Abstract摘要
本研究以负迁移理论和国内外的误差分析、比较分析、中介语分析等方法为基础，探讨母语负迁移对中国大学生英语写作的影响，分析其产生的误差，找出产生的原因。本研究采用问卷调查法，对120名中国大学生进行问卷调查，并对其作品中的错误进行分析，通过对比分析、中介语分析，得出负迁移是影响中国大学生英语写作水平提高的重要因素。技能、影响主要体现在词汇、语法、句子结构等方面。在研究结果的基础上，提出了如何减少负迁移对提高我国大学生英语写作能力的影响。
关键词：母语；中国大学生；负迁移；英语写作
This study was based on negative transfer theory and error analysis, comparative analysis, interlanguage analysis methods at home and abroad to explore errors resulting from negative transfer of mother tongue on Chinese college students' English writing, analyzing the errors to find out the causes. In this study, a quantitative research method was applied by giving out questionnaires to investigate 120 Chinese college students and analyze errors from their works, by using comparative analysis, interlanguage analysis to conclude that negative transfer was an important factor affecting Chinese college students' improving their English writing skills, the influences were mainly reflected in the lexical, grammar, sentence structure. Based on the research results, the author recommended on how to reduce the influence of negative transfer on improving Chinese college students' English writing skills.
Keywords: mother tongue; Chinese college students; negative transfer; English Writing
1 INTRODUCTION1引言
1.1研究需要
1.1 Needs for the Study
随着全球经济一体化，世界各国人民之间的关系越来越密切。毫无疑问，英语在人们的日常生活以及国际商务和事务中得到了广泛的应用。现在，人们对英语学习的重视和认可越来越多。因此，学习英语的重要性是显而易见的。然而，英汉语言属于不同的语系，每个语系都有自己完整的体系和不同的文化背景。大多数外语学习者在英语学习过程中存在许多困难和障碍。作为一个成年人，他们拥有完整的知识结构和较强的母语逻辑推理能力。换句话说，他们的语言习惯已经形成。因此，汉语在英语学习过程中的干扰是不可避免的。
人们普遍认为第二语言或外语受学习者的母语或第一语言（l1）的强烈影响。正如Lado（1957）首先指出的，机器翻译的影响过程被称为语言迁移，它发生在语言学习的各个方面，包括发音、拼写、语法等。语言迁移可以是正的也可以是负的。当由于第一语言和第二语言的规则重叠而导致某种正确的传递时，这被称为正传递。相反，当传输导致某些错误时，这被称为负传输，也被称为干扰（Dulay，1982）。语言迁移研究是应用语言学、第二语言习得和语言教学领域一个多世纪以来的热点问题，尤其是负迁移问题一直是语言教师和语言研究者共同关注的问题。The relationship among people all over the world is becoming closer and closer with the integration of the global economy. There is no doubt that English has been widely used in people's daily life as well as international business and affairs. Now, people have paid much more attention and recognition to English learning. Therefore, the importance of learning English is obvious. However, English and Chinese belong to different language families, and each of them has its own complete system and different cultural background. There are many difficulties and obstacles during the process of English learning for most of the EFL (English as Foreign Language) learners. As an adult, they have owned complete knowledge structure and strong ability of logical reasoning with their mother tongue (MT). In other words, their language customs have been formed. Therefore, it is inevitable of the interference of Chinese in their English learning process.
It is widely accepted that a second or foreign language is strongly influenced by the learners' MT or the first language (L1). As Lado (1957) first put it, the process of influence from the MT is called language transfer, which occurs in every aspect of language learning including pronunciation, spelling, grammar, etc. Language transfer can be either positive or negative. When transfer result in something correct because the rules of the first and the second language overlap, this is referred to as positive transfer. By contrast, when transfer result in something incorrect, this is referred to as negative transfer, also known as interference (Dulay, 1982). The study of language transfer has been a hot issue for more than a century in the field of applied linguistics, second language (L2) acquisition and language teaching, especially negative transfer has been a major concern of both language teachers and language researchers.
Writing, the expression of ideas in written words, serves as the most important means of communication in conveying people's ideas and feelings. It has been regarded as a vital factor in successful worldwide communication and cooperation. However, compared with the other three basic skills, namely listening, speaking and reading, writing is the most tough to acquire. Therefore, in the process of teaching, we have paid more and more attention to the students' writing skills. But in fact, most of the Chinese students have much difficulty in writing correct and fluent sentences in English. It is very common for them to make various kinds of errors in their writings in English, although they have studied the language for about 6 years or more. They get used to taking Chinese as a medium and translating it into English, so as not to get much improvement after a two-year study of college English. The phenomenon of native language transfer can be easily found in their writing, and the errors caused by the negative transfer of the MT are the main problems in the students’ English writing.
In order to improve the language application ability and the significance of foreign language teaching, researchers have studied the appropriate theories and methods to understand and analyze errors. However, this phenomenon is still existing in the English learning process. The contrastive analysis, error analysis, interlanguage and language transfer are used in this paper as the basic theories to study the effects of the negative transfer of the MT in English writing and teaching. Through the study, we could understand the MT’s negative transfer correctly, use the language transfer adequately and find the appropriate strategies to overcome the difficulties caused by the negative transfer. The final target is to reduce the negative transfer, improve the English writing skills and English learning ability of the English learners. Thus, it is of great significance to have a further study in this thesis on the negative transfer of Chinese on college students' English writings.
