Avoidance of the English Passive Construction by L1 Chinese Learners

Abstract

This research investigated avoidance behaviour, one of the strategies L2 learners may resort to because of L1-L2 differences, or the non-existence of L2 structures for L1 learners, i.e. the Avoidance Behaviour Hypothesis (Schachter 1974). However, based on the Factors of L2 Non-Avoidance Hypothesis (FNAH) (Thiamtawan & Pongpairoj, 2013, 2019), despite the aforementioned factors, L2 avoidance does not necessarily emerge. The study recruited thirty L1 Chinese intermediate participants. The tasks used to elicit data were the Comprehension Task and the Indirect Preference Elicitation (IPE) Task. Results showed that the participants significantly produced more passives than actives, which means they tended not to avoid the English passive construction. The study investigated further the different contexts in the IPE task. Findings revealed that the participants tended to avoid the English passive under non-adversity contexts because of the complexities of the passive compared with the active. However, they would not avoid the passive construction under adversity contexts due to transfer of training in the Chinese setting. The overall results were in support of FNAH.