论文总字数：33271字

摘 要

本文基于前人对母语迁移的研究，主要探讨汉语负迁移对英文写作的影响。语言的功能是交际。写作，作为一种书面的交流形式，无疑是可以实现这种功能的重要途径之一。由于汉英语言分属不同的语系，其词法，句法和习惯表达等都有许多不同。学生们习惯用汉语思维写英文文章，因此导致许多错误。因此，本文从负迁移的角度分析中学生英语写作中的错误及存在问题。文章主要从英汉词法，词汇，句法，语篇和修辞等方面来证实汉语对中学生的英文写作确实有负面影响。此外，本文提出了解决方法,以提高学生写作的效率和流畅度。同时，希望这些方法也能对广大教师有所帮助。

关键词：初中英语写作；汉语负迁移；对策

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………2

2.1 Definition of language transfer…………………………………………...2

2.2 Classifications of language transfer……………………………………....2

2.3 Previous studies at home and abroad……………………………………...3

3. Analysis of Negative Transfer of Chinese in middle school English Writing………………………………………………………………………4

3.1 Morphological level……………………………………………………….4

3.2 Lexical level …………………………………………………………........6

3.3 Syntactic level……………………………………………………………...9

3.4 Discourse …………………………………………………………………10

3.5 Rhetoric aspect……………………………………………………………..11

4. Countermeasures of Negative Transfer of Chinese in English Writing..12

4.1 Defining words in English…………………………………………………12

4.2 Increasing English input…………………………………………………...13

4.3 Increasing the comparison between English and Chinese……………….13

4.4 Focusing on text structure analysis ……………………………………14

5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..14

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...16

1. Introduction

Since 1980s, a large number of studies have focused on the writing process of English as a second language (L2) for the development of linguistic and teaching area. L2 writing research rose in North America and gradually extended to non-English countries in Europe, Asia and Africa in the late 90s. The data collected indicate that the research of L2 writing process in China has developed rapidly in 20 years. These studies analyze the students’ thinking mode in L2 writing process (Wang and Yang 485). Most of the researchers have conducted a comprehensive discussion on the negative transfer of mother tongue (L1) in English writing of college students and they found that Chinese negative transfer seriously affected their writing habits and their logical structure of the composition.

In the process of language acquisition, the negative transfer of mother tongue is an inevitable phenomenon, because in the mind of the language learners, there is a complete system of mother tongue language. Therefore, the transfer of L1, especially the negative transfer, has been the focus of language researchers and teachers. The majority of learners’ L2 writing has an obvious trace of mother tongue transfer, and the negative transfer of L1 is the main obstacle of the students’ L2 writing.

This thesis aims to investigate the influence of Chinese negative transfer on English writing and provide countermeasures. It is based on the previous research and theory of language transfer to discuss the causes and the varieties of Chinese negative transfer. By analyzing the typical mistakes caused by the negative transfer of Chinese students’ English writing, we can minimize the negative transfer. In addition, finding effective teaching methods in English writing can help teachers to improve students’ writing ability. The paper also analyzes the reasons for such mistakes from cultural and linguistic perspectives and then provides solutions to reducing the negative transfer. Such a methodic analysis is not only meaningful but also helpful to improve students’ English writing competence.

2. Literature Review

Written expression is an important part of students’ English learning and an important way to test students’ written communicative competence. Because of the imperfect English knowledge and the unformed English thinking mode, negative transfer of mother tongue will inevitably occur in the learning process repeatedly. Most linguists agree that the negative transfer of language is particularly obvious because the learners often participate in English learning and activities with the help of L1 knowledge.

2.1 Definition of language transfer

In the study of foreign language learning, transfer often have an effect on SLA when the first language makes a transition to the second language.

H. Ellis (Cook 102) defined transfer as “A hypothesis that task A learning will affect the task of learning B.” If we replace the “task A and task B” by “L1 and L2”, we can get the definition of language transfer. According to Odlin (1989), language transfer is the influence resulting from similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously acquired (Odlin 29). According to its effects, it can be divided into positive transfer and negative transfer.

Positive transfer refers to the positive effects caused by the existing skills on new skills, whereas negative transfer is a behavioral psychology term that refers to the interference of the previous knowledge with new learning. It relates to the experience with one set of events could hurt performance on related tasks.

2.2 Classifications of language transfer

According to the sources, language transfer can be divided into interlingual and intralingual transfer; borrowing transfer and substratum transfer. According to the level of its occurrence, there are linguistic transfer and non-linguistic transfer.

