Abstract

Based on Sloin’s (1996b) thinking for speaking approach, the study examines L1 influence on the use of English deictic Motion verbs for Chinese EFL learners and French EFL learners. The aim is to find out whether language learners will be influenced by the particular Thinking for Speaking acquired in L1in the process of L2 acquisition. It is revealed that there is an overuse of English deictic Motion verbs among French EFL learners due to boundary crossing constraint in French, which results from L1 transfer. On the other hand, Chinese EFL leaners benefit from positive transfer due to the similarity between L1 and L2 and their overuse of English deictic Motion verbs results from simplification. Whereas L1 influence exists among Chinese EFL learners in the use of go rather than the more target like come.

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