The acquisition of case marking by L1 Chabacano and L1 Cebuano learners of L2 Filipino: Influence of actancy structure on transfer

• Main Author: Barrios, Aireen Lozano
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2007
• Subjects: Second language acquisition; Chabacano language—Philippines—Cavite (Cavite Province); Chabacano language > Study and teaching > Philippines—Cavite (Cavite); Cebuano language—Study and teaching > Philippines; Language and languages; Applied Linguistics
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/144
• Institution: De La Salle University

Recent development in Philippine linguistics distinguishes Chabacano as having the accusative actancy structure different from most ergative Philippine languages, such as Filipino. The implication from this difference in the linguistic systems of these two languages directly concerns the acquisition of case marking in Filipino by L1 Chabacano learners, particularly on the subject and object arguments in both intransitive and transitive sentences. Following the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis in SLA, this study hypothesizes that positive transfer will occur at the intransitive subject and the transitive object arguments where the L1 and the L2 converge. Second, negative transfer will occur where L1 and L2 diverge, i.e., the L1 will impose its case marking rules on the L2, resulting in ungrammatical responses in the L2. Negative transfer is predicted at the transitive subject, specifically the A-argument where the subject is in object-focus in the transitive sentence. Third, it is predicted that the difference in actancy structure influences language transfer in case marking. The study employed the experimental research design to elicit production data and grammaticality judgments in Filipino from 7-8-yearold children who were learning Filipino as an L2 at an early stage. Two groups of participants were compared: 50 Chabacano learners of L2 Filipino as the main group and 50 Cebuano learners of L2 Filipino as the comparison group. Results from a one-way ANOVA show that all the hypotheses are validated: there is positive transfer for the intransitive subject and transitive object in both groups, and negative transfer for the transitive subject in the main group. Negative transfer in case marking in the Chabacano group is further validated by three patterns of case marking combination identified in their production data. A distinctive type of error resulting from negative transfer in case marking for subjects and objects in the transitive condition is overgeneralization of the nominative ANG by L1 Chabacano learners of L2 Filipino. The Cebuano participants also demonstrated to be transferring the Cebuano genitive SA in their L1 to mark the transitive subject in the L2. This type of error is substitution arising from negative transfer, but affecting only the form of the case marker and not the type of case marking. The results from both the quantitative and the qualitative analyses suggest that the actancy structure does contribute to either ease or difficulty in acquiring case marking rules in the L2. These results imply the need to provide explicit language instruction in Chabacano and Filipino to Chabacano-speaking children to raise grammatical consciousness of their L1 and L2 and to facilitate learning Filipino as an L2.