Question

What is positive transfer in the context of language learning?

• A. When the mother tongue hinders learning
• B. When similar sounds or structures in the mother tongue aid learning
• C. When errors are corrected
• D. When the learner is highly motivated

Answer 1

Answer:

B. When similar sounds or structures in the mother tongue aid learning

Positive Transfer in Language Learning

Understanding the Concept

• Positive transfer, also known as language transfer or facilitation, occurs when a learner's knowledge of their first language (L1) helps them learn a second language (L2).
• This happens when there are similarities between the L1 and L2 in terms of phonology (sounds), morphology (word structure), syntax (sentence structure), or semantics (meaning).

Key Aspects and Examples

• Phonological Transfer: If a learner's native language has sounds similar to those in the target language, pronunciation can be easier. For instance, a Spanish speaker learning English might find the pronunciation of words with the /p/ sound relatively straightforward because Spanish also has this sound.
• Grammatical/Syntactic Transfer: Similar sentence structures can facilitate learning. For example, languages like French and English both follow a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word order, which can make sentence construction in English easier for French speakers.
• Lexical Transfer: Cognates – words that share a common origin and have similar spellings and meanings – are a prime example of positive transfer. For instance, English 'information' and Spanish 'información' are cognates that aid vocabulary acquisition.

Relevance in Competitive Exams (Teaching/Linguistics)

• Understanding positive transfer is crucial for language teachers as it helps in identifying areas where learners might naturally excel.
• It informs pedagogical strategies, allowing educators to leverage similarities to build a stronger foundation in the L2.
• Conversely, awareness of negative transfer (or interference), where differences between languages hinder learning, is also important for addressing potential difficulties.
• Questions in competitive exams often test the ability to differentiate between positive and negative transfer and to identify examples of each in various language learning scenarios.
• Topics like contrastive analysis, which compares languages to predict areas of difficulty and ease, are directly related to the concept of language transfer.