REVISION ON CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

LÝ THUYẾT
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TEST 1

1) Contrastive analysis is based on a theory of language that claims that language is habit and that language learning involves the establishment of a
new set of ………habits……….
2) The major source of ………error ….. in the production and/or reception of a second language is the native language.
3) One can account for errors by considering ……differences …………… between the L1 and the L2.
4) A corollary to 3: the greater the ……differences……….., the more …errors ……………. that will occur.
5) What one has to do in learning a ……second ……… language is to learn the differences.
6). …Difficulty …………….. and …………ease ……. in learning are determined respectively by differences and similarities between the two
languages in contrast.

2. Fill in the blanks of the assumptions in the cells on the right, then state which version of CAH goes with each of the following assumptions. (2ms)

Version of CAH Assumption

WEAK This emphasizes the ………EXPLANTORY ……………. power of ………………OBSERVABLE………. errors or the relative
difficulty.

MODERATE wherever patterns are ………MINIMALLY ………………. distinct in form or meaning in one or more systems, …………
CONFUSION/DIFFICULTIES………… may result

STRONG A ……SYSTEMATIC ……………… and scientific analysis of the two language systems can help ……
PREDICT……………. ..the difficulties.

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TEST 2

1. State the major objectives of contrastive analysis suggested by Lado (1957) (1m)

Lado (1957): The major objectives of CA are:

1. Providing insights into similarities and differences between languages;

2. Explaining and predicting problems in second language learning; and

3. Developing course material for language teaching

2. Write the term of the steps in column A with the definition in column B, then fill in the blanks in columm B. (1m)

Name of the step What is done

Description A. This step includes the selection and preliminary characterization of the items under comparison in the ………
framework…..... of language- independent theoretical model

Juxtaposition B. This is a step where one decides what is to be ……compared…….. with what. It involves a search for, and identification of
cross/inter-linguistic/cultural equivalent

Comparison C. This step evaluates the degree and types of correspondence between items under the ……comparison…………..

Prediction D. This step generate the …hypotheses………….. basing on the identification of the similarities and differences of the
language systems of the two contrasted languages

3. Please fill in the blanks of the following sentences with a word or group of words (2m)
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a) Positive Transfer (also known as ………facilitation………), which occurs where there is a …similarity ……………. between L1 and L2,
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leading to something correct. This kind of transfer would assist the …………acquisition process.…….

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b) Negative Transfer (also known as ……interference………………..), which occurs where there is ……dissimilarity ………………… between
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L1 and L2, leading to something incorrect. This kind of transfer would …………impede ………. the acquisition process.

impede impede impede impede impede impede

impede impede impede impede impede impede

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TEST 3

1. Fill in the blanks to complete the two versions of CAH. (2ms)

The four steps of CA are (1) taking the two languages, L1 and L2, and writing formal descriptions of them, (2) picking forms from descriptions for
the contrast., (3) making a contrast of forms chosen, and (4) making a contrast of difficulty through the contrast. To describe the prediction stage
stockwell et.al (1965) propose a hierarchy of difficulty” based on the notion of transfer (negative, positive, and zero). When the structure of the
given two languages are similar , positive transfer will occur while with those that are different, a negative transfer will take place.

Fill in the blanks of the assumptions about language transfer. (2ms)

When we use the term transfer, we are referring to “the extent to which knowledge and skills acquired in one situation affect a person’s learning or
performance in a subsequent situation.” (Ormrod, 2014, p. 206) Generally, there are two types of transfer that take place. Positive transfer occurs
when something we’ve learned previously facilitates us in learning at a later time. Negative transfer takes place when something we’ve learned
interferes with our learning at a later time.

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TEST 4

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TEST 5

1. Fill in the blanks to complete the two versions of CAH. (2ms)

Contrastive Analysis Hypotheses (CAH) are a set of theories that attempt to explain how learners ACQUIRE a second language based on the between
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the learner's native language (L1) and the TARGET language (L2). The Strong Version of CAH states that all ………………………………. that a
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learner makes in acquiring L2 are due to ……………………. from L1. According to this version, any ………………………. between the two
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languages will lead to errors in L2 acquisition. The Weak Version of CAH suggests that only some errors in L2 ………………………. are due to
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interference from L1. This version assumes that L1 ………………………. is only one factor that influences L2 acquisition, and there are other
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factors such as ………………………., motivation, and exposure to the ………………………..

