Language interference and language transfer

Applied linguistics is the branch of linguistics which concerned with practical

applications of language studies, with particular emphasis on the communicative
function of language, and including such professional practices as lexicography,
terminology, general or technical translation, language teaching (general or
specialized language, mother tongue or second language), writing interpretation,
and computer processing of language.

Applied linguistics has influenced or may influence in the future the teaching and
learning of English as a foreign language. The observations in applied linguistics
may help us to improve the methods of language teaching. The observation that
can be done is by contrasting native language and target language. By contrasting
the two languages we can find the similarities and differences. One kind of
contrastive analysis is language interference. It is most commonly discussed in the
context of English language learning and teaching, but it can occur in any situation
when someone does not have a native-level command of a language, as when
translating into a second language.

B. Problems of Identification

The working paper has objectives as follow:

to explain what language interference is

to explain the factors that cause interference

to mention the effects of interference

A. Language Interference
Language transfer (also known as L1 interference, linguistic interference, and
cross meaning) refers to speakers or writers applying knowledge from their native
language to a second language. Dulay et al (1982) define interference as the
automatic transfer, due to habit, of the surface structure of the first language
onto the surface of the target language. Lott (1983: 256) defines interference as
‘errors in the learner’s use of the foreign language that can be traced back to the
mother tongue’. Ellis (1997: 51) refers to interference as ‘transfer’, which he says
is ‘the influence that the learner’s L1 exerts over the acquisition of an L2’. He
argues that transfer is governed by learners’ perceptions about what is
transferable and by their stage of development in L2 learning. In learning a target
language, learners construct their own interim rules (Selinker, 1971, Seligar, 1988
and Ellis, 1997) with the use of their L1 knowledge, but only when they believe it
will help them in the learning task or when they have become sufficiently
proficient in the L2 for transfer to be possible.

When an individual’s understanding of one language has an impact on his or her

understanding of another language, that individual is experiencing language
transfer. There can be negative transfers, otherwise known as interference, when
the understanding of one language complicates the understanding of another
language. Alternatively, there can be positive transfers such that knowing one
language can aid in developing skills for a second language. Language interference
is the effect of language learners’ first language on their production of the
language they are learning. It means that the speaker’s first language influences
his/her second or and his/her foreign language.

The effect can be on any aspect of language: grammar, vocabulary, accent,

spelling and so on. Language interference is considered as one of error sources
(negative transfer), although where the relevant feature of both languages is the
same it results in correct language production (positive transfer). The greater the
differences between the two languages, the more negative the effects of
interference are likely to be. It will inevitably occur in any situation where
someone has not mastered a second language.

Corder outlines one way in which interference can be recast as a learner strategy.
He suggests that the learner’s L1 may facilitate the development process of
learning an L2, by helping him to progress more rapidly along the universal route
when the L1 is similar to the L2. Krashen when he suggests that the learners can
use the L1 to initiate utterances when they do not have sufficient acquired
knowledge of the target language for this purpose.

The relationship between the two languages must then be considered. Albert and
Obler (1978) claim that people show more lexical interference on similar items. So
it may follow that languages with more similar structures (e.g. English and French)
are more susceptible to mutual interference than languages with fewer similar
features (e.g. English and Japanese). On the other hand, we might also expect
more learning difficulties, and thus more likelihood of performance interference
at those points in L2 which are more distant from L1, as the learner would find it
difficult to learn and understand a completely new and different usage. Hence the
learner would resort to L1 structures for help (Selinker, 1979; Dulay et al, 1982;
Blum-Kulka&Levenston, 1983; Faerch& Kasper, 1983, Bialystok, 1990 and Dordick,
1996).

B. Factors that Cause Language Interference

Interference is a general problem that occurs in bilingualism. There are many

factors that contribute interference (Weinrich, 1970:64-65):

First, speaker bilingualism background. Bilingualism is the major factor of

interference as the speaker is influenced by both of the source and the target
language. Indonesia’s student who is Javanese and is studying good Bahasa tends
to put his Javanese language into Indonesia. Look the example, ‘Andi, apakah
kamu bisa mengerjakan soal matematika ini?” tanya guru. Then Andi answered,
“Tidak bisa, Bu Guru, lha wong itu angel.” The impression of ‘lha wong’ is usual in
Javanese cultural insight. The word ‘angel’ means difficult in Bahasa, the student
should reply his teacher with “Tidak bisa, Bu Guru, soalnya sulit’. Regarding this
condition, the student is a second grade of elementary school.

