The L2 acquisition of the syntactic patterns that constrain the reference time of the modal complements

Abstract

The role of L1 in the L2 acquisition has been studied widely. It has been argued to have negative and positive effects or transfers on the L2 acquisition. Positive transfer refers to the situation where the properties being learned are similar to those exist in their L1, and the learners consciously or unconsciously make use of the similarities, to think, analyze, compare and comprehend, and master the L2 eventually (Yu and Ren 2013:45). Negative transfer, on the other hand, refers to the situation where the structures of the two languages are distinctly different, and a relatively high frequency of errors occurs in the L2. This paper report positive transfer whereby L1 knowledge facilitates the L2 acquisition of the syntactic patterns which indicate reference time of the epistemic modal complement in English.

Through the path of the acquisition of the epistemic modality in English, a task the Thai learners of English have to encounter is to figure out which reference time interpretation is allowed for a certain syntactic pattern. To test whether the 28 Thai learners of English have acquired the syntactic patterns or not, a truth value judgment was used to illicit the L2 data.   The L2 learners were asked to judge whether a certain temporal interpretation was possible for a syntactic pattern where ‘may’, ‘might’, ‘will’, ‘must’ co-occur with certain types of verb or not.

The results of the experiment show the L2 leaners were more accurate in judging the temporal interpretations of modal statements where both present and future time references are possible than those where only a single interpretation. This suggests positive transfer in the acquisition of the epistemic modality in English by Thai learners of English.