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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 Assoc Prof , Dr Tran Huu Phuc 2 Assoc Prof , Dr Nguyen Tat Thang Da Nang, 2022 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted i.
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 Assoc Prof , Dr Tran Huu Phuc Assoc Prof , Dr Nguyen Tat Thang Da Nang, 2022 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 i 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 < 05 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 CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF THE FIGURES x LIST OF THE TABLES xi Chapter One INTRODUCTION 1 Research background 1 Statement of the problem Aims and Objectives Research questions 11 Definition of terms 13 Significance of the study 16 Scope of the study 17 Outline of the thesis 18 Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 20 Introducing Language transfer 20 2 Language transfer problems 22 2 Problems of definition 23 2 Problems with comparison 24 2 Problems of prediction 25 2 Positive transfer 25 2 Negative transfer 25 2 Problems of generalization 27 2 Language universals 28 2 Linguistic typologies 28 iii 2 Universalist assumptions 29 Language transfer development 29 Behaviorist view on language transfer 31 Mentalist view on language transfer 32 3 Cognitive view of language transfer 33 English prepositions 35 English prepositions from the Morphological perspective 37 English prepositions from the Syntactic perspective 38 English prepositions from the Cognitive Linguistics Perspective 40 The trajector/ subject and landmark of prepositions 40 Domains 41 3 Image Schema 42 4 Metaphor 43 Embodiment 44 Cognitive studies on second language acquisition 45 Cognitive studies on English preposition usages in the Vietnamese context48 Studies related to Cognitive studies of prepositional meanings 50 Studies related to negative transfer on prepositions 53 Studies related to biological gender as a source of language transfer 54 10 The theoretical framework for language transfer 56 11 Summary 59 Chapter Three RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 60 Research context 60 Research design 61 Survey design 62 1 Population and Sample Size 62 2 Participants 65 3 Materials 65 Data collection and analysis procedures 66 Variables and measurement 66 iv Reliability and validity 67 Hypothesis Testing 68 Statistics report 69 2 Empirical design 72 2 Participants 72 2 Materials 73 2 Procedures 73 2 Variables and measurement 74 3 Corpus design 74 3 Preparatory Courses for VSTEP Corpus (PCVC) 74 3 British National Corpus (BNC) 75 3 Text collection and Processing 76 3 Summary 77 Chapter Four NEGATIVE L1 TRANSFER IN THE USE OF ENGLISH PREPOSITIONS BY VIETNAMESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH 79 Factors related to crosslinguistic similarity 79 Factors related to Cognitive embodiment and the difference among regions in terms of language transfer affecting the usage of specific prepositions 85 Factors related to Recency 90 4 Factors related to the learning environment 92 Factors related to the low level of learning 97 Factors related to area of L1 language acquisition 99 Factors related to L1 frequency use 103 Summary 106 Chapter Five INTERFERENCE OF L1 BACKGROUND AND CULTURE ON THE CHOICE OF ENGLISH PREPOSITIONS 108 Tendency of Vietnamese learners to use simple prepositions rather than complex prepositions 108 Geographical factors and favorite colors negatively affecting the choice of English prepositions 113 v Conclusion 117 Chapter Six GENDER AS A SOURCE OF NEGATIVE TRANSFER 118 Qualitative results 120 Quantitative results 122 Prepositions Indicating Location 122 2 Prepositions Indicating Movement or Direction 125 Prepositions Indicating Time 131 Compound Prepositions 135 Prepositions collocating with other words 137 6 Prepositions in Phrasal Verbs and participles 141 Summary 143 Chapter Seven CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 144 Recapitulation 144 Pedagogical implications for teaching English prepositions 148 Limitation and suggestions for further research 149 AUTHOR’S WORKS RELATED TO THE THESIS 151 REFERENCES 152 APPENDIX 178 APPENDIX 183 APPENDIX 186 APPENDIX 206 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me help with the completion of this Ph D thesis First and foremost, I would like to express sincere thanks to my supervisors, Assoc Prof Dr Tran Huu Phuc and Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Tat Thang for all their support and encouragement during my long Ph D research period Without their advice and constant feedback, this Ph D thesis would not have been completed Secondly, I owe my sincere gratitude to Dr Ngu Thien Hung, Assoc Prof Phan Van Hoa, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Van Long, Assoc Prof Dr Luu Quy Khuong, Dr Le Thi Giao Chi, Assoc Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa, Assoc Prof Dr Ho Thi Kieu Oanh, Dr Tran Quang Hai, Prof Dr Tran Van Phuoc, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Quang Ngoan, and other academic panelists who advised and helped me during many discussions and seminars conducted during this Ph D thesis Their constructive comments have kept my Ph D 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 D academic life 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 D research period Lastly, I would like to thank my wife and our children for their love, care, and unfailing support me while completing this Ph D thesis vii 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 e , 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 SLA TOEIC TR VSTEP Second Language Acquisition Test Of English for International Communication Trajector Vietnamese Standardised Test of English Proficiency ix 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 APPENDIX Interview questions for selected participants in the survey Do you think gender plays a crucial role in defining directions as well as language expressions on directions? The author pointed to the things in the room and asked participants to describe its place or location Translate the following sentence into English ―Cô yêu ” Translate the following sentence into English ―Cô trường ” Translate the following sentence into English ―Cô giường” Translate the following sentence into English ―Mùa xuân ngày đầu tháng Giêng ” Translate the following sentence into English ―Trong suốt kỳ nghỉ lễ, làm nhiều thứ ” Translate the following sentence into English ―Máy bay bay bầu trời ” Translate the following sentence into English ‗Trong chặng cuối hành trình, chúng tơi dừng lại để mua trái ‟ 10 ―Hãy nhớ điện thoại cho vào lúc sáng nhá!‖ 206 ... Metaphor 43 Embodiment 44 Cognitive studies on second language acquisition 45 Cognitive studies on English preposition usages in the Vietnamese context48 Studies related to Cognitive studies of prepositional... nơi, ở, qua, quanh, ra, sang, sau, tại, tận, theo, tới, trên, trong, trước, từ, vào, về, vì, với, and xuống ‘ Vietnamese linguistics scholars have carried out contrastive analysis studies on Vietnamese... users The findings will aid individual English users in determining where their energy should be directed, i e , which prepositions are relatively difficult to acquire or require additional emphasis,