the

rules of the target language. They begin with the linguistic knowledge obtained from

their native language, and go through different stages of their interlanguage systems,

moving towards a system of the target language.

“Central to the concept of interlanguage is the concept of fossilization which

generally refers to the cessation of learning.” (Gass & Selinker, 2001: 12) Although

learners make progress as they put in increasing efforts to acquire the target language,

it’s reported that only 5% of the learners can achieve the proficiency of the native

speakers. The other 95% normally come to a stage called fossilization, which means

that learners L2 learners will keep certain forms in their interlanguages that differ from

the TL regardless of further study and exposure to the TL. However, when a second

language learner will reach fossilization depends on various factors, such as his latent

psychological structure, attitudes towards learning the language, social ideology,

exposure to the target language, etc. (Selinker, 1972)

Interlanguages develop in natural systematic orders, which is attributed to the

property of the human mind. (Corder, 1981) For example, learners of a target language

share similarities of interlanguage structures when they focus on a more

communication-oriented learning setting and children have similar interlanguage

structures because of low demand for communication. Hence, despite minor individual

variations learners of similar background do share some features during their learning

process. However, learners acquiring a foreign language may achieve different language

proficiencies, due to the ways they adopt in acquiring the target language.

Interlanguages are created throughout the learning process of the foreign language

learners. According to Selinker (1992), learners adopt learning strategies which plays a

critical role in shaping their unique interlanguages. The main learning strategies are

namely language transfer, overgeneralization and simplification. Language transfer

refers to the situation when the learner uses his or her mother tongue as a resource to

acquire a foreign language, especially in the early stage of learning. There are two

different effects from applying language transfer. Some of the language errors are said

to be L1 based, meaning that the learner makes mistakes because of interference from

his or her mother tongue. This kind of language transfer is called negative transfer.

Chapter II Interlanguage and Second Language Aquisition

Negative transfer is distinct especially at the level of phonology. For example, the

English accent of a Chinese L1 speaker is quite different from that of a French L1

speaker. On the other hand, L2 learners sometimes benefit from relying on their L1,

which can be called a positive transfer. French-speaking learners acquire English

vocabulary relatively earlier because French and English share an enormous amount of

vocabulary. Another example is Japanese speakers learning Chinese. The Japanese

learners of Chinese have some advantages when it comes to the written language of

Chinese because many of the Japanese words are derived from Chinese writing system.

Overgeneralization refers to the situation when the learner overuses an L2 rule while a

native speaker normally will not. For example, at the lexical level, complicated words

may be replaced by general terms. All kinds of flowers, such as rose, tulip, lily, jasmine

may simply be called flowers without a specific name by the beginners. Simplification

usually refers to the situation when learners use speech that resembles that of children or

pidgins both syntactically and semantically. For instance, a beginner may produce a

sentence like “what you know about that kind politician?” In the sentence, “do” is

missing due to syntactic simplification, and politician is misused due to semantic

simplification.

Interlanguages are the language systems of learners at different learning stages, and

are regarded as the learners’ languages. Since not all the errors are L1 based or L2 based,

it makes more sense to categorize some linguistic features as interlanguage based. So

when some applied linguists study the learners’ language acquisition, they tend to take

an interlanguage approach, which has become one of the most powerful tools to study

SLA.

§2.2 Second Language Acquisition

The study of SLA is among the most important disciplines in applied linguistics.

According to Susan Gass (2001: 1), it’s a study of how learners create a new language

system with only limited exposure to a second language, and it’s also about why only

some learners can achieve native-like proficiency.

At present, a lot of researchers like Gass, come to adopt an interlanguage

perspective in SLA research by exploring the learner language features and make

comparisons with those of the target language. One of the most widely used methods is

error analysis, which looks into learner’s errors in a systematic way, and intends to

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摘要：

ChapterIIntroduction1ChapterIIntroductionInsecondlanguageacquisition(SLA),interlanguagesarespecifictothelearners,andtakeformsofuniquelanguageproperties.Theconceptsofinterlanguageexplainthefeaturesofthelearnerlanguage,whichbelongtoneitherthenativelanguagenorthetargetlanguage,andmeanwhilearechangingan...

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