Dissertationsprojekt

Thinking for speaking in a second language

Languages have preferred ways of encoding semantic domains, such as motion, space and temporality. These specific linguistic expressions may influence our ways of thinking while we speak (thinking for speaking hypothesis). During first language acquisition, we internalize language-specific patterns for thinking for speaking, and some of them, especially abstract concepts like grammatical aspect, are “exceptionally resistant to restructuring in adult second-language acquisition”. Particularly, when a grammaticalized linguistic category is obligatory in the L1, it becomes a highly automatized preference during the online process of conceptualization for late bi- or multilinguals when producing utterances in a L2, where this category may be absent or expressed differently. This kind of influence of L1 on the L2, conceptual transfer as a form of cross-linguistic influence, can be described as thinking in L1 for speaking in L2. The question remains, how and to which extent do (late) bi- or multilinguals think in their L1 while speaking in a L2, and what does it mean for their interlanguage as well as interlanguage development.

To date, empirical evidence of such L1 conceptual transfer has been found in the verbal performance and online behavior of speakers in the studies of different domains. While most studies have this phenomenon with beginning and intermediate leaners, few studies have shown that even advanced learners rely on L1 patterns when construing causal motion in the L2.

The present study aims to contribute further empirical evidence for thinking in L1 for speaking in L2 by investigating both linguistic and non-linguistic behavior of late Mandarin Chinese-German bilinguals systematically. The focus of this study is on the category ‘grammatical aspect’, which is grammaticalised in Chinese but not in German. A series of experiments will be conducted to a) elicit the oral description of everyday causation events, b) test memory of aspectual characteristics of the events, c) examine the similarity-judgement behavior of event sequences that only differ in aspectual aspects, and d) investigate the free talk in a interview.