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dissertations Lea Meriläinen Language Transfer | 9 Lea Meriläinen | in the Written English of Finnish Students Language Transfer in the Written English of Finnish Students is a study Language Transfer in the Written English Finnish of Students Lea Meriläinen on the learner English of Finnish students and its development be- tween 1990 and 2005. The study Language Transfer identifies and analyses some of the most frequently occurring deviant in the Written English L1-induced lexical and syntactic patterns in Finns’ written English. of Finnish Students Through the examination of these patterns, the study also addresses the changes that have taken place in Finnish students’ English skills during 1990–2005. Publications of the University of Eastern Finland Dissertations in Education, Humanities, and Theology Publications of the University of Eastern Finland Dissertations in Education, Humanities, and Theology isbn 978-952-61-0229-0 issn 1798-5625 LEA MERILÄINEN Language Transfer in the Written English of Finnish Students Publications of the University of Eastern Finland Dissertations in Education, Humanities, and Theology 9 University of Eastern Finland Joensuu 2010 Kopijyvä Joensuu, 2010 Sarjan vastaava toimittaja: Jopi Nyman Myynti: Itä-Suomen yliopiston kirjasto ISSN (nid.) 1798-5625 ISSN-L 1798-5625 ISBN (nid.) 978-952-61-0229-0 Meriläinen, Lea Maarit Language Transfer in the Written English of Finnish Students Joensuu: Itä‐Suomen yliopisto, 2010, 238 sivua Publications of the University of Eastern Finland. Dissertations in Education, Humanities, and Theology; 9 ISSN 1798-5625 ISBN 978-952-61-0229-0 Diss. ABSTRACT: LANGUAGE TRANSFER IN THE WRITTEN ENGLISH OF FINNISH STUDENTS This study examines patterns of lexical and syntactic transfer in Finnish students’ written English between 1990 and 2005. It focuses on charting what types of lexical and syntactic transfer patterns occur in the written English production of L1 Finnish learners, and on tracking a possible change in these patterns in order to see if they reflect an improvement in the learners’ English competence, which is believed to have taken place during the past few decades as a result of, for example, their more frequent contacts with the English language and the development of foreign language pedagogy. The overall aims of this study are to promote our understanding of the phenomenon of language transfer in learners whose first language is genetically and typologically distant from the target language, as well as to identify typical deviant features in the learner English of Finnish students and to shed some light on the changes that have taken place in certain aspects of their written English skills between 1990–2005. The material for this study consists of a corpus of written English compositions by Finnish Upper Secondary School students. The corpus contains 500 English compositions written as a part of the Finnish national Matriculation Examination in 1990, 2000 and 2005. The features investigated involve 9 different aspects of lexical transfer and 5 syntactic transfer patterns. The identification of language transfer relies on Finnish–English contrastive descriptions and the comparison of Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking students of the equivalent level. The comparison corpus consists of Matriculation Examination compositions written by Swedish-speaking candidates in Finland. The results show that lexical and syntactic transfer patterns in Finnish students’ written English have taken on divergent paths of development during the investigated period. While most types of lexical transfer phenomena have significantly decreased, syntactic transfer patterns have remained equally frequent or increased. These findings point towards improved lexical idiomaticity in English, but do not indicate positive changes in the students’ syntactic development. This non-parallel development of lexical and syntactic transfer patterns shows that for learners whose L1 is genetically and typologically distant from the L2 transfer is more persistent at the level of syntax than it is at the level of lexicon. These findings are interpreted as a reflection of the changes that have taken place in the formal and informal learning environments for English as a foreign language in Finland during the past couple of decades. The increased exposure to and use of English in Finnish society, as well as the current focus on communicativeness in foreign language pedagogy seem to have helped Finnish students to overcome negative transfer effects in certain areas of their vocabulary knowledge in English, but not in their usage of English syntactic structures which deviate from the corresponding Finnish structures. TIIVISTELMÄ: ÄIDINKIELEN SIIRTOVAIKUTUS SUOMALAISILLA ENGLANNINOPPIJOILLA Tämä tutkimus käsittelee äidinkielen siirtovaikutusta suomalaisilla englanninoppijoilla aikavälillä 1990–2005. Tutkimus keskittyy kartoittamaan millaisia leksikaalisia ja syntaktisia siirtovaikutuspiirteitä suomalaisten kirjoitetussa englannissa esiintyy, sekä selvittämään, heijastavatko nämä tutkitut siirtovaikutuspiirteet muutosta, jonka uskotaan tapahtuneen suomalaisten englannin kielen osaamisen tasossa parin viime vuosikymmenen aikana mm. lisääntyneen englannin kielen käytön ja vieraiden kielten opetusmenetelmien kehittymisen johdosta. