FIRST LANGUAGE INFLUENCE ON SECOND LANGUAGE PERFORMANCE BY Prisna Aswarita Putri

       Introduction

It has been presumed that first language acquisition possesses influence on the second language performance. The influence can positively support the second language performance, and even inhibit the advance of second language performance. Some errors can be traced on the process of acquiring and learning second language due to inappropriate transfer of first language existing set of cognitive structures. Common terms of the errors are interference (negative transfer) and overgeneralization.

It is quite interesting to discuss since the errors do exist in the process of acquiring and learning second language, especially in early stage. Many scholars have pinpointed this, but still, some second language learners could not avoid the pitfalls of the errors. That is why yielding explanatory report of the errors is undoubtedly needed.

      Discussion

1.       Definition of Transfer, Interference, and Overgeneralization

Transfer is a general term describing the carryover of previous performance or knowledge to subsequent learning (Brown.1994:90.2^nd Paragraph). He also noted that when the previous performance disrupts the performance on a second task, interference is already there. In the other hand, previous item is incorrectly transferred or negatively associated with learned item. While on the next page in first paragraph, Brown described overgeneralization as inferring or deriving a law, rule, or conclusion, usually from the observation of particular instances.

                Another definition of these terms came from Maria D Tzotzou (2000:107.Last paragraph). She defined interference as caused error due to transfer of rules from mother-tongue. Errors made by the interplay between first and second language which are seen as expressions of the same underlying strategy of applying previous knowledge to the language learning task. Explanation about overgeneralization came up on the next page in the second paragraph; constructing rules which leads to wrong prediction on how different items will behave.

By the explanation of both scholars above, we can conclude that when L1 (first language) is inappropriately transferred to L2 (second language), it leads to some errors so called interference. While generalizing previous knowledge of first language and merely apply them to the second language is a case of overgeneralization.

2.       Reflection of Transfer, Interference, and Overgeneralization on L2 Performance

It is easy to derive the phenomenon of these terms in our daily life, especially in the process of teaching-learning second/foreign language. In early stage of this process, some learners with immature concept of the diversity between L1 and L2 in applying rules of structure or grammatical construction of language expressions are easily being stuck in this pitfall. These terms occurrence can be considered as an indication of low acquisition that can be eliminated or waned by natural intake and language use (Krashen.2002:67.5^th Paragraph).Yielding explanatory note of some exception to the general rule first will be considered a better solution in avoiding the pitfall.

I used to be one of the teachers at English course. Once I taught Personal Pronoun to my students. Before giving the explanation, I merely asked one of my students to write on the board a sentence “Ibu saya pergi ke kantor” in English. What happened then, she wrote “Mother I go to office”. I asked another student to translate “Dia memiliki rambut panjang”, then, he answered “She has hair long”. From the sentence, we notice different word order between Bahasa Indonesia and English where people sometimes make interference. On the next class, the given material was Past Tense. Without yielding explanation of Irregular Verbs existence, I asked one of them a question,” What did you do last night?” then he answered “I sleeped at home”. This is the reflection of overgeneralization in adding suffix ed for the past verb.

The cases above showing L1 negatively affect the L2 performance. But still, L1 can positively goad L2 performance if only the surface structure of both L1 and L2 has great similarity. Bahasa Indonesia and English share same sentence constructors; Subject-Predicate-Object/Complement. That is why in constructing a simple sentence from Bahasa Indonesia to English is quite easy even for early stage students. Look at the following example:

Saya menghadiri sebuah pertemuan di kantor.

I attend a meeting in office.

All the students need to do is directly translate the sentence into English. This is the reflection of positive transfer from L1 to L2.

In relation to the example above, here is provided another case of transfer, interference, and overgeneralization by LoCoco in Krashen (2002:65. 5^th Paragraph).

In a study of American college students learning Spanish and German in the US, a foreign language situation, reported that the “high incidence of interlingual (L1 interference) errors in German was due to word order errors.” Typical examples include: 

Hoffentlich du bist gesund.

Hopefully you are healthy.

Correct:                Hoffentlich bist du gesund.

And

                                Ich bin glucklich sein hier.

                                I am happy to be here.

Correct:                Ich bin glucklich hier zu sein.

Krashen(2002:65.Last paragraph) stated that first language-based errors in Spanish were less numerous and “pertained primarily to adjective position”. Spanish students achieved better performance and less interference than German students due to great similarity of surface structure between their L1 (English) and L2(Spanish), while German students stuck in the pitfall of interference because of the surface structure diversity between their L1 (English) and L2(German).

The relevance of the provided examples above to the issue that the examples is clearly reflect the L1 influence to the L2 performance, where it can be positive or negative.

       Conclusion

From the explanation above, we come to the conclusion that the terms transfer, interference, and overgeneralization are the reflection of the L1 influence on the L2 performance where mostly fall into negative influence. Interference occurs frequently in the complex word order, while overgeneralization occurs by ignoring some exceptions of L2 rules. The existence of the terms can also be considered as the indication of low acquisition that can be waned through further explanation and language use (practice).

References

Brown, H Douglas. 1994. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (Third Edition). New Jersey.       Page 90. 2^nd Paragraph.

Page 91. 1^st Paragraph.

Krashen, Stephen D.2002. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. University of Southern California. Internet Edition. Page 67.fifth Paragraph.

Tzotzou, Maria D. 2000. Reviewing Error Analysis: The Significance of EFL Learners’ Errors and Hints for ELT Practice. Published in TESOL Greece Newsletter. Page 107. Last paragraph.

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