Second, disloyalty to target language. Disloyalty to target language will cause

negative attitude. This will lead to disobedience to target language structure and
further force the bilingualist to put uncontrolled structure of his first language
elements to output in practicing words utterances both oral and written. Students
whose language background of TL is limited tend to put words in sentences or
oral in structure and sense of first language. For example is occurred in Facebook
status made by an Indonesian, “So must to spirit.” While the correct sentence is “I
must keep spirit.”

Third, the limited vocabularies of TL mastered by a learner. Vocabularies of

certain language mostly are about words of surroundings connected to life. Thus,
a learner who is willing to master another language will meet new words differ
from his native words. In order to be able to speak as natives of TL, vocabularies
take a big role. The more vocabularies someone has, the better he masters TL.
Foreign language learner will try to put deliberately his native word to state some
points when he cannot find the best words of TL. For example, when an
Indonesian wants to mention‘rambutan’, he stills mention ‘rambutan’ when he
speaks in English. Since there is no English word for ‘rambutan’.

Fourth, needs of synonym. Synonym in language usage plays an important role as

word chosen variation in order not to repeat similar word during the
communication process (redundancy). Implementing synonym in a language
contact will contribute to interference in the form of adoption and borrowing of
new words from SL to TL. Thus, need of synonym for certain word from SL to TL is
seemingly aimed to intensify meaning.

Fifth, prestige and style. Applying unfamiliar words (foreign words) during a

communication practice which dominant words are languages of both speaker
and receiver is something else. Those unfamiliar words usage is aimed to get a
pride. Interference will appear as there are certain words even though the
receiver probably cannot catch the real idea of the speech. The usual unfamiliar
words usage will become a style of the user. Unfortunately, the user sometimes
does not understand the real meaning whether the meaning is denotative or
connotative. The common feature is that many language users put derivational
affix –ization in every word. To note, affix –ization is an adopting and borrowing
process from English to state nouns.

According to Lott (1983: 258 -259), there are three factors that cause the
interference:
1. The interlingual factor

Interlingual transfer is a significant source for language learners. This concept

comes from contrastive analysis of behaviouristic school of learning. It stresses
upon the negative interference of mother tongue as the only source of errors. The
construction – ‘I like to read’ is uttered as ‘I read to like’ by many Hindi speakers.
In Hindi, the verb is pre-positioned while in English it is post positioned. This type
of error is the result of negative transfer of L1 rules to L2 system.

Commonly, errors are caused by the differences between the first and the second
language. Such a contrastive analysis hypothesis occurs where structures in the
first language which are different from those in the second language produce the
errors reflecting the structure of first language. Such errors were said to be due to
the influence of learners’ first language habits on second language production
(Dulay et. al, 1982: 97).

Corder in Richard (1967: 19) says that errors are the result of interference in
learning a second language from the habits of the first language. Because of the
difference in system especially grammar, the students will transfer their first
language into the second language by using their mother tongue system.

2. The over extension of analogy

Usually, a learner has been wrong in using a vocabulary caused by the similarity of
the element between first language and second language, e.g. the use of cognate
words (the same form of word in two languages with different functions or
meanings). The example is the using of month and moon. Indonesian learners
may make a mistake by using month to say moon in the space.

3. Transfer of structure

There are two types of transfer according to Dulay et.al (1982: 101), positive
transfer and negative transfer. Negative transfer refers to those instances of
transfer, which result in error because old habitual behavior is different from the
new behavior being learned. On the contrary, positive transfer is the correct
utterance, because both the first language and second language have the same
structure, while the negative transfer from the native language is called
interference.

Interference is the deviation of target language as a result of their familiarity with

more than one language. Dulay et.al (1982: 98) differentiates interference into
two parts, the psychological and sociolinguistic. The psychological refers to the
influence of old habits when new ones are being learned, whereas sociolinguistic
refers to interactions of language when two language communities are in contact.
Therefore students will find it difficult in mastering the second language due to
the interference, which is influenced by old habit, familiar with mother tongue
and interaction of two languages in the communities.

