-
The
Influence of Negative Transfer of Chinese on
Freshmen
English Majors
’
English
Writing
汉语母语负迁移对英语专业大一学生英语写作的影响
学生：刘晓勤
Abstract
Transfer is a common phenomenon in
foreign language learning, which results
from the similarities and
dissimilarities between native language and target
language.
The research in this thesis
is carried out to explore the relationship between
native
language transfer and English
majors
’
English writing.
This thesis lists manifestations
of
language transfer and puts emphasis on making a
contrastive study of the different
characters between Chinese and English
while analyzing the various errors in Chinese
students
’
composition caused by negative transfer of
Chinese. It also provides some
pedagogical implications.
Key
words:
negative
transfer;
English
writing;
error
analysis;
pedagogical
implications
摘要
迁移是外语学习中存在的普遍现
象
,
是由已掌握的语言知识在外语的习得和
使用过程中产生的。
本研究旨在探讨大学英语专业大一学生英语写作与母语迁移
之间的关系。本篇论文阐述了语言迁移的历史
,
对比分析中英文间的不同语言特
点
,
从词汇、句子及中国式的表达等方面讨论了汉语对中国学生的英文写作的负
迁移的存在
和具体表现，同时也给出了一些相应的教学启示。
关键字：
母语负迁移；英语写作；错误分析；教学启示
Introduction
With the development of the society and
the globalization of the world, English
becomes
more
and
more
popular
and
has
more
and
more
users
in
many
countries.
There
is
no
exception
in
China.
With
frequent
international
communication
and
international
trade,
more
and
more
Chinese
start
to
learn
English.
When
learning
English, Chinese learners may feel that
the influence of native language (Chinese) is
inevitable. Language transfer has been
a main issue for linguists to study in applied
English,
second
language
acquisition,
and
language
teaching
for
at
least
a
hundred
years.
“
One of
the manifestations of language transfer in second
language acquisition
is the occurrence
of errors which are caused by negative transfer of
mother tongue
”
(Ellis, 1999:152). A large number of
studies on L2 acquisition have focused on errors
which
attribute
to
negative
transfer.
According
to
the
research
made
by
Tran-Chi-
Chan (2002:50),
“
errors
caused by negative transfer of
Chinese
accounted
for 51% of errors
in their corpus of English expressions of Chinese
learners
”
.
It is known that listening, speaking,
reading, writing and translating are regarded
as five main language skills which
learners should master in foreign language
learning.
Compared with the other
language skills, writing is usually considered to
be the most
difficult
one
in
EFL
learning
for
Chinese
college
students
(Wang,
2004:105).
“
The
process
of
writing
is
very
complicated
and
the
competence
of
writing
is
usually
considered to be the
most difficult skill to master in language
learning. The process of
writing
is
the
process
of
selecting,
combining,
arranging
and
developing
ideas
in
effective
sentences,
paragraphs,
and
often,
longer
units
of
discourse”
(Grade
&
Kaplan, 1996:212).
Although
writing
is
an
output
activity, it shows how well
skills
have been input firstly. In this
case, writing competence is treated as one of the
most
effective ways to test
learners
’
language input. In
the process of writing, various kinds
of errors can be found in Chinese
college students
’
English
compositions caused by
negative
transfer of native language.
The
purpose of this thesis is to analyze causes of
errors which caused by negative
transfer
of
native
language
in
Chinese
learners
’
compositions,
and
to
put
forward
some
suggestions
to
improve
college
English
teaching
at
the
same
time.
Based
on
theories
of
Language
Transfer
and
Error
Analysis,
the
author
attempts
to
look
into
how
negative
transfer
of
Chinese
influences
EFL
(English
as
a
foreign
language)
learners
in
China
on
their
English
writing
competence
via
analyzing
errors
which
occur in their compositions.
33
freshmen
of
English
major
in
Yan
’
an
University
are
the
subjects
in
the
research.
They
were
asked
to
write
a
composition
on
the
same
topic
“
What
is
happiness?
”
The
results are presented in percentage.
This thesis is divided into six parts.
The first part is about the significance and
objectives
of
the
study.
The
second
part
talks
about
literature
review.
Then
the
research
design
is
provided.
The
fourth
part,
also
the
most
important
part,
is
the
analysis
of the errors caused by negative transfer of
native language in the
students
’
sample
writing.
The
second
part
before
the
last
is
about
some
pedagogical
implications.
The last part is the conclusion of the thesis.
1.
Literature
Review
The influence of native language
transfer has long been a controversial topic in
second language acquisition field,
which has been discussed among linguists, second
language teachers and researchers.
Language transfer is not only an abstract academic
issue in linguistic field, but also a
common problem in the field of second language
teaching.
All
the
linguists
and
foreign
language
teachers
admit
the
fact
that
native
language
can
greatly
influence
second
language
acquisition
both
positively
and
negatively. It is no
wonder that second language learners often commit
errors caused
by the influence of
native language.
