A Study of Transfer in the Speech Act of Apologizing

Abstract

One recent perspective on the process of transfer in second language acquisition is that second language learners' willingness to transfer rules from their first language is related to their perception of language-specificity and the distance between their first and second language (Kellerman 1978). Support for this perspective was found in Olshtain's 1981 study of the behavior of native speakers of English and Russian in the speech act of apologizing. The present study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between the transfer behavior of native speakers of Chinese in the speech act of apologizing and their intuitions about language-specificity and distance. 12 native speakers of Chinese were interviewed and asked to role-play their responses in both English and Chinese in 8 situations in which apologies were expected. Analysis of the collected data and comparison with Olshtain's data for native speakers of English indicate that there is a relationship between intuitions about language-specificity and language distance and transfer behavior.