Please write the correct number in the cells provided in the box below.Fill in the blanks of the assumptions about language transfer. (2ms)

1 2 3
Tertium comparionnis ( ………. element of comparison) refers to a ………. standard or point of comparison that is used to ………. two or more
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languages. This third element can be a language, a linguistic feature, or a linguistic theory. Tertium comparionnis is used to ………. similarities and
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………. between languages based on a shared standard or point of ……….. Equivalence refers to the relationship between two linguistic units or
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elements that have the ………. meaning in two different languages. In other words, equivalence is a relationship of ………. or sameness between
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two ………. in different languages. Equivalence can be achieved through various ………. techniques, such as borrowing, calque, or adaptation.

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THEORY

1. Which hypothesis states that the structure of the first language affects the acquisition of the second language?

2. What is the major assumption of Structuralism?

3. State the major assumption on which CAH is founded?
4. State the definition of language transfer?
(Clue: Odlin (1989)
5. What are the two main forms of language transfer? Provide examples.

6. State six assumptions that the CAH was based on, summarized by Gass and Selinker (1994: 60)

7. What are the three versions of CAH?

8. What are the claims of the Strong Version of CAH?
9. In what way can similarity/difference and TC be distinguished?
10. In what way can equivalence and TC be distinguished?

11. State 4 major steps of the procedures of CA.

THEORY

Which hypothesis states that the structure of the first language affects the acquisition of the second language?

- Lado, 1957; Fries, 1945

2. What is the major assumption of Structuralism?

- a finite structure of a given language that can be documented & compared with another language

- structural linguists set about to identify the patterns of language

- structural linguistic patterns: the set of habits that characterize a given language

3. State the major assumption on which CAH is founded.

- Structural linguistics:

+ There is a finite structure of a given language that

can be documented and compared with another language.

+ Detailed descriptions of particular languages from a collection of utterances produced by native speakers (i.e. corpus)

- Behavioral psychology:

+ Learning: Habit formation by means of “stimulus-response-reinforcement’

+ New learning situations helped by means of the transference of the old habits of learners’ mother tongue into L2

4. State the definition of language transfer.

(Clue: Odlin (1989)

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 “the influence resulting from similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously (and

perhaps imperfectly) acquired.” Odlin’s (1989:7)

What are the two main forms of language transfer? Provide examples.

- Positive transfer (facilitation)

+ similarity between L1 and L2, result in something correct.

+ assist the acquisition process.

E.g: the English sentence "I eat an apple" can be directly translated to Vietnamese as "Tôi ăn một quả táo."

- Negative transfer (interference)

+ dissimilarity between L1 and L2, result in something incorrect.

+ impede the acquisition process.

E.g: (bổ sung)

6. State six assumptions that the CAH was based on, summarized by Gass and Selinker (1994: 60):

(1) Language is a habit formation.

(2) L1 is the major source of error in SLA.

(3) Errors can be explained by the differences between L1 &L2

(4) The more L1 and L2 differ, the greater the chance for errors

(5) Learners must concentrate on differences between L1 & L2

(6) Ease or difficulty in language learning correlate to the amount of differences or similarities between L1 and L2

7. What are the three versions of CAH?

Moderate version (categorization of abstract &

Weak version (ability to explain
Strong version (ability to predict difficulty through CA) concrete patterns according to simi. & diff.): basis
observable error)
of learning

1. Obstacle to TL learning: interference of the learner's MT 1. use "the best linguistic knowledge 1. Minimal distinction of patterns in form &

2. Differences of L1&L2 rigger chance of error available” to explain observable meaning in systems may result in

3. Systematic CA helps predict the difficulties difficulties confusion

4. Result of CA: reliable source in preparation 2. Error: systematic & consistent & 2. Difficulty may not be due to difference

of teaching materials, planning of course, improvement of countable 3. Items similar to existing items may cause

classroom techniques => Error analysis difficulty

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8. What are the claims/shortcomings of the Strong Version of CAH?

• Quite unrealistic and impracticable.

• The process was oversimplified.

• Subtle phonetic, phonological, and grammatical distinctions were not carefully accounted for.

• Very difficult to determine exactly which category a particular contrast fits into.

• Verifiability of predictions of difficulty is questionable.

9. In what way can similarity/difference and TC (Tertium Comparationis) be distinguished?

TC is different

10. In what way can equivalence and TC be distinguished?

11. State 4 major steps of the procedures of CA.

- Step 1: Description

- Step 2: Juxtaposition

- Step 3: Comparison

- Step 4: Prediction

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 PRACTICE

1. Make a description of the lexical item “Giả” and its equivalents in English, using a unilateral CA.

2. Examine the data below and answer the questions.

Vietnamese/English pair:

Tối qua cô ấy mệt. (Hanoi dialect)

Last night she was tired.