C. Effects of Language Interference

The background of L1 for learning L2 has both advantages and disadvantages. The
factor of ‘language universal’ helps in learning. All languages have tense system,
number, gender, plural etc. This helps the learner in identifying these areas in the
target language. But the interference of L1 in L2 leads to errors. One of the
assumptions of the contrastive analysis hypothesis was that learners with
different L1s would learn a L2 in different ways, as a result of negative transfer
imposing different kinds of difficulty.

Interference may be viewed as the transference of elements of one language to

another at various levels including phonological, grammatical, lexical and
orthographical (Berthold, Mangubhai & Batorowicz, 1997). Berthold et al (1997)
define phonological interference as items including foreign accent such as stress,
rhyme, intonation and speech sounds from the first language influencing the
second. Grammatical interference is defined as the first language influencing the
second in terms of word order, use of pronouns and determinants, tense and
mood. Interference at a lexical level provides for the borrowing of words from
one language and converting them to sound more natural in another and
orthographic interference includes the spelling of one language altering another.

The most common source of error is in the process of learning a foreign language,
where the native tongue interferes; but interference may occur in the other
contact situations (as in multilingualism). In learning L1 certain habits of
perceiving and performing have to be established and the old habits tend to
intrude and interfere with the learning, so that the students may speak L2 (or FL)
with the intonation of his L1 or the word order of his L1 and so on.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A.    Conclusion

Language interference influences in learning language target. It has positive and

negative effects. The greater the differences between the two languages, the
more negative the effects of interference are likely to be.

B.     Suggestion

It is important for teacher to know the differences and similarities between

learner’s native language and the target language. By knowing them teacher will
be easier to decide what strategy, methodology or what material that will be used
in teaching second or foreign language.
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ellis, Rod. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. 1986. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Shastri, Pratima Dave. Communicative Approach To The Teaching Of English as A Second

Language. 2010. Mumbai: Himalaya Publishing House.

Surono. Guidelines on Applied Linguistics. 2013. Yogyakarta.

 
 Language transfer is the application of linguistic features from one language to another
by a bilingual or multilingual speaker. Language transfer may occur across both
languages in the acquisition of a simultaneous bilingual, from a mature speaker's first
language (L1) to a second language (L2) they are acquiring, or from an L2 back to the
L1.[1] Language transfer (also known as L1 interference, linguistic interference,
and crosslinguistic influence) is most commonly discussed in the context of English
language learning and teaching, but it can occur in any situation when someone does
not have a native-level command of a language, as when translating into a second
language. Language transfer is also a common topic in bilingual child language
acquisition as it occurs frequently in bilingual children especially when one language is
dominant.[2]

Contents

 1Types of language transfer

o 1.1Negative transfer
o 1.2Positive transfer
 2Conscious and unconscious transfer
 3Acceleration and deceleration
 4Language Transfer & Literacy Development
 5In comprehension
 6Broader effects
 7See also
 8Notes
 9References

Types of language transfer

Blackboard in Harvard classroom shows students' efforts at placing the ü and acute

accent diacritics used in Spanish orthography.
When the relevant unit or structure of both languages is the same, linguistic interference
can result in correct language production called positive transfer: here, the "correct"
meaning is in line with most native speakers' notions of acceptability. [3] An example is
the use of cognates. However, language interference is most often discussed as a
source of errors known as negative transfer, which can occur when speakers and
writers transfer items and structures that are not the same in both languages.

Negative transfer]
Within the theory of contrastive analysis, the systematic study of a pair of languages
with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities, the greater the
differences between the two languages, the more negative transfer can be expected.
[4]
 For example, in English, a preposition is used before a day of the week: "I'm going to
the beach on Friday." In Spanish, instead of a preposition the definite article is used:
"Voy a la playa el viernes." Novice Spanish students who are native English-speakers
may produce a transfer error and use a preposition when it is not necessary because of
their reliance on English. According to Whitley, it is natural for students to make such
errors based on how the English words are used. [5] Another typical example of negative
transfer concerns German students trying to learn English, despite being part of the
same Germanic language family. Since the German noun "Information" can also be
used in the plural – "Informationen" – German students will almost invariably use
"informations" in English, too, which would break the rules of uncountable nouns.[6] From
a more general standpoint, Brown mentions "all new learning involves transfer based on
previous learning".[7] That could also explain why initial learning of L1 will impact L2
acquisition.

