Abstract

This study adopts Talmy’s (1985, 1991, 2000) theory of linguistic typology and Slobin’s(2003, 2004) hypothesis of Thinking-for-Speaking to investigate the use of additional expressions of Manner in the expression of Motion events by Chinese EFL learners in comparison with French EFL leaners. The aim is to find out the Thinking-for-Speaking effect in the acquisition of the English Motion event expressions for speakers with typologically different L1 background. It is revealed that Chinese EFL leaners benefit from the Thinking-for-Speaking in L1 compared with French EFL learners. Chinese Language teachers can emphasise the similarities between Chinese and English to enhance English learners’ acquisition of motion event expressions.

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