L1 Transfer and Tibetan EFL Learners  汉语 By Jon Lambert   Introduction L1 transfer is a “(l)earners’ use of patterns of the first language in second language sentences.”1 Sometimes a learner’s first language (L1) helps in the acquisition of a new language. At other times, L1 can cause difficulties when the learner tries using a new language. For example, Dutch speakers learning English “may make a /w/ with teeth and lip, leading to confusion with /v/: vile for while.”2  L1 transfer also occurs when Tibetan speakers study English as a foreign language (EFL). Below are some notes related to phonology, grammar and writing meant to help teachers and students identify and predict some of these L1 transfer issues for Tibetan students.   Phonology - There are several differences between English and Tibetan consonants. English uses some that are not present in Tibetan, and vice-versa. English uses /θ/ and /ð/ sounds, which Tibetan speakers often pronounce respectively as /s/ and /z/. For example, thank can sound like sank, and then like zen.3 - Likewise, English /f/ and /v/ sounds are difficult for some Tibetan EFL learners, because they do not occur regularly in Tibetan dialects. - Several consonant clusters in English, such as /sl/, /st/ and /pl/ are challenging as well, since they are not employed in L1. - Final consonants are also difficult for some Tibetan speakers. 1) Learners from Amdo often struggle with English words ending in /d/ phonemes. For example, mad is mispronounced mat. 2) Many final consonants in Kham Tibetan dialects are themselves silent (although they sometimes change the syllable’s vowel and tone). In connection with this, some Kham speakers sometimes drop final consonants while speaking in English. The sentence, “The person lost his livestock,” can get mispronounced: /ðə ˈpɜ:sn lɔ:s hɪz ˈlaɪvstɒ/.   Grammar - English frequently uses “there is/there are” constructions. For example, “there is a yak beside the tree.” A literal translation of this phrase does not occur in Tibetan. Tibetan speakers often replace this language with, “there has/there have” reflecting a common, similar construction in L1 using the verbs ཡོད and འགི, which mean “to have”. Examples of this kind of transfer are in the following sentences: “There have two monasteries in my hometown,” and “In my picture, there have a yak beside the tree.” - Tibetan and English list items differently. In English “and” appears between the last two items, while in Tibetan དང is used between the first two items. The following is an example of this problem: Meat and butter, cheese, tsamba are their foods. - In English we often use phrasal verbs, such as wake up and get along with, unlike Tibetan. Except for very common phrasal verbs, many Tibetans avoid saying and writing them. The following is an example: “He waited the bird,” replaces, “He waited for the bird.”   Writing - With regard to English spelling, there are many exceptions to rules and various ways to spell the same sounds. Since Tibetan, especially nomad languages, generally matches spelling and pronunciation more regularly than English, some Tibetans often have reoccurring difficulties with English spelling, making errors such as “happend” and “blu” when “happened” and “blue” are intended. - Tibetan and English do not write direct speech in the same ways. Tibetan EFL learners often have difficulties with English commas and quotation marks in this kind of language. For example: Uncle Dunba said “Your horse doesn’t walk for me. I should wear your clothes and pretend to be you. The person said “Ok.” - Tibetan does not use capitalized cases, so learners often ignore capital letters while writing in English, such as in the following: "she has a black tent. the tent is large." - Syllables in Tibetan are generally separated by punctuation dots called ཚེག. Reflecting this, Tibetan speakers sometimes make dots, which resemble proper full stops, between individual English words. For example, Whatever ་  they ་  say, I won’ t complain. - In general, English and Tibetan have quite different