A Discussion on the Role of First Language (Chinese) Positive Transfer in Second Language (English) Lexical Acquisition and Related Pedagogical Suggestions

Language transfer is one of the central questions in second language acquisition (SLA) study. It claims that learners' the native language (NL) or first language (L1) will make great impacts, either promoting or hindering, on their second language (L2) acquisition, i.e. positive transfer and negative transfer. The issue has been widely concerned and researched in such relative fields as language education and psychological study during the past years. It is far beyond the scope of this paper to discuss it thoroughly since the scope of L1 influence is so wide that it affects almost all linguistic subsystems. Instead, this paper aims to focus on how the Chinese language facilitates Chinese learners' English lexical acquisition. Some suggestions on how to make use of the positive aspects is provided at the end of the paper for practical purpose.