Ellis (2000) listed 6 factors that constrain the language transfer, such as phonology, vocabulary, grammar, discourse and so on. He stressed that the learner’s mistakes are crucial to the researchers. These errors provide not only the basis for how to learn but also a strong basis for the understanding of the strategies used by learners.

Based on the students’ English composition, this paper studies the language negative transfer. After the analysis, the errors caused by the negative transfer of the Chinese in the students’ English composition are classified into the following categories: morphological level, lexical level, syntactic level, textual level and rhetoric aspect.

2.3 Previous studies at home and abroad

Since the middle of twentieth Century, the influence of mother tongue on foreign language learning has always been a problem concerned by people. And language transfer has been a central issue in Applied Linguistics, second language acquisition (SLA) and language research. For this reason, linguists have deeply discussed and come up with many theories such as the theory of contrastive analysis, Inter-language Theory and so on.

According to the theory of contrastive analysis, the influence of native language on foreign language learning is different from that of the two languages’ similarities and differences. Through comparative analysis, we can know how L1 transfer and can also explain the nature of second language transfer (Chomsky 113). Charles Fries (1945) designed the method of contrastive language teaching and first proposed comparative analysis hypothesis model. His main point is that learners’ native language plays a decisive role in the learning of their target language. He thinks the native language forms and results will transfer learners.

Ellis (1985) also pointed that if there is no corresponding form between the foreign language and L1, people tend to draw on the mother language habits, cultural background and way of thinking to contrast the two languages. In one aspect, the similarities between L1 and the foreign language can promote the foreign language learning, in another aspect, the differences between them will interfere the learning.

Selinker (1969) put forward a term called inter-language. It is a transitional language between mother tongue and target language learners use. The emergence of the inter-language marked the new stage of error analysis based on the contrastive analysis. The most important founder of error analysis theory is Corder. Corder (1983) points that we should take the learner’s mistake as a window of development instead of a negative thing completely. Because of this, error analysis theory has been widely recognized by L2 research community (Lin 22). However, error analysis theory has its own limitation. It over valued the meaning of learners’ errors and ignored the positive effects of mother tongue on L2 acquisition.

In recent years, many Chinese linguists have made studies of L1 transfer in SLA. The famous linguist (Chen 169) pointed out the most useful help for Chinese students is to let them know the differences between English and Chinese. As far as possible to compare the situation in Chinese with English in every specific question, students will have a deeper understanding in L2 learning.

This thesis studies the negative transfer of Chinese from middle school students’ cognition and explores the different levels of negative transfer in students’ English writing. It may promote English writing ability of middle school students and form the habit of thinking in English. Meanwhile, it is the profound hope that the thesis can provide some suggestions for teachers.

3. Analysis of Negative Transfer of Chinese in Middle School English Writing

Most of middle school students have learned English for several years, but their English is still poor. They have a small vocabulary and they don"t understand the words well. In the process of writing, students often translate from Chinese to English. Errors caused by negative transfer of Chinese are analyzed from the following aspects.

3.1 Morphological level

Chinese and English belong to different language systems. English is alphabetic system of writing while Chinese characters are meaning-phonetic writing. Compared with Chinese, there are more morphological changes in English, such as single and plural nouns, the comparative and superlative form of adjectives and adverbs and the non-predicate verbs.

In the same time, as an isolating language, Chinese has no morphological changes. Based on the differences between the two languages in this regard, the students will inevitably produce errors in morphology.

3.1.1 Article

The article is a language phenomenon in English but not in Chinese. The lack of articles in Chinese makes the students understand articles particularly unresponsive and cause many mistakes in writing. The following are some examples.

Wrong: Tom is a honest boy.

Right: Tom is an honest boy.

Wrong: Italy is an European country.

Right: Italy is a European country.

The sentences show us the misuse of A and An. Both of them go before countable nouns. If the word begins with a vowel phoneme-a,e,i,o,u-we should use An instead of A.

When we use the articles before nouns, we need to know whether the nouns are specific nouns. Here are two examples.

Wrong: It is important for us to choose right person.

Right: It is important for us to choose the right person.

Wrong: After having the breakfast, I hurried to school.

Right: After having breakfast, I hurried to school

3.1.2 Number of nouns

Nouns in Chinese have no singular or plural, for example, 这个桌子，这些桌子. We can only add “们” after person to express plural meaning, such as 孩子们，朋友们. Meanwhile, nouns in English divided into countable and uncountable nouns. Students often do not know what are countable nouns so they may change the number of uncountable nouns or forget to add “s” after the countable nouns. The following examples show us the misuse of the number of nouns.

Wrong: I want a coffee.

Right: I want a cup of coffee.

Wrong: The book contains many new informations.

Right: The book contains much new information.

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