THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES TRAN TIN NGHI A COGNITIVE STUDY OF NEGATIVE TRANSFER OF ENGLISH PREPOSITIONS MADE BY VIETNAMESE LEARNERS Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 9220201 DOCTORAL THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES SUPERVISORS: 1. Tran Huu Phuc 2. Nguyen Tat Thang Da Nang, 2022 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. No other person‘s work has been used without due acknowledgments in the thesis.
This thesis has not been submitted to award any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. Da Nang, March 2022 Tran Tin Nghi i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Many current linguists are interested in whether cognition has any influence on foreign language acquisition. A large number of research have been conducted on L1 transfer; however, the grounds for applying Cognitive Linguistics to language transfer continue to focus on surface structures of the mother tongue and target languages, rather than the underlying causes, which are the cognition of language users. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the cognitive factors that influence the usage of English prepositions by Vietnamese learners of English.
The author presented how Vietnamese learners of English express prepositional meanings from the perspective of Cognitive linguistics and which factors negatively impacted the way Vietnamese learners of English used prepositions. An online survey investigating negative L1 transfer on the use of English prepositions among Vietnamese learners of English was distributed to English learners. Two thousand, eight hundred and thirty-one respondents of differing proficiency levels, qualifications, locations, ages, and biological sexes were surveyed. Analysis of the responses showed that negative L1 transfer was associated with the respondents‟ cognition.
Their personal perception of the world and language influenced their L2 production. An empirical experiment using an AI chatbot (a form of Facebook Messenger) was also included in the survey to check whether the learning environment contributed to language transfer or not. The author built a speaking and writing assignment corpus from Preparatory Courses for VSTEP to confirm study results. The study results indicated that learners‟ L1 cognition played a significant role in affecting learners‟ L2 competence, of which negative conceptual transfer made up a sizeable proportion.
In particular, the Vietnamese cognition of space (M < 41.47) was responsible for negative L1 transfer to the target language (English). Gender and other non-linguistic factors also contributed to language transfer on the quality of L2 communication with the sig. This thesis recommends that language teachers take students‟ L1 conceptual transfer into account when planning lessons in order to prevent some predictable mistakes in their L2 usage. Linguists, translators, and interpreters must understand the relevant L1 conceptual transfer to improve their L2 production in their work.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. viii LIST OF THE FIGURES. x LIST OF THE TABLES. xi Chapter One: INTRODUCTION.
Statement of the problem. Aims and Objectives. Definition of terms. Significance of the study.
Scope of the study. Outline of the thesis. 18 Chapter Two: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Introducing Language transfer.
Language transfer problems. Problems of definition. Problems with comparison. Problems of prediction.
Problems of generalization. 28 iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Language transfer development. Behaviorist view on language transfer.
Mentalist view on language transfer. Cognitive view of language transfer. English prepositions from the Morphological perspective. English prepositions from the Syntactic perspective.
English prepositions from the Cognitive Linguistics Perspective. The trajector/ subject and landmark of prepositions. Cognitive studies on second language acquisition. Cognitive studies on English preposition usages in the Vietnamese context48 2.
Studies related to Cognitive studies of prepositional meanings. Studies related to negative transfer on prepositions .9 Studies related to biological gender as a source of language transfer. The theoretical framework for language transfer. 59 Chapter Three: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
Population and Sample Size. Data collection and analysis procedures. Variables and measurement. 66 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Reliability and validity .4 Variables and measurement. Preparatory Courses for VSTEP Corpus (PCVC). British National Corpus (BNC). Text collection and Processing.
77 Chapter Four: NEGATIVE L1 TRANSFER IN THE USE OF ENGLISH PREPOSITIONS BY VIETNAMESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH. Factors related to crosslinguistic similarity. Factors related to Cognitive embodiment and the difference among regions in terms of language transfer affecting the usage of specific prepositions. Factors related to Recency.
Factors related to the learning environment. Factors related to the low level of learning. Factors related to area of L1 language acquisition. Factors related to L1 frequency use.
106 Chapter Five: INTERFERENCE OF L1 BACKGROUND AND CULTURE ON THE CHOICE OF ENGLISH PREPOSITIONS. Tendency of Vietnamese learners to use simple prepositions rather than complex prepositions. Geographical factors and favorite colors negatively affecting the choice of English prepositions. 113 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
117 Chapter Six: GENDER AS A SOURCE OF NEGATIVE TRANSFER. Prepositions Indicating Location. Prepositions Indicating Movement or Direction. Prepositions Indicating Time.
Prepositions collocating with other words. Prepositions in Phrasal Verbs and participles. 143 Chapter Seven: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Pedagogical implications for teaching English prepositions.
Limitation and suggestions for further research. 149 AUTHOR’S WORKS RELATED TO THE THESIS. 206 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me help with the completion of this Ph. First and foremost, I would like to express sincere thanks to my supervisors, Assoc.
Tran Huu Phuc and Assoc. Nguyen Tat Thang for all their support and encouragement during my long Ph. Without their advice and constant feedback, this Ph. thesis would not have been completed.
Secondly, I owe my sincere gratitude to Dr. Ngu Thien Hung, Assoc. Phan Van Hoa, Assoc. Nguyen Van Long, Assoc.
