Published

2018-01-01

Addressing the Problem of Negative Lexical Transfer Errors in Chilean University Students

Cómo abordar el problema de la transferencia negativa de léxico en estudiantes universitarios chilenos

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v20n1.64911

Keywords:

First language influence, fossilization, lexical errors, lexical transfer, second language production (en)
errores léxicos, fosilización, influencia del primer idioma, producción en el segundo idioma, transferencia léxica (es)

Downloads

Authors

  • Paul Anthony Dissington

Studies of second language learning have revealed a connection between first language transfer and errors in second language production. This paper describes an action research study carried out among Chilean university students studying English as part of their degree programmes. The study focuses on common lexical errors made by Chilean Spanish-speakers due to negative first language transfer and aims to analyse the effects of systematic instruction and practice of this problematic lexis. It is suggested that raising awareness of lexical transfer through focused attention on common transfer errors is valued by students and seems essential for learners to achieve productive mastery.

Los estudios del aprendizaje del segundo idioma señalan una conexión entre transferencia del primer idioma y errores en la producción del segundo. Este artículo describe un estudio de investigación acción llevado a cabo con estudiantes chilenos en cursos de inglés como parte de sus carreras universitarias. El estudio se enfoca en errores comunes en el léxico producidos por hispano-parlantes chilenos debido a la transferencia negativa del primer idioma y tiene como objetivo analizar los efectos de la instrucción sistemática y práctica del léxico que genera problemas. Se sugiere que la creación de conciencia de la transferencia del léxico a través de la atención enfocada en errores comunes de transferencia es valorada por los estudiantes y parece esencial para que logren un dominio en la producción.

References

Alonso, M. R. (1997). Language transfer: Interlingual errors in Spanish students of English as a foreign language. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 10, 7-14. https://doi.org/10.14198/raei.1997.10.01.

Amara, N. (2015). Errors correction in foreign language teaching. The Online Journal of New Horizons in Education, 5(3), 58-68.

Burns, A. (2015). Perspectives on action research. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Corder, S. P. (1983). A role for the mother tongue. In S. M. Gass & L. Selinker (Eds.), Language transfer in language learning (pp. 18-31). Amsterdam, NL: John Benjamins Publishing.

Ellis, R. (1985). Understanding second language acquisition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Frantzen, D. (1998). Intrinsic and extrinsic factors that contribute to the difficulty of learning false cognates. Foreign Language Annals, 31(2), 243-254. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1998.tb00571.x.

Hemchua, S., & Schmitt, N. (2006). An analysis of lexical errors in the English compositions of Thai learners. Prospect, 21(3), 3-25.

Hulstijn, J. H. (2001). Intentional and incidental second language vocabulary learning: A reappraisal of elaboration, rehearsal and automaticity. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 258-286). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139524780.011.

Jarvis, S. (2000). Methodological rigor in the study of transfer: Identifying L1 influence in the interlanguage lexicon. Language Learning, 50(2), 245-309. https://doi.org/10.1111/0023-8333.00118.

Jarvis, S., & Pavlenko, A. (2008). Cross linguistic influence in language and cognition. New York, US: Routledge.

Kavaliauskiene, G. (2009). Role of the mother tongue in learning English for specific purposes. ESP World, 8(22), 2-8.

Kavaliauskiene, G., & Kaminiskiene, L. (2007). Translation as a learning tool in English for specific purposes. Kalbotyra, 57(3), 132-139. https://doi.org/10.15388/Klbt.2007.7566.

Krashen, S. (1989). We acquire vocabulary and spelling by reading: Additional evidence for the input hypothesis. Modern Language Journal, 73(4), 440-464. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1989.tb05325.x.

Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139524759.

Schmitt, N. (2008). Instructed second language vocabulary learning. Language Teaching Research, 12(3), 329-363. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168808089921.

Swan, M. (1997). The influence of the mother tongue on second language vocabulary acquisition and use. In N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp. 156-180). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Talebi, S. H. (2014). Cross-linguistic transfer among Iranian learners of English as a foreign language. Issues in Education Research, 24(2), 212-227.

Dimensions

PlumX

Article abstract page views

2321

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

How to Cite

Dissington, P. A. (2018). Addressing the Problem of Negative Lexical Transfer Errors in Chilean University Students. Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, 20(1), 25-40. https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v20n1.64911

License

Copyright (c) 2018 Author

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

You are authorized to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format as long as you give appropriate credit to the authors of the articles and to Profile: Issues in Teachers' Professional Development as original source of publication. The use of the material for commercial purposes is not allowed. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

Authors retain the intellectual property of their manuscripts with the following restriction: first publication is granted to Profile: Issues in Teachers' Professional Development.