Cô ấy đã đọc xong cuốn sách này.

She has finished reading this book.

Hôm qua anh ấy bị chó táp.

He was snapped at by a dog yesterday.

i) Juxtapose the two pair of sentences and compare to state how explicit Vietnamese is compared to English in the translationally-equated pair of
sentences in rank of sentence, clause, phrase, word, morpheme.

Contrasted ranks S Cl. Phr. Wd. Morph.

Contrasted sentences

Tối qua cô ấy mệt.

She was tired yesterday.

S Cl. Phr. Wd. Morph.

Contrasted ranks

Contrasted sentences

Cô ấy đã đọc xong cuốn sách này.

She has finished reading this book.

S Cl. Phr. Wd. Morph.

Contrasted ranks

Contrasted sentences

Hôm qua anh ấy bị chó táp.

He was snapped at by a dog yesterday

Suggested answer:

i) Use the figure below for the comparison of the two sentences in terms of rank scale

Contrasted ranks S Cl. Phr. Wd. Morph.

Contrasted sentences

Tối qua tôi đã đóng chặc cửa trước để ngừa kẻ trộm. 1 1 2 12

Yesterday I locked the door tightly to prevent burglaries. 1 1 2 9

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 ii) Make a comment about about the explicitness of English sentence and the Vietnamese one:

The two sentences are unit identical down to the rank of phrase. Now they begin to to diverge: the English sentence employs 9 words while the
Vietnamese one uses 12 words. At the morpheme level, the imbalance is reversed: the English sentence employs 15 morphemes whereas the
Vietnamese one uses 12 as presented follows.

Tối /qua/ tôi/ đã /đóng/ chặc /cửa /trước/ để/ ngừa /kẻ /trộm/

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 morphemes

Yester/day/ I/ lock/ed/ the/ door/ tight/ly/ to/ pre/vent/ burglar/i/es

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 morphemes

English is more synthetic

Vietnamese is more analytic

3. Examine the sentence below and answer the following questions

… đôi mắt của nó làm cho tất cả mọi người xung quanh đều sợ hãi.

i) List out possible translational equivalents in English for the Vietnamese sentence
ii) Identify the causative verb type of the English translational equivalents for the Vietnamese causative verb (làm cho sợ hãi) in terms of
morphological, syntactic, lexical categories.

E.g. làm/trấn an = to make s.b calm (down) (+ syntactic/analytic)

= to calm s.b (down) (+ lexical)

PLEASE CONSULT THE SUGGESTED ANSWER BELOW

i) List out possible translational equivalents in English

1) His eyes made everybody afraid.
2) His eyes frightened everybody.
3) His eyes scared everybody.

ii) Identify the causative verb type of the English translational equivalents for the Vietnamese causative verb (làm cho sợ hãi) in terms of
morphological, syntactic, lexical categories.

Types of causative verb Syntactic/Analytic Morphological Lexical

Make s.b. afraid +

Frighten s.b +

Scare s.b +

iii) Which type of causative verbs in English (mentioned in ii) has most similarities in terms of syntactic features (word order, sentence element,
number of words/morphemes) as those in Vietnamese?

Make s.b. afraid: Syntactic/Analytic

iv) To show the similarities between this type of causative verb (mentioned in iii) in English and Vietnamese, please draw a table to represent the
syntactic features of the causative verbs in the two sentences.

Subject Causative verb Object Complement

Causer Causative process Causee Resulting state

đôi mắt của nó làm cho tất cả mọi người xung quanh đều sợ hãi

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His eyes Made everybody Afraid

4. Please list all the members in the field of “eat” in English and “ăn” in Vietnamese (at least four members) and answer the following questions

i) Make a matrix of the semantic features of each of the members of “eat” and “ăn”
ii) Then match each members of the group in the two languages as the semantic or/and translational equivalence, e.g. devour ≈ (ăn) ngấu nghiến

PLEASE CONSULT THE SUGGESTED ANSWER BELOW.

