CULTURAL TRANSFER IN THE PRESENTATION OF SELF

The subject of the paper is cultural transfer. It is transfer of native culture interactional norms and social values. It involves also transfer of the strategies of self- and other-face maintenance. Although cultural transfer, unlike pragmatic transfer, is very difficult to detect, it can effect L2 learners. communication in L2 culture setting. The aim of this study is to analyse some cases of negative transfer of Polish face-maintenance strategies in the production of Polish learners of English as a second language. From the early childhood we are told how to behave, what to do or not to do. We learn how to perform even the most simple conventional acts, such as greeting, introducing oneself, or expressing gratitude, by observing how others do it, by listening to those others as models, and by noting the reactions of others to our performance and changing our behaviour accordingly (Corson, 1995). In this way we acquire the knowledge of interactional norms operating as regular modes of interaction in our culture.