1.1
Language Transfer
The
term <
/p>
“
transfer
”
< br>
is
firstly
defined
by
psychologists,
which
refers
to
“
the
carryover
of
previous
performance
or
knowledge
to
subsequent
learning
”
(Brown,
2007:32).
This
process
takes
place
through
the
use
of
“
sound,
expressions,
or
structures
”
from
the native language when performing in
the target
language (Yule,
2006:18). According to them, the main
obstacle to learning is interference from the
prior
knowledge
which
learners
have
acquired
and
negative
transfer
of
native
language
has
become
one
of
the
main
factors
leading
to
language
errors,
which
deserves great
attention.
1.1.1 The Definition of
Language Transfer
Although language
transfer has been a heated topic for several
decades, it is
difficult to define it
clearly owing to controversy among linguists.
According to
psychologists, the term
“
tra
nsfer
”
means
“
the process of automatic
and subconscious use of prior knowledge
to produce new response
”
.
The cognitive theory regards
“
transfer
”
as
“
a cognitive activity and an
embodiment of the inner processing
course of learners
”
(Anderson, 1985:165). In
other words,
transfer refers to the influence of the possessed
experiences on the new
process of
learning.
Faerch and Kasper (1987:75)
give a definition of transfer as
“
the process of
foreign language
learners
’
active first
language knowledge in influencing learning of
foreign language, and point out that
process may either support (positive) or detract
(negative transfer) from
learning
”
.
Krashen
(1981:112)
stated,
“
Transfer
is
the
result
of
the
assistance
of
the
old
knowledge, i.e., the rule of the first
language, when new knowledge is
lacking
”
.
Language transfer is also defined as
“
the application of native
language rules in
attempted
performance
in
a
foreign
language,
which
may
result
in
deviations
from
target language norms
and facilitate foreign language acquisition in
some cases
”
(Ellis,
2000:95).
1.1.2
Classification of Language Transfer
As is mentioned in the previous
section, the theory of language transfer means
that one
’
s prior
knowledge of native language may sometimes
facilitate or hinder the
learning of
the target language. It is natural to divide
language transfer into positive
transfer and negative transfer.
“
Positive transfer occurs if
the prior knowledge of first
language
assists
second
language
learning,
that
is
to
say,
it
makes
second
language
learning
easier.
Otherwise,
it
is
negative
transfer
if
the
knowledge
of
first
language
results in
an error or an
inappropriate use of second language
pattern
”
(Yang
Dafu,
2002:33).
In
this
thesis,
the
author
attempts
to
analyze
errors
caused
by
negative
transfer of the
native language on EFL
learners
’
English writing.
1.2
Error
Analysis
In applied linguistics, error
analysis is
“
the study of
patterns of errors
”
.
Analysts
have
proposed
six
kinds
of
errors,
arising
from
inaccurate
learning,
inaccurate
teaching, wrong guessing, poor memory,
the influence of the mother tongue, and the
process of
learning”
(Corder, 1981:33).
1.2.1 The Definition of Error
There are many different definitions of
error. Corder (1981:45) defines an error
as
“
a
breach
of
the
code
”
,
which
means
everything
deviating
from
the
norm
is
regarded
as
errors.
James
(1998:19)
regards
errors
as
“
an
unsuccessful
bit
of
language
”
.
Chun
(1982:35)
defines
errors
as
“
the
use
of
linguistic
item
in
a
way
which,
according
to
fluent
users
of
the
language,
indicates
faulty
or
incomplete
learning
”
.
1.2.2 Procedure of Error Analysis
The
procedure
of
error
analysis
can
be
talked
from
the
following
five
aspects
proposed
by
Corder
(Ellis,
1999:51-52).
They
are
collecting
samples,
identifying
errors, describing errors, explaining
errors and evaluating errors.
2.
Research
Design
In the previous
part, the theories about language transfer and
error analysis have
been stated. In this part, how the
research is designed and carried out will be
stated.
2.1 Objectives
The
aim
of
this
study
is
to
investigate
how
negative
transfer
of
Chinese
influences Chinese English
majors
’
English competence
from the view of writing. The
author
attempts to answer the following questions via
this empirical study:
(1)
Is negative transfer of native language
one of major sources of errors in
Chinese
English
majors
’
English writing?
(2)
What are the
main kinds of transfer errors which have been
committed in Chinese
English
majors
’
compositions in
English?
2.2 Subjects
Thirty-three freshmen of English major
in Yan
’
an University are the
subjects of
the research.
2.3 Methods
The
students
are
asked
to
write
a
composition
on
a
given-topic
“
what
is
happiness
”
. Then
a few questions are asked about their knowledge of
the differences
between Chinese and
English and the strategies they use to write.
3.
The Results
and Analysis of the Sample Writings
In
the previous part, the author introduced how the
study was performed. In this
part, the
author will analyze the results of the study to
find the main errors and the
specific
proportion of errors caused by mother tongue
transfer. The author will also
analyze
the errors in detail and show the reasons of that
kind of errors.
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