The Influence of Chinese Aspect Markers on the use of Tense and aspect in English as Foreign Language

1. Introduction
Over the last thirty years or so, what role first language (L1) plays in second language acquisition (SLA) has been a hot issue. On the whole, it is agreed upon that L1 transfer exerts certain effect in SLA (Selinker 1972; Adjemis 1976; Juffs 1996; Lakshmanan 1995). However the role of L1 has been controversial. The classic theories (Weinreich 1953; Lado 1957) hold that where two languages are similar, positive transfer would occur; where they are different, negative transfer or interference, would result. This idea is further supported by Eckman (1977, 1996) and Zobl (1982). Another type of theory differs from the first regarding the particular type of L1 transfer when L1 and L2 are similar in some aspect. For instance, Wode (1976) argues that language transfer errors arise since negative placement in English (L2) and German (L1) is similar enough to encourage the children¡¯s reliance on their L1.
Tense and aspect are two important grammatical categories acr...