punctuation systems. In Tibetan, punctuation called རྐྱང་ཤད4 is used where English marks commas and full stops; and the end or continuation of phrases is indicated by sentence termination words.5  Therefore, Tibetan EFL learners often write long English sentences that have many commas where full stops would be appropriate. The following is an example: My class is very good too, I have a wonderful school life here, I'll do my best in this school   Conclusion Understanding L1 transfer can help teachers and students identify and predict learners’ errors in order to improve language learning. With utmost gratitude, I thank the many teachers, students and friends, who helped with these notes, especially Bema Tserang and Peter Adams; of course, all mistakes above are my own.   Foot Notes  1. Patsy M. Lightbrown, Nina Spada. How Languages are Learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Pg. 179.  2. Swan, Michael and Smith, Bernard, ed. Learner English: a teacher’s guide to interference and other problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Pg. 3.  3. The examples of errors in these notes are real student mistakes either recorded during lessons in Kham or copied from student compositions and emails. Students have looked at this paper and given permission to write about their sentences.  4. A རྐྱང་ཤད looks like this:  །  5. These sentence termination words are called སླར་སྡུར and ཛོགས་ཚིག.   Additional Notes - This page will soon be translated into Tibetan. These notes were last updated March, 2011. Please contact Jon directly to discuss problematization and this article.     母语迁移和藏族学生学习英语 编著：Jon Lambert 翻译：王石英，Jon Lambert   前言 母语迁移是“在第二语言的习得过程中，学习者的第一语言即母语的使用习惯会直接影响第二语言的习得”。1 有时候学习者的母语（L1）能够帮助他学习新的语言，有时候L1也对他的语言学习造成困难。比如，说荷兰话的学生在学习英语的时候，有的学生发 /w/ 音时用牙齿和嘴唇，这样导致发 /v/ 音，如：while 听起来像 vile。2   母语迁移同样也影响藏族学生学习英语。下面有关于音位学、语法、写作的笔记能帮助老师和学生辨认、预见母语迁移对藏族学生学习语言问题。    音位学 - 英语和藏语有几个不同的辅音，英语现在用的有些辅音藏语不用，反之。英语发的 /θ/ 和 /ð/ 的音，藏族学生经常发 /s/ 和 /z/ 的音。比如，thank 听起来像 sank，then 听起来像 zen.3 - 同样，在英语中发 /f/ 和 /v/ 音，对于有的藏族学生也比较困难，因为藏语的方言一般不用这两个发音。 - 有些英语中的辅音丛，如，/sl/、/st/、/pl/ 也比较难，因为在 L1 没有被使用。 - 英语的收尾音也给有的藏族学生带来困难。1) 如果单词的最后发音是 /d/，那对于说安多藏语的学生比较困难，如，mad 听起来像 mat。2) 在很多康巴藏语收尾音是是不发音的 (但是收尾音有时候会改变元音和声调）。所以，有的康巴藏语学生有时候不读英语的收尾音，"The person lost his livestock," 听起来: /ðə ˈpɜ:sn lɔ:s hɪz ˈlaɪvstɒ/.   语法 - 英语经常用 there is/there are主谓结构，例如，"there is a yak beside the tree"， 而藏语不用这样的结构，藏族学生经常用 there has/there have 代替，因为藏语有 ཡོད 和 འགི 单词，这两单词翻译成英语是 to have。在这儿有两个迁移的例句："There have two monasteries in my hometown," 和 "In my picture, there have a yak beside the tree." - 在句子中出现并列词语时，"and" 放在藏语和英语的位置不同，英语是把 and 放在最后两个并列词语中间， 藏文是把 དང 放在最前面两个并列词语中间，例如：Meat and butter, cheese, tsamba are their foods. - 英语经常用短语动词，比如 wake up 和 get along with，但是藏语没有。很多藏族学生逃避使用，除非是常常用的短语动词，如："He waited the bird," 更换 "He waited for the bird."   写作 - 关于英文拼写，有很多规则以外的拼写方法，如同样的发音但拼写不同。而藏语，特别是牧区藏语的拼写规则比英语容易，所以有的藏族学生在拼写英语时常常发生同样的英语拼写错误，例如，当学生想写 happened 和 blue 时，而写成：happend 和 blu。 - 藏文和英文使用直接引语的方式不一样。藏族学生在学习英语直接引语时经常在使用逗号和引号时出现问题，比如： Uncle Dunba said “Your horse doesn’t walk for me. I should wear your clothes and pretend to be you. The person said “Ok.” - 藏文没有大写，所以学生在写英语时经常忽视这样的问题，例如：she has a black tent. the tent is large. - 在写藏文时每个音节之间有个点叫 ཚེག。因此藏族学生在写英语时每个单词之间也加上点，这样看上去像英语的句号，如：Whatever ་ they ་ say, I won’ t complain. - 总的来说，英文和藏文的标点符号有很大的不同，在藏文中有一种标点符号叫 རྐྱང་ཤད4 和英语写作中的逗号和句号使用方法相同。还有，在写藏文的时用暗示语终词来显示一句话的结束和延续, 5  所以藏族学生经常写很长一句英语时，在该用句号的地方而用逗号，比如：My class is very good too, I have a wonderful school life here, I'll do my best in this school   结局 了解母语迁移能帮助老师和学生辨认和预见错误并改进语言学习。 非常感谢，很多老师、学生和朋友的帮助。特别感谢 པད་མ་ཚེ་རིང 和 Peter Adams。如有任何错误请原谅   脚注  1. http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E6%AF%8D%E8%AF%AD%E8%BF%81%E7%A7%BB  2. Swan, Michael and Smith, Bernard, ed. Learner English: a teacher’s guide to interference and other problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Pg. 3.  3. 上面的例句取自康巴地区学习的学生上课时犯的错误或学生作文或电子邮件。学生已经看过这篇论文并且允许采用。  4. རྐྱང་ཤད 是 །  5. 藏文的暗示语终词叫 སླར་སྡུར 和 ཛོགས་ཚིག 。   注解 很快会添加藏文翻译。网页最后更新为二零一一年三月。如果你想要谈话问题化和《母语迁移和藏族学生学习英语》请跟Jon联系。