On the Influence of the Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue on English Writing

时间:2022-04-11 11:50:43

【Abstract】The influence of negative transfer of mother language on the English writing has already been the focus of the study. Furthermore, different experts and scholars hold different views on it. The paper aims at analyzing how the negative transfer of mother language affects the English writing. As a whole, the essay embraces three parts as follows. The first part expounds the transfer of mother language. The second part concentrates on three levels that are vocabulary level, syntax level and discourse level.The third part explores how to reduce the influence of negative transfer of mother language. What is more, the thesis gives some proper suggestions to improve their ability of writing rather than being trapped in the Chinese negative transfer.

【Key words】mother tongue; negative transfer; English writing

1. The Transfer of Mother Language on the English Writing

1.1 The Definition of the Transfer of Mother Tongue

According to the psychological view of language, the language transfer refers to the fact that one language influences another one. As a matter of fact, the language transfer was studied dating back to the 20th century 50s. Different linguists flesh out their different perspectives on the definition of it.Among these views of transfer of mother language, the linguists have a general consensus that the proceeding language acquisition has some similarities and differences between the target language. The former indicates that the mother transfer will facilitate the learning of the Chinese; on the contrary, the latter are possible to impede the progress of language learning.

1.2 The Negative Transfer of Chinese Vocabulary

As far as the verbs are concerned, to some extent, the usage of Chinese verbs and English verbs are not equivalent to each other. Especially, as for the English beginners, they are more likely to be confused while utilizing the forms of English verbs to finish the English writing.

1.2.1 The Negative Transfer of Chinese Verb

As we all know, some Chinese verbs are transitive verbs, by contrast, the counterparts in English are intransitive ones, or vice versa. As the case in point is that“I agree you” For most Chinese learners are prone to write it because of the influence of mother tongue. However, with regard to English verbs, the word “agree” is an intransitive verb which should be collocated with the preposition “with”. Not surprisingly, there are suffused with English intransitive verbs that need being attached to certain prepositions. Otherwise, the sentences you have written will be regarded as the violation of the grammar rules.Therefore, in order not to make the mistake, we are supposed to decrease the influence of mother language, and have a better mastery of the categories of the verbs.

1.2.2 The Negative Transfer of the Usage of Chinese Conjunctions

With regard to the usage of some Chinese conjunctions, many learners are inclined to make mistakes while writing the English compositions.However, it is these English conjunctions that play a critical role in bridging the words, phrases and the clauses or even the text. Admittedly, the most urgent thing for the Chinese learners is to be adept at putting them into practice in English writing.

Considering some examples, we are capable to see that the pairs of conjunctions,such as “although” and “but”, “because” and “so”. As the obvious example shows, “Though he is young,but he lacks the energy.” According to it, it is evident that the logical expression should be “Though he is young, he lacks the energy.” Most of the Chinese learners like putting them together in the same sentence, without recognizing the distinct differences between the Chinese conjunctions and the English ones.

In conclusion, faced with the usage of conjunctions, we should muse on difference between Chinese and English to avoid making unnecessary mistakes.

1.3 The Negative Transfer of the Chinese Typical Sentence Patterns

It is well worth meditating on the negative transfer of the Chinese typical syntax. Most importantly, it is common that English word order usually puts the adverbial modifiers into the end of the sentences,namely, the subjects plus verbs and the other segments. However, Chinese word order often places the adverbial modifiers into the front of the nouns. Hence, it is necessary to master their differences.

1.3.1 The Upside Down Word Order between Chinese and English

While writing English compositions, the Chinese learners are much more likely to reverse the word order which will make the composition disorderly and ambiguity. There are some enough evidences proving the distinction sufficiently between English word order and Chinese ones, such as She stayed at home as she had no car.(她因没有汽车而留在家) From the example above, it is clear that the word order between English and Chinese are in differences. If we do not distinguish them and only adhere to the rules respectively, we would write some rigid articles permeating the style of Chinglish.

1.3.2 The Negative Transfer of Chinese Negative Syntax

Concerning negative syntax between Chinese and English, a number of the learners are baffled by them. In the process of English writing, it is common that they make some errors correlating with typical English negative sentences. At the same time, when we make further study about the real reasons, we finally figure out that Chinese negative syntax mainly serves as the obstacles, which entices the learners into making some mistakes during English writing. As the example exhibits,“所有的稻莶欢级浴 in Chinese is often construed as“All the statistics are not right” . Because the learners do not have a better command of the total English negative words, such as none, nobody, nothing and the like.Ultimately, as the analysis above, only when the learners make attempt to reduce the mother negative transfer, can they improve their English writing ability.

1.4 The Negative Transfer of Chinese Substitutions on the Discourse

At present, some of researchers share a belief that discourse analysis is made up of two aspects including cohesion and coherence. Halliday puts cohesion into five parts: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion.Next, the essay will concentrate on one of the aspect to explain about the substitution between Chinese and English.

The Chinese students are easily affected by the negative transfer of mother language while writing English compositions. As for the following sentence“我很喜欢这位老师,他也很喜欢这位老师”. Many of the Chinese learners will give the interpretation: I love this teacher, he also loves this teacher. However, this type of translation is not the authentic ones because of verbosity. And the precise one should be “I love this teacher, so does him.” The substitution “so” has expressed the same meaning in the sentence. In addition, from the example, we recognize that the mistake hails from the negative transfer of mother language.

In conclusion,we must be familiar with the English discourse and manage to have a deeper understanding of them.

2. How to Reduce the Negative Transfer of Mother Language

In the illustration above, the most urgent and indispensable task is to reduce the influence of negative transfer of mother language effectively.

2.1 Strengthening the Learning of Chinese during English Writing

Influenced by the behaviorists’ view, some scholars accede to the idea that negative transfer of mother tongue has influenced the English writing. However, undeniably, mother tongue also plays a positive role in the learning of second language.

What we are supposed to pay much attention is that the positive influence of the basic units of phonetics. For instance, to begin with, as far as the English consonants are concerned, some are similar to initial consonant of Chinese syllables in terms of spelling and pronunciation, such as /p/, /b/, /t/and so on. When we put these commons together, it will facilitate foreign learners to command the pertinent spelling, pronunciation and meanings during preparing for the English compositions.

2.2 Focusing on the Cultural Comparison

In essence, culture plays a critical role in organizing the expressions of the articles. It is reported that writing is a complex process, which involves the realm of linguistics, logistics and psychologist and the like. In the meanwhile,the most important thing we should bear in mind is that the aims of English writing―to suit the readers who are familiar with English culture. Therefore, it is necessary to make comparison between mother language and the target language.

References:

[1]Gass,Susan M and Selinker,Second Language Acquisition[M]:An Introductory Course(Second Edition).Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

[2]Nida,Eugene A.The Theory and Practice of Translation[M].Netherlands,E.J.Brill,Leiden,1982.

[3]池丽霞,王晶晶.大学英语作文中的词语搭配错误分析[J].2006.12,8(4).

[4]法小鹰.母语负迁移对中国学生英语写作的影及对策[J].怀化学院学报,29(7).

[5]刘红,邓郦鸣.英汉思维模式差异对大学英语写作的影响[J].2005.3,13(1).

[6]胡壮麟.语篇的衔接与连贯[M].上海:上海外语教育出版社,1994.

上一篇:企业社会责任与财务绩效的相关性研究 下一篇:从国际收支账户探究中国模式的发展方向