Positive transfer]
The results of positive transfer go largely unnoticed and so are less often discussed.
Nonetheless, such results can have an observable effect. Generally speaking, the more
similar the two languages are and the more the learner is aware of the relation between
them, the more positive transfer will occur. For example, an Anglophone learner
of German may correctly guess an item of German vocabulary from its English
counterpart, but word order, phonetics, connotations, collocation, and other language
features are more likely to differ. That is why such an approach has the disadvantage of
making the learner more subject to the influence of "false friends", words that seem
similar between languages but differ significantly in meaning. This influence is
especially common among learners who misjudge the relation between languages or
mainly rely on visual learning.[8]
In addition to positive transfer potentially resulting in correct language production and
negative transfer resulting in errors, there is some evidence that any transfer from the
first language can result in a kind of technical, or analytical, advantage over native
(monolingual) speakers of a language. For example, L2 speakers of English whose first
language is Korean have been found to be more accurate with perception of unreleased
stops in English than native English speakers who are functionally monolingual because
of the different status of unreleased stops in Korean from English. [9] That "native-
language transfer benefit" appears to depend on an alignment of properties in the first
and the second languages that favors the linguistic biases of the first language, rather
than simply the perceived similarities between two languages.

Conscious and unconscious transfer

Language transfer may be conscious or unconscious. Consciously, learners or unskilled
translators may sometimes guess when producing speech or text in a second language
because they have not learned or have forgotten its proper usage. Unconsciously, they
may not realize that the structures and internal rules of the languages in question are
different. Such users could also be aware of both the structures and internal rules, yet
be insufficiently skilled to put them into practice, and consequently often fall back on
their first language. The unconscious aspect to language transfer can be demonstrated
in the case of the so-called "transfer-to-nowhere" principle put forward by Eric
Kellerman, which addressed language based on its conceptual organization instead of
its syntactic features. Here, language determines how the speaker
conceptualizes experience, with the principle describing the process as an unconscious
assumption that is subject to between-language variation. [10] Kellerman explained that it
is difficult for learners to acquire the construal patterns of a new language because
"learners may not look for the perspectives peculiar to the [target/L2] language; instead
they may seek the linguistic tools which will permit them to maintain their L1
perspective."[11]
The conscious transfer of language, on the other hand, can be illustrated in the principle
developed by Roger Andersen called "transfer-to-somewhere," which holds that "a
language structure will be susceptible to transfer only if it is compatible with natural
acquisitional principles or is perceived to have similar counterpart (a somewhere to
transfer to) in the recipient language." [12] This is interpreted as a heuristic designed to
make sense of the target language input by assuming a form of awareness on the part
of the learner to map L1 onto the L2.[13] An analogy that can describe the differences
between the Kellerman's and Anderson's principles is that the former is concerned with
the conceptualization that fuels the drive towards discovering the means of linguistic
expression whereas Andersen's focused on the acquisition of those means. [13]

