语言迁移对英语教学的影响

【摘 要】在语言学习中，迁移是指母语对目的语或旧的语言知识对新的语言知识的影响。而这种影响又有正面和负面之分，因而也就有所谓的正迁移和负迁移。正迁移会有助于语言学习者更快地理解目的语，而负迁移则会妨碍学习者对目的语的掌握。笔者认为迁移对学习英语的中国学习者来说有很大的影响。因为英汉语属于两种不同的语系，故存在着很大的差异性，但又存在相似性。因此，在两种语言之间进行对比分析有利于英语教学，提高英语教学的质量。

【关键词】迁移；正迁移；负迁移；英语教学

I. A Theoretical Study of Language Transfer

1.1 Definition of Language Transfer

Language transfer also called cross-linguistic influence and it is one of the key factors contributing to learners' interlanguage. Its view is that the mother tongue habits influence learning of the foreign language habits. Although it was later discredited， the notion of transfer has been revived again and remains one of the most fundamental in foreign language acquisition research （Johnson， 2001）.

1.2 Classification of Language Transfer

Positive transfer is transfer which makes learning easier， and may occur when both the native language and the target language have the same form. Odlin （2001） points out that the facilitative effects can only be observed when learners with different native languages are studied and learner comparisons are carried out. Positive transfer is evident in the rate of learning （Ellis 1994）.

II. Making Use of Positive Transfer in English Teaching

2.1 Making Use of Positive Transfer in Speech Sound

Most Chinese students have no difficulty in pronouncing phonemes 1ike /k/， /p/， /b/， /t/， /d/ and /f/ as we have sounds in Chinese. Because of the similarities in the form of lips and aptness of mouth， Chinese students of English have no difficulty in pronouncing the vowels： /i：/， /u：/ and /a：/. In the pattern of syllables， there are also some similarities. For example， the mono-syllable words in English are easy to read， such as "are"， "I"， as in Chinese there are mono-syllable words， such as和（he）、戏（xi）. So if such comparison is made between these items in teaching， these items will be more impressive to students.

2.2.1Making Use of Positive Transfer in Vocabulary

The understanding of the meaning of many Chinese characters may facilitate students' memory of words in English. So in teaching new words in English， teachers can help their students with the formation of these words. Lots of English words are constructed with roots and affixes， which resembles the basic structural parts of Chinese characters such as "湖"， "纺". "氵" Plus "胡" is "湖"， and "纟" and "方" is "纺". Before teaching the meanings of roots and affixes of some English words， teachers can give some Chinese characters to the students and analyze how they are formed to show that Chinese also has word formation. While students learn the meanings of roots and affixes of some English words， it is easy for them to classify words according to the word formation of English.

2.2.2Making Use of Positive Transfer in Grammar

A lot of grammatical similarities between English and Chinese make it possible for students to transfer positively some Chinese features into learning English. For example， the following two basic English sentence patterns are almost structurally the same as the Chinese sentences.

So by comparing these sentence structures， students can master the sentence patterns easily with the help of positive transfer of their mother tongue.

III. Avoiding Negative Transfer in English Teaching

Differences between languages are likely to cause negative transfer， especially those that appear to be the same are different in essence， which can be found in all aspects of language learning： speech sounds， vocabulary， grammar， etc.

3.1 Avoiding Negative Transfer in Speech Sounds

Firstly， English sounds vigorous， while Chinese sound soft. Therefore， without special training， Chinese students generally speak English lightly and an English native speaker can detect their Chinese accent at the moment he hears it.

Secondly， English and Chinese differ in the systems of phonemes. There are subtle differences between the phonemes that resemble each other. They are likely to result in negative transfer. For example， How are you？ [h（au） a∶ju]is pronounced as [h（ao） a： ju] as [au] seems to be the same as （ao） in Chinese.

Thirdly， when pronouncing consonant clusters of English， the students tend to insert a vowel within them. For example， fly [flai] great [greit] are pronounced as [f？藜'lai] and [g？藜'reit] by some Chinese EFL learners.

3.2 Avoiding Negative Transfer in Vocabulary

Quite a number of English words and their concepts are not always completely corresponding to those in Chinese， and the relations are quite complicated. For example， when "help" means "帮助"，Chinese meaning and English meaning are corresponding to each other， but in the expression "can't help"， "help" has two meanings. In the sentence I can't help to clean the classroom. "help" means "帮助" while in the expression "can 't help doing something"， "help" means avoid（避免）. In many cases， some words are totally non-corresponding.

Conclusion

In short， transfer exists widely in English teaching and learning， and the transfer can be classified as positive or negative transfer. Positive transfer may facilitate the learning of a target language， while negative transfer prevents EFL learners from mastering it. So in the course of English teaching， teachers should use transfer consciously and skillfully to arouse the positive transfer and minimize the negative transfer so that the English teaching can be facilitated and students' learning can be improved.

From the above analysis， we can come to a conclusion that not only should teachers of English teach the students the correct forms of language， but also they should tell them how to use the language properly.