Members in the field of “eat” in English

semantic makes a lot of noise Small amounts of very quickly, very quickly or in a eat something
feature food by taking very swallowing it in big way that people do quickly because

Members of “eat” small bites pieces not consider polite you are very
hungry

Wolf +

Munch +

Nibble +

Devour +

Gobble +

Members in the field of “ăn” in Vietnamese

semantic makes a lot of noise Small amounts of very quickly, very quickly or in a eat something
feature food by taking very swallowing it in big way that people do quickly because you

Members of “ăn” small bites pieces not consider polite are very hungry

Ngốn +

Nhai tóp tép +

gặm, nhắm, rĩa +

ngấu nghiến +

nuốt, tộng +

English e.g. devour wolf Munch Nibble Gobble …

Vietnamese ngấu nghiến ngốn Nhai tóp tép gặm, nhắm nuốt, tộng …

5. Please list all the members in the field of “break” in English and “làm vỡ” in Vietnamese (at least four members) and answer the following
questions

i) Make a matrix of the semantic features of each of the members of “break” and “làm vỡ”
ii) Then match each members of the group in the two languages as the semantic or/and translational equivalence, e.g. break làm v

ii) You can use a matrix to show the collocation of the verbs in English and Vietnamese as follows:

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 break smash( crush( shatter crack( chip(p snap(p burst
broke) ed) ed) (ed) ed) ed) ed)
(broke (ing)
n)

I’m afraid her leg is + in two places

The wrecked ship will + up on the rocks if the winds gets any stronger .

The cat knocked over the cup and + + it.

The angry crowd (+) + all the windows in the street if they passed.

The glass fell on the stone floor and + + into a hundred tyiny pieces.

The brittle rock + under the force of the explosion.

Juice may be extracted from fruit by + it.

Someone sat on my flowers and + them.

I can never + Brazil nuts because they are so hard.

The plate isn’t broken, only + + .

The ice was tight-packed around the door and had to be + away a little at the time.

The wind was so strong that several branches + + clean off the big oak tree.

He + + the twig in two so that they would fit into the fire.

I had my shopping in a plastic bag which + under the weight just as I was getting onto the bus.

The nasty boys + all the pretty balloon we had blown up for the party.

The river has + its banks and flooded a wide area.

iii) Provide the Vietnamese translational equivalents for the English sentences with the collocation of ‘breaking verbs’ and state how many members of ‘breaking verbs’ in Vietnamese can be used for the translation.
iv) Identify the potential transfer(s), if any, from Vietnamese ‘breaking verbs’ into English.

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6. For the description of the specific language system in the two contrasted languages we can apply either of the two approaches. Provide
the name of the proper approach to match the description method applied.

Name of approach of description Specification

This kind of CA shows a descriptive imbalance, in favour of the L2 and the researcher pay less attention
to the L1 than to the L2, since it is the latter which must be learnt

Describe L1 and L2 data independently, using the models which yield the fullest descriptions of either
language, and then translate these two descriptions into a form which is model-neutral

7. Examine the sentences in the box on the box below and answer the following questions.

i) Identify the cause of error of transfer (lexical or structural) in the each of the following sentences;

ii) Write the intended correct sentences in the box on the right.

You are asked to identify the kind of error and point out the negative transfer of the word/structure, e.g. Có has
●

Erroneous sentences Cause of error of transfer Intended Correct Sentences

My family has five people. Kind of error: lexical error There are five members/persons in my

Có has family.

Although he was so tired, but he still kept -kind of error: ................................

working.

I lost two hours to finish this work. -kind of error: ................................

I forgot my book at home. -kind of error: ................................

I very like Coca Cola. -kind of error: ................................

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English sentences that contain error form negative transfer from Vietnamese
1. Mary is a young beautiful girl. (trẻ đẹp)

2. A modern big brick house (lớn hiện đại bằng gạch)

3. He’s tall 1,7metres (cao 1,7 m)

4. She’s different with her sister. (khác với)

5. Don’t fear. (sợ)

6. The film is boring and Brad Pitt is a boring man. (chán nản)

7. Almost people came to the party. (phần lớn/hầu hết)

8. I’ll take all two shirts. (cả 2 chiếc áo)

9. All is yours. (tất cả)

10. I’ve lost all. (tất cả)

11. All child needs love. (tất cả)

12. It is not allowed to smoke. (cho phép)

13. She nearly sounds foreign. (gần như)

14. She’s dentist. (là nha sĩ)

15. You’ve made a very good progress. (một tiến bộ)

16. Don’t ask me money. (hỏi tôi tiền)

17. Don’t ask me for my name (hỏi tên)

18. It’s 37 kilos heavy. (nặng)

19. The river is 10 meters large. (rộng)

20. Because I liked him, so I tried to help him. (cho nên)

21. I like your new dress much. (nhiều)

22. I struck her by a flower. (bằng)

23. I had some strange experiences in his military service. (trong thời gian)

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