Positive And Negative Effects Of L2 Essay

Positive and negative effects of L1 on the pronunciation of L2

According to Huthaily (2003), there are two forms of language transfer: (1) Positive transfer (also called facilitation), which is when there is a similarity between the first and second language and leads to something correct and thus this form helps with the L2 acquisition process. (2) Negative transfer (also called interference), which is when there is a dissimilarity between the first and second language and leads to something incorrect and thus this form hinders the L2 acquisition process (p. 10). Markey (1998) proposes that the similarities and differences in two language (L1 and L2) affect language learning either positively or negatively and gives examples: an example of how similarities have a positive effect is how French and English have the same palato-alveolar fricatives, so a French

For example, French does not have the English affricates (like in “much” and “jog”) and thus, it is more likely that French speakers will be capable of producing these sounds because they are making a conscious effort (Markey, 1998, p. 2). According to Markey (1998), the sounds that the L2 has but that the L1 lacks are the most difficult ones to pronounce. The example she used is the sounds for French speakers because these sounds do not exist in French, which is why French speakers find it challenging to pronounce words such as “think” and “this” (p.3). Another difficulty that leads to a negative influence that Markey mentions is the abundance of differences between French and American English phonological rules. For instance, French has the same voiceless stops /p t k/ as English, however, in English these stops become aspirated at the start of a word or a stressed syllable while in French, these stops are unaspirated in the same situations (p.3). All of these differences negatively influence how French speakers produce English sounds and let