Luu Quy Khuong, Dr. Le Thi Giao Chi, Assoc. Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa, Assoc. Ho Thi Kieu Oanh, Dr.
Tran Quang Hai, Prof. Tran Van Phuoc, Assoc. Nguyen Quang Ngoan, and other academic panelists who advised and helped me during many discussions and seminars conducted during this Ph. Their constructive comments have kept my Ph.
thesis focused on the central goals of the study. Thirdly, I would like to thank the lecturers and staff in the Faculty of English and Department of Academic Affairs at the University of Foreign Language Studies - University of Da Nang for their expertise and family-like support during my Ph. Fourthly, I wholeheartedly thank the teachers and my colleagues in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry, who were always very helpful and provided me with their assistance throughout my Ph. Lastly, I would like to thank my wife and our children for their love, care, and unfailing support me while completing this Ph.
vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABBREVIATIONS AI Artificial Intelligent BNC British National Corpus CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages CL Cognitive Linguistics CLI Cross-linguistic influence Df/ df Degrees of freedom EA Error Analysis EFL English as a foreign language ELT English language teaching FL Foreign Language HUFI Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry ICT Information and Communication Technology L1 First language L1>L2 The transfer from L1 to L2 L2 Second language LCS Lexical Conceptual Structure LM Landmark M Mean MOET Ministry of Education and Training N The number of valid (i., non-missing) observations NP Noun phrase P1-12 Participant(s) 1-12 PCVC Preparatory Courses for VSTEP Corpus PP Prepositional phrase Q. Question SD Standard deviation Sig. Significant level viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com SLA Second Language Acquisition TOEIC Test Of English for International Communication TR Trajector VSTEP Vietnamese Standardised Test of English Proficiency ix LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF THE FIGURES Figure 1. The correct Trajector and Landmark for "Mom is in the garden.
Possible trajectories for “Quả bóng ở trên đầu anh ấy. “Possible trajectories for “The cat jumped over the wall.Detection operates on input to send an utterance of grammatical relationship for hypothesis testing (Tomlin & Villa, 2008, p. Conceptual transfer framework in Vietnamese context of learning English. A sample of the first 39 concordances of preposition „IN‟ in the PCVC.
Vietnamese and English preposition comparison. The frequency of English prepositions in Writing assignments (Source: PCVC). Picture B – in the task of describing a picture. The frequency of English collocation of preposition 'IN'.
The frequency of English collocation of preposition 'ON'. Frequencies of English prepositions employed in describing Picture B. Frequencies of English prepositions employed in describing five pictures. The chatbot screenshots of a test in experiment.
The demonstration for “ACROSS … FROM” with the street running between two houses. The demonstrations of choice „IN‟ or „ON‟. The list of -ing morpheme in Vietnamese learners ' essays. Pie chart representation of male participants‟ questionnaire response rates 118 Figure 6.
Pie chart representation of female respondents‟ questionnaire response rates. Pie chart representation of gender-secretive participants‟ questionnaire response rates. The illustration for LM and TR of English preposition 'UNDER'. The process of cross-linguistic influence.
147 x LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF THE TABLES Table 2. The domains for three English prepositions: AT, ON, and IN _____________ 42 Figure 3. A sample of the first 39 concordances of preposition „IN‟ in the PCVC. Vietnamese and English preposition comparison.
The frequency of English prepositions in Writing assignments (Source: PCVC). Picture B – in the task of describing a picture. The frequency of English collocation of preposition 'IN'. The frequency of English collocation of preposition 'ON'.
Frequencies of English prepositions employed in describing Picture B. Frequencies of English prepositions employed in describing five pictures. The chatbot screenshots of a test in experiment. The demonstration for “ACROSS … FROM” with the street running between two houses.
The demonstrations of choice „IN‟ or „ON‟. The list of -ing morpheme in Vietnamese learners ' essays. Simple and Compound and complex Prepositions in the questionnaire. Score report for simple and complex prepositions.
Participants‟ performance based on their qualifications for simple and complex prepositions. T-Test result of variation between Bachelor and others. Simple prepositions wrong answers percentage. Complex prepositions wrong answers percentage.
Total Score, Place of Residence Distribution Table. Total mean score for social factors. The correlations of the location and Scores. ANOVA Test for the correlation between the total score Figure 6.and other factors.
116 xi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Location prepositional accuracy/inaccuracy frequency for items 1-3 in term of gender differences. Location prepositional accuracy/inaccuracy frequency for Item 1. Location prepositional accuracy/inaccuracy frequency for Item 2.
Location prepositional accuracy/inaccuracy frequency for Item 3. Location prepositional accuracy among the gender-secretive respondents. Movement prepositional accuracy among respondents. Movement prepositional accuracy/inaccuracy frequency for Item 4.
Movement prepositional accuracy/inaccuracy frequency for Item 5. Movement prepositional accuracy/inaccuracy frequency for Item 6. Movement prepositional accuracy/inaccuracy frequency for Item 7. Movement prepositional accuracy/inaccuracy frequency for Item 8.
The gender's performance on the use of movement prepositions. Group statistics between males' and females' performance in Items 4-8. Time prepositional accuracy among respondents. Time prepositional accuracy/inaccuracy frequency for item 9.
Time prepositional accuracy/inaccuracy frequency for Item 10 .