Transfer-another determinant in unconscious plagiarism in EFL academic citation

Abstract

This study investigates the widespread academic misconduct in Chinese EFL scholars’ L2 writing, arguing that unconscious plagiarism results from the failures in transferring L1 citation competence. Based on Haskell’s General Theory of Transfer (GTT), it develops a four-dimensional framework— knowledge base, spirit of transfer, education and training, and modelling and social guidance—to explain citation transfer failure. Historical analysis challenges the cultural conditioning claim that the links plagiarism tolerance to Confucianism, showing that traditional Chinese literati had ethical awareness. Current unconscious plagiarism instead stems from deficiencies in modern L1 citation knowledge, lack of systematic citation education and training, and unreliable expert modelling in academic contexts. A three-stage mixed-methods design is applied. First, the grounded theory analysis of interviews with 22 university Chinese and English teachers and their graduate students identifies 5 transfer failure categories corresponding to GTT and developed two models. And then, A survey of 379 teachers, analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM), validates the pathway “L1 Citation Knowledge → Education and Training → L2 Citation Knowledge → Unconscious Plagiarism,” and reveals the moderating role of the spirit of transfer. The cross-cultural interviews with the international students in China further verify problems in L1 Chinese citation context. Theoretically, this study extends GTT to cross-cultural academic citations and clarifies internal and external mechanisms linking the four dimensions of GTT to unconscious plagiarism. It concludes that L2 citation transfer failure is driven by systemic flaws in L1 citation—the problematic GB/T series, insufficient instruction, and pseudo-expert modelling—rather than cultural permissiveness. Transfer thus becomes a key determinant of unconscious plagiarism alongside the cultural and individual development factors.