A Study of Native Chinese Speakers Learning Indo-european Languages: The Case of English and Russian

Research Article
Open access

A Study of Native Chinese Speakers Learning Indo-european Languages: The Case of English and Russian

Keqing Jiang 1*
  • 1 College of Foreign Languages, Nankai University, Weijin Road, Tianjin, China    
  • *corresponding author 1911921@mail.nankai.edu.cn
CHR Vol.3
ISSN (Print): 2753-7072
ISSN (Online): 2753-7064
ISBN (Print): 978-1-915371-29-4
ISBN (Online): 978-1-915371-30-0

Abstract

Language proximity can have different degrees of influence on trilingual acquisition. For example, Japanese has a strong influence on Chinese, while English has a strong influence on Russian. This study used interviews and corpus analysis to examine learners with different levels of English as a second foreign language and Russian as a third foreign language. It was found that when native Chinese speakers learn a language belonging to the Indo-European family, the influence of English on Russian learning is greater than that of native Chinese, and the specific influence of English will be different at different stages. Based on the study some suggestions are also made for trilingual teaching. Considering that the majority of Chinese language learners today have a certain level of proficiency of English, it is significant to conduct the research of L3 learners who is native Chinese and whose L2 is English. Through interviewing the subjects and analysing their compositions, the researchers find that English as L2 both facilitates and hinders L3 acquisition. In particular, intermediate L3 learners are most likely to be influenced by L2, and conversely, advanced L3 learners are rarely influenced by their L2 English. L3 acquisition is more likely to be influenced by L2 when L3 and L2 are in a closer linguistic distance than L3 and L1. This study contributes to multilingual acquisition research and provides effective suggestions for multilingual teaching strategy.

Keywords:

Trilingual acquisition, English learning, Russian learning

Jiang,K. (2023). A Study of Native Chinese Speakers Learning Indo-european Languages: The Case of English and Russian. Communications in Humanities Research,3,574-579.
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References

[1]. Kimberly Geeslin. The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Sociolinguistics[M]. Taylor and Francis, 2022

[2]. Cal Zuzanna and Sypiańska Jolanta. The interaction of L2 and L3 levels of proficiency in third language acquisition[J]. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 2020, 56(4): 577-603.

[3]. Ebru Türker. "Transfer in Third Language Acquisition: A Study of L2 Japanese Influence on the L3 Acquisition of Korean Postpositions". EONEOHAG null.79(2017): 193-226.

[4]. Fengzhen CAI. The Influence of L2 (Chinese) on the acquisition of L3 (English) by minority students in Xinjiang[D]. Northeast Normal University (NENU), 2012.

[5]. Kevin McManus. "Review of Le Bruyn & Paquot (2021): Learner Corpus Research Meets Second Language Acquisition". International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 8.1(2022): 150-155.

[6]. Boping YUAN. Directionality of first language transfer and economy principle in second language acquisition: Evidence from L2 syntax and discourse [J]. Chinese Teaching in the World, 2022,36(03):379-398.DOI:10.13724/j.cnki.ctiw.2022.03.011.

[7]. Hamed Ghaemi. The Exploration of Multilingualism: Development of research on L3, multilingualism and multiple language acquisition (book review)[J]. Nonpartisan Education Review, 2011, 7(2): 1-2.

[8]. Xiaoting WANG. The Influence of Second language on Third language acquisition[D]. Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, 2018.

[9]. Cui MAO, Yujuan CHEN. The Modulation of Second Language Proficiency in the Backward Transfer of Trilingual Learners [J]. Journal of Shandong University of Technology(Social Sciences Edition),2021,37(06):73-81.

[10]. Jianmin TANG, Di ZHAN, Lixia Zhu. L1 and L2 Transfer in the Use of Japanese Words by Chinese-English-Japanese Trilingual Students [J]. Foreign Language Research ,2022(01):84-91.DOI:10.16263/j.cnki.23-1071/h.2022.01.013.

[11]. Yaping CHEN, Miao WANG. An experimental study of Chinese- English-German trilinguals’ L3 semantic access in different modals,2020,52(04):559-568+640.DOI:10.19923/j.cnki.fltr.2020.04.007.

Cite this article

Jiang,K. (2023). A Study of Native Chinese Speakers Learning Indo-european Languages: The Case of English and Russian. Communications in Humanities Research,3,574-579.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies (ICIHCS 2022), Part 1

ISBN：978-1-915371-29-4(Print) / 978-1-915371-30-0(Online)
Editor：Faraz Ali Bughio, David T. Mitchell
Conference website: https://www.icihcs.org/
Conference date: 18 December 2022
Series: Communications in Humanities Research
Volume number: Vol.3
ISSN：2753-7064(Print) / 2753-7072(Online)

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References

[1]. Kimberly Geeslin. The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Sociolinguistics[M]. Taylor and Francis, 2022

[2]. Cal Zuzanna and Sypiańska Jolanta. The interaction of L2 and L3 levels of proficiency in third language acquisition[J]. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 2020, 56(4): 577-603.

[3]. Ebru Türker. "Transfer in Third Language Acquisition: A Study of L2 Japanese Influence on the L3 Acquisition of Korean Postpositions". EONEOHAG null.79(2017): 193-226.

[4]. Fengzhen CAI. The Influence of L2 (Chinese) on the acquisition of L3 (English) by minority students in Xinjiang[D]. Northeast Normal University (NENU), 2012.

[5]. Kevin McManus. "Review of Le Bruyn & Paquot (2021): Learner Corpus Research Meets Second Language Acquisition". International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 8.1(2022): 150-155.

[6]. Boping YUAN. Directionality of first language transfer and economy principle in second language acquisition: Evidence from L2 syntax and discourse [J]. Chinese Teaching in the World, 2022,36(03):379-398.DOI:10.13724/j.cnki.ctiw.2022.03.011.

[7]. Hamed Ghaemi. The Exploration of Multilingualism: Development of research on L3, multilingualism and multiple language acquisition (book review)[J]. Nonpartisan Education Review, 2011, 7(2): 1-2.

[8]. Xiaoting WANG. The Influence of Second language on Third language acquisition[D]. Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, 2018.

[9]. Cui MAO, Yujuan CHEN. The Modulation of Second Language Proficiency in the Backward Transfer of Trilingual Learners [J]. Journal of Shandong University of Technology(Social Sciences Edition),2021,37(06):73-81.

[10]. Jianmin TANG, Di ZHAN, Lixia Zhu. L1 and L2 Transfer in the Use of Japanese Words by Chinese-English-Japanese Trilingual Students [J]. Foreign Language Research ,2022(01):84-91.DOI:10.16263/j.cnki.23-1071/h.2022.01.013.

[11]. Yaping CHEN, Miao WANG. An experimental study of Chinese- English-German trilinguals’ L3 semantic access in different modals,2020,52(04):559-568+640.DOI:10.19923/j.cnki.fltr.2020.04.007.

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