Effects of L2 on the L1 at Semantic Level: An Empirical Study

Language transfer is a bidirectional phenomenon, which includes not only forward transfer but also backward transfer. Recently, backward transfer, also seeing as effects of L2 on the L1, has gaining attention in the field of SLA. Taking tag questions as an example, current study aims to enrich backward transfer study with a tentative research on the influence of English (L2) knowledge on Chinese (L1) in the light of Multicompetence Theory from SLA perspective. A questionnaire with assurancedoubt task (40 items) is made and 101 university students are recruited to fill it out. The data are analyzed by SPSS 18.0. Results proved the influence of English knowledge on that of Chinese at semantic level. Besides, the improvement in metalinguistic awareness is found in English major students.