Ngan Leng Mak 
(University of Science and Technology, Macao)

 

Abstract: English maintains to be a de facto language within the educational system in Macau, a Cantonese-speaking region, making the city a special context to study first language (L1) effect on second language (L2) learning. The fact that L2 learners’ assumption of word-for word translation from L1 to L2 rendered the language transfer inevitable yet could be detrimental to the less capable L2 learners in particular.
A small scale study was conducted from March to December in 2013. 200 pieces of English writings collected from the university 2012/2013 admission examination were studied to identify tokens of word-by-word translation. “Word-by-word” translation was found in over 70% of the writings. 30 Macau students who were weak in their L2 writing were then interviewed. 70% reported that L1 has negative effects on their English learning. 1/3 described themselves as a “translator” instead of a writer, and that they realized they somehow lost the train of learning an L2 but simply another version of their L1.
The present study suggested that word-by-word translation, evidently and inevitably a consequence of learners’ L1, is extremely salient among low proficiency Macau ESL learners. Equally significant, the researcher called for the attention of Macau students’ general poor performance in English writing and their losing train of learning an L2 (English), which appeared to be detrimental to the written output.

 

Key words: L1 effect, L2 learning, word-by-word translation