English or Asian background? Learners’ Mother Tongue in Chinese Language Acquisition

Sheri Zhang, Ph.D.

Professor, Coordinator for Chinese & Japanese

University of Ottawa

In this research article presentation I take a closer look at learners of Chinese who have either an English or Japanese language & culture background, to examine how mother tongue factors play a role in developing and selecting teaching materials for mixed groups of students with oriental and occidental backgrounds. The study is expected to benefit syllabus design suited to the needs of our increasingly diverse Mandarin classes. The role of the mother tongue/first language (L1) in second language (L2) acquisition is discussed in the context of Japanese students learning Chinese, and North American students learning Chinese. Attention is given mainly to two aspects of the L1-L2 relationship: positive transfer of knowledge from L1 in the process of learning L2, and negative transfer, or interference.

Data were collected in a longitudinal study in Japan and North America between 2003 to 2008, from students’ work and from informal interviews with Japanese and non-Asian students. Through examining L2 learner errors from both groups, the presentation discusses in what way such errors are traceable or not traceable to L1. The discussion considers language universals and learner perceptions of L1 and L2 in transfer. It is concluded that, in view of SLA literature and my own research, L1 is an important factor in L2 acquisition, either as being constructive or interfering with language and the culture of the target language. As an example of transparency, I compare the names of the week days in Japanese (日, 月, 火, 水, 木, 金 and 土), the Chinese Five Elements五行wǔxíng (gold 金 jīn, wood 木 mù, water 水 shuǐ, fire 火 huǒ and earth 土 tǔ), the five planets of the solar system in Chinese/Japanese火星, 水星, 木星, 金星, 土星, and the English corresponding week days of Sunday, Moon-day (Monday), Fire day /Mars-day (Tuesday), Water day / Mercury-day (Wednesday), Wood day / Jupiter-day (Thursday), Gold-day / Venus-day (Friday), Earth day / Saturn-day (Saturday), and discuss a strategy for developing a communicative syllabus for diverse classes of Chinese language learners.