Lexical transfer and avoidance in the acquisition of English phrasal verbs

Abstract

The main focus of this thesis is lexical transfer, avoidance, and the influence Norwegian and Russian languages have on the acquisition of English. It will be claimed that Russians avoid using English phrasal verbs more often than Norwegians. Besides, it will be claimed that Norwegians will choose PVs that look similar to Norwegian ones, but in the given English context do not make sense, and it will indicate negative transfer. Reasons for this will be suggested in the chapter on second language acquisition and transfer, researches on transfer and PVs. I will also give definitions and descriptions to English, Norwegian PVs and Russian prefixed verbs. Transfer plays a major role in transfer in L2 vocabulary, especially if the L1 and L2 are related. It is obvious that cases of both positive and negative transfer are more frequent between the languages that are closely related, thus L1 transfer will take place far more often for the Norwegian English learners than for the Russian English learners. As we know, Norwegian and English belong to the same group of Germanic languages, while Russian belongs to the Slavic languages. Furthermore I present the role of English, Russian and Norwegian in modern society and the way those languages are taught. I describe the educational systems in Russia and Norway and English Curricula in the two countries. The experimental part presents the choice of method for this study and the tests. It is also concerned with the formulations of the three hypotheses and the descriptions of the tests and the participants of the study. The significant role L1 transfer plays in the acquisition of English demands further research. The present analysis will hopefully contribute to the studies of language transfer and in particular of transfer issues in the usage of English phrasal verbs.