1.2 Research Significance
1.3 Structure of the Thesis
2 Literature Review
2.1 Language Transfer
2.2 Theoretical Bases of the Study
2.2.1 Contrastive analysis
2.2.2 Error analysis
2.2.3 Interlanguage
2.3 Foreign Researches on Negative Transfer of ML in International Contexts
2.4 Researches on Negative Transfer of ML in China
2.4.1 Universal negative transfer of Chinese in Chinese college students' English writing
2.4.2 Performance of negative transfer of Chinese in English writing
2.4.2.1 Effect of negative transfer related to vocabulary
2.4.2.2 Impact of negative transfer of syntax
2.4.2.3 Effect of the negative transfer of discourse
2.4.3 Reasons leading to negative transfer of Chinese
2.4.3.1 Differences in linguistic rules
2.4.3.2 Cultural differences
2.4.4 Thinking difference
2.5 Summary
3 RESEARCH METHODS
3.1 Research Questions
3.2 Research Participants
3.3 Research instruments
3.4 Data Collection Techniques
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Description of Statistic Results
4.1.1 Questionnaire results
4.1.2 Results of analysis on Chinese college students’ works
4.1.2.1 Reasons leading to the errors
4.1.2.2 Types of errors
4.2 Analysis and Explanation of Data
4.2.1Lexical errors caused by transfer
4.2.1.1 Word meaning errors
4.2.1.2 Part of speech errors
4.2.2 Errors caused by transfer of grammar
4.2.2.1 Tense errors
4.2.2.2 Disaccord between a subject and a predicate
4.2.2.3 Collocation errors
4.2.3 Errors caused by transfer of sentence structure and sentence relations
4.2.3.1 Errors of misuse of conjunctions
4.2.3.2 Incomplete sentence
4.2.3.3 Errors of a prominent topic
4.3 Case Analysis
4.3.1 Negative transfer of words
4.3.1.1Errors of meaning
4.3.1.2 Errors of part of speech
4.3.2 Transfer of grammar
4.3.2.1 Cases of tense transfer
4.3.2.2 Collocation errors
4.3.2.3 Non-finite verb errors
4.3.3 Sentence structure
4.3.3.1 Conjunction errors
4.3.3.3 Errors of a prominent topic
4.4 Recommendation
4.4.1 Teaching based on differences between Chinese and English
4.4.2 Increase language input
4.4.3 Combine writing with translation
4.4.4 Allow students to participate in marking compositions
4.4.5 Find more opportunities to learn English after class
5 CCONSLUSION
5.1 Main Points
5.2 Limitations
REFERENCES
APPENDIX 1 QUESTIONNAIRE
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5.3 Recommendations on Future Research
So far, most studies on interlanguage are based on analysis of errors and causes, the specific teaching recommendations and the implementation effect are difficult to be determined, so that the actual benefits of research are greatly reduced. Therefore, based on the analysis on errors, if it can provide specific solutions and verify the effects in the teaching experiment, it will make such studies more relevant. In addition, this study belongs to sectional study, if the students’ writing process can be monitored and analyzed, it will make the study more comprehensive, therefore, the research on process also has important significance.
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1.3 Structure of the Thesis
2 Literature Review
2.1 Language Transfer
2.2 Theoretical Bases of the Study
2.2.1 Contrastive analysis
2.2.2 Error analysis
2.2.3 Interlanguage
2.3 Foreign Researches on Negative Transfer of ML in International Contexts
2.4 Researches on Negative Transfer of ML in China
2.4.1 Universal negative transfer of Chinese in Chinese college students' English writing
2.4.2 Performance of negative transfer of Chinese in English writing
2.4.2.1 Effect of negative transfer related to vocabulary
2.4.2.2 Impact of negative transfer of syntax
2.4.2.3 Effect of the negative transfer of discourse
2.4.3 Reasons leading to negative transfer of Chinese
2.4.3.1 Differences in linguistic rules
2.4.3.2 Cultural differences
2.4.4 Thinking difference
2.5 Summary
3 RESEARCH METHODS
3.1 Research Questions
3.2 Research Participants
3.3 Research instruments
3.4 Data Collection Techniques
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Description of Statistic Results
4.1.1 Questionnaire results
4.1.2 Results of analysis on Chinese college students’ works
4.1.2.1 Reasons leading to the errors
4.1.2.2 Types of errors
4.2 Analysis and Explanation of Data
4.2.1Lexical errors caused by transfer
4.2.1.1 Word meaning errors
4.2.1.2 Part of speech errors
4.2.2 Errors caused by transfer of grammar
4.2.2.1 Tense errors
4.2.2.2 Disaccord between a subject and a predicate
4.2.2.3 Collocation errors
4.2.3 Errors caused by transfer of sentence structure and sentence relations
4.2.3.1 Errors of misuse of conjunctions
4.2.3.2 Incomplete sentence
4.2.3.3 Errors of a prominent topic
4.3 Case Analysis
4.3.1 Negative transfer of words
4.3.1.1Errors of meaning
4.3.1.2 Errors of part of speech
4.3.2 Transfer of grammar
4.3.2.1 Cases of tense transfer
4.3.2.2 Collocation errors
4.3.2.3 Non-finite verb errors
4.3.3 Sentence structure
4.3.3.1 Conjunction errors
4.3.3.3 Errors of a prominent topic
4.4 Recommendation
4.4.1 Teaching based on differences between Chinese and English
4.4.2 Increase language input
4.4.3 Combine writing with translation
4.4.4 Allow students to participate in marking compositions
4.4.5 Find more opportunities to learn English after class
5 CCONSLUSION
5.1 Main Points
5.2 Limitations
REFERENCES
APPENDIX 1 QUESTIONNAIRE