Acquisition of motion in L2 Estonian

Abstract

This study focuses on the acquisition of Motion in Estonian by native English speakers. The aim was to determine how English learners of Estonian are influenced by their first language (L1) when describing Motion events in Estonian as their second language (L2). Prior studies have claimed that people develop certain ways of thinking for speaking when learning their first language which affect the acquisition of other languages (e.g. Slobin 1996, Pool, Pajusalu 2012 i.a.). In order to find out how native English speakers are influenced by their L1 when acquiring Motion in Estonian, an experiment was implemented on 22 participants (11 native English speakers and 11 native Estonian speakers) in which they were asked to write a short narrative in Estonian based on a picture book by Mayer (1969). The Motion events found in the narratives were analysed one by one. The findings suggest that L1 thinking patterns influence the intermediate learners more than the advanced or beginner learners, thus partly supporting the findings of Cadierno and Ruiz (2006) who reached a similar conclusion.

Keywords

• second language acquisition
• Motion event
• L1 English
• L2 Estonian