Acceleration and deceleration

The theories of acceleration and deceleration are bilingual child language acquisition
theories based on the known norms of monolingual acquisition. These theories come
from comparisons of bilingual children's acquisition to that of their monolingual peers of
similar backgrounds.
Acceleration is a process similar to that of bootstrapping, where a child acquiring
language uses knowledge and skills from one language to aid in, and speed up their
acquisition of the other language.[14]
Deceleration is a process in which a child experiences negative effects (more mistakes
and slower language learning) on their language acquisition due to interference from
their other language.
Language Transfer & Literacy Development
Language transfer is often referred to as cross-language transfer. Cross-language
transfer is the ability to use skills acquired in one language and use those skills to
facilitate learning of a new language. [15] While cross-language transfer has been
researched and analyzed by many scholars over the years, the focus on cross-
language transfer in literacy research expanded in the 1990’s. [16] It is a topic that has
been gaining lots of interest from scholars due to the increasing amount of bilingual and
multi-lingual people, especially students, around the world. In the USA alone, English
Language Learners (ELL) account for over 10% of the students enrolled in public
schools.[17]
The Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis claims that while language transfer can
occur from L1 (First language) to L2 (Second language), there first has to  be a level of
proficiency in L1 literacy skills in order for the skills to transfer over into L2. [18] In other
words, there must be some prior knowledge of literacy skills in L1 to assist with
acquiring literacy skills in  L2. The acquisition of L2 literacy skills can be facilitated and
gained with greater ease by having more time, access, and experience  with L1 literary
skills.[19] Over time, through formal exposure and practice with literacy skills, L2 learners
have been able to catch up with their monolingual peers. [20] However, literacy skills
acquired in L2 can also be used to assist with literacy skills in L1 because cross-
language transfer is bidirectional. [21]
Though most studies have indicated that literacy cross-language transfer can occur
regardless of the L1 and L2 languages, Chung et al. (2012 [22]) state that cross-language
transfer is less likely to occur when the languages do not share similar orthography
systems. For example, using literacy skills acquired in English may be accessed and
used with more ease in Spanish because English and Spanish follow similar
orthography (they use letters). Whereas, using literacy skills acquired in English
to facilitate ease of learning Korean would be more difficult because these languages do
not follow a similar orthography system (English uses letters, and Korean uses
symbols).
Cross-language transfer can also occur with deaf bilinguals who use sign language and
read written words.[23] While people may think that American Sign Language (ASL) and
English are both the same language, they are not. According to the National Institute on
Deafness and Other Communications Disorders  “ASL is a language completely
separate and distinct from English. It contains all the fundamental features of language,
with its own rules for pronunciation, word formation, and word order".[24] Because sign
languages are considered to be their own language, most deaf people are considered to
be bilingual because they speak in one language (sign language) and they read in other
(examples: English, Spanish, Arabic, etc.). It should also be noted that not all sign
languages are the same. Some examples of different sign languages are American sign
Language (ASL), Mexican Sign Language (LSM), British Sign Language (BSL), Spanish
Sign Language (LSE), and many more.  

In comprehension
Transfer can also occur in polyglot individuals when comprehending verbal utterances
or written language. For instance, German and English both have relative clauses with
a noun-noun-verb (=NNV) order but which are interpreted differently in both languages:
German example: Das Mädchen, das die Frau küsst, ist blond
If translated word for word with word order maintained, this German relative clause is
equivalent to
English example: The girl that (or whom) the woman is kissing is blonde.
The German and the English examples differ in that in German the subject role can be
taken by das Mädchen (the girl) or die Frau (the woman) while in the English example
only the second noun phrase (the woman) can be the subject. In short, because
German singular feminine and neuter articles exhibit the same inflected form for the
accusative as for the nominative case, the German example is syntactically
ambiguous in that either the girl or the woman may be doing the kissing. In the English
example, both word-order rules and the test of substituting a relative pronoun with
different nominative and accusative case markings (e.g., whom/who*) reveal that
only the woman can be doing the kissing.
The ambiguity of the German NNV relative clause structure becomes obvious in cases
where the assignment of subject and object role is disambiguated. This can be because
of case marking if one of the nouns is grammatically male as in Der Mann, den die Frau
küsst... (The man that the woman is kissing...) vs. Der Mann, der die Frau küsst (The
man that is kissing the woman...) because in German the male definite article marks
the accusative case. The syntactic ambiguity of the German example also becomes
obvious in the case of semantic disambiguation. For instance in Das Eis, das die Frau
isst... (The ice cream that the woman is eating...) and Die Frau, die das Eis isst... (The
woman that is eating the ice cream...) only die Frau (the woman) is a plausible subject.
Because in English relative clauses with a noun-noun-verb structure (as in the example
above) the first noun can only be the object, native speakers of English who speak
German as a second language are likelier to interpret ambiguous German NNV relative
clauses as object relative clauses (= object-subject-verb order) than German native
speakers who prefer an interpretation in which the first noun phrase is the subject
(subject-object-verb order).[25] This is because they have transferred
their parsing preference from their first language English to their second language
German.