Lexicon-Semantic Transferences In Descriptive Texts By Fourth Graders

Abstract

In the globalized world in which human beings currently live, it is important not only to acquire but also to be competent in a foreign language. For that reason it is important to bear in mind which aspects of the L1 or mother tongue influence the proper acquisition and competence in the foreign language. That is why in the current, non experimental and transversal, research project; the researchers sought to analyze and describe which were the lexicosemantic transfers in the written production of descriptive texts by fourth graders of primary school, being Spanish their mother tongue and English their foreign language. To respond to the main thematic of the current research project, it was framed into the theoretical perspectives such as bilingualism from the psycho linguistic point of view (Galindo et al), the threshold hypothesis and the linguistic interdependence theory (Cummins) as well as the linguistic transfer theory (Jarvis and Pavlenko). Moreover, it was necessary to apply an instrument to identify, analyze and describe the lexico semantic transfers in descriptive texts in order to prove the research hypothesis and to properly make the corresponding data analysis of the linguistic transfers found. P á g i n a | 4

The research project’s findings were analyzed using researcher and theory triangulation, leading the authors of the current research to find that fourth graders frequently produced transfers in the grammatical category of noun, followed by transfers in the adjective category and verb category as the less recurrent transfer. It was also evidenced that the most recurrent types of lexico semantic transfers were: unintentional language switches, blending, overgeneralization and calques. For that reason, the research hypothesis was partially proved since the following type of lexico semantic transfers did not have any representation in the descriptive texts: false friends, semantic extensions, collocational transfer and sub categorization.