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on yhtäältä tuottaa uutta tietoa äidinkielen siirtovaikutuksesta oppijoilla, joiden äidinkieli on kielitypologisesti kaukainen kohdekielestä, ja toisaalta tunnistaa tyypillisiä siirtovaikutuspiirteitä suomalaisten oppijaenglannissa sekä valottaa mahdollisia muutoksia heidän englannin kielen kirjallisissa taidoissaan tutkitulla aikavälillä. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu englannin kielen A-tason ylioppilaskokeen kirjoitelmista kootusta korpuksesta. Aineisto sisältää yhteensä 500 englannin kielen ylioppilaskokeen kirjoitelmaa vuosilta 1990, 2000 ja 2005. Tutkittuihin piirteisiin kuuluvat 9 leksikaalista ja 5 syntaktista siirtovaikutuspiirrettä. Siirtovaikutuksen tunnistaminen perustuu yhtäältä suomi-englanti kontrastiiviseen vertailuun ja toisaalta suomenkielisten ja ruotsinkielisten ylioppilaskokelaiden kirjoitelmien vertailuun. Vertailukorpus koostuu ruotsinkielisten ylioppilaskokelaiden englannin kielen ylioppilaskokeen kirjoitelmista. Tulokset osoittavat, että leksikaalisten ja syntaktisten siirtovaikutuspiirteiden määrät eivät ole muuttuneet samalla lailla tutkitulla aikavälillä. Useimmat leksikaalisen siirtovaikutuksen piirteet olivat merkittävästi vähentyneet, kun taas syntaktisen siirtovaikutuksen määrä oli pysynyt samalla tasolla tai lisääntynyt. Tämä viittaa siihen, että ylioppilaskokelaiden kirjoitetun englannin taidot ovat kehittyneet leksikaalisen idiomaattisuuden osalta, mutta heidän syntaktisten rakenteiden hallinnassa ei ole tapahtunut samanlaista positiivista kehitystä. Leksikaalisen ja syntaktisen siirtovaikutuksen erilaiset kehityssuunnat kertovat myös siitä, että oppijoilla, joiden äidinkieli on typologisesti etäinen kohdekielestä, syntaktinen siirtovaikutus on pitkäkestoisempaa kuin leksikaalinen siirtovaikutus. Näissä tuloksissa voidaan myös nähdä formaalissa ja epäformaalissa englannin kielen oppimisympäristössa parin viime vuosikymmenen aikana tapahtuneet muutokset. Suomalaisten ylioppilaskokelaiden lisääntynyt englannin kielen käyttö sekä opetusmenetelmien lisääntynyt kommunikatiivisuuspainotteisuus näyttävät vähentäneen siirtovaikutusvirheitä monilla englannin kielen sanaston osa-alueilla, mutta nämä eivät ole edesauttaneet niiden syntaktisten rakenteiden hallintaa, jotka ovat erilaisia suomessa ja englannissa. Acknowledgements This study began eight years ago when I, as a third-year student of English, was choosing a topic for my Master’s Thesis. It was then that I first read studies by Håkan Ringbom on the role of L1 influence in foreign language learning, and on the difficulties that Finnish- speaking learners encounter in their acquisition of English as a foreign language. I immediately knew that this is what I want to examine in my own research, which has expanded from a Master’s Thesis first into a Licentiate Thesis and now into this dissertation. This path would have been less straightforward without the help from several people. Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisors Greg Watson and Markku Filppula. Greg, as my supervisor throughout the progression of this work from a Master’s Thesis to a PhD dissertation, encouraged me to pursue PhD studies from very early on, and has continuously supported and guided me along the way. Markku’s encouraging and insightful comments have greatly helped me to find the focus of this research, while at the same time he has given me space to make my own discoveries. I also wish to thank my pre-examiner, Scott Jarvis, for his detailed comments on my work and for agreeing to act as the opponent at my defence. I also thank Håkan Ringbom, as first the pre-examiner of my Licentiate Thesis and now of this dissertation, for his constructive feedback on my work. I also thank both Scott and Håkan for their encouragement and the interest they have shown towards the progression of my work over the years. I am also grateful to several other people who have assisted and supported me along the way. Stefan Werner and Teemu Luojola have given me valuable advice in the selection of appropriate statistical tests and technical support with statistical calculations and corpus compilation. The supervisors, other experts and PhD students within Langnet, the Finnish graduate school in language studies,