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1、On the Negative Transfer of Native Language on English LearningAbstract: For a lot of students, their ability of speaking their native language have achieved a higher level before they learn English. With this influence, students have been used to thinking and communicating with native language. The
2、refore negative transfer of native language often appear in English learning. This paper makes a preliminary and exploration on the negative transfer phenomena in students English learning and on how to minimize the negative transfer influences on English learning.Key words: native language, English
3、, negative transfer.Language transfer is a universal phenomenon in second language acquisition. Before language learners learn a foreign language, they have been using their mother language to communicate with each other for a long time, so that they have been very familiar with the rules of mother
4、language. In addition, there are similarities in language learning. Therefore, when they learn a new language, they transfer those rules into the second language unconsciously, and then transfers appear. However, there are similarities and differences between two languages in their usages, rules and
5、 so on. For that reason, two kinds of transfers form. They are positive transfer and negative transfer. This essay firstly illustrates the definition of transfer and the importance of mother language for second language acquisition. Then it discusses the reason that causes transfer. Next it illustra
6、tes the negative transfer of native language on English learning.I.The Theory of TransferTransfer is a common phenomenon lies in the study of knowledge, technical, attitude and action. So in learning a second language transfer means the influence of native language in learning a foreign language. Th
7、is kind of transfer which helps students learn a second language is positive transfer, on the contrary is negative transfer. When students learning a second language they will make a lot of mistakes and have so many difficulties. That is the result of the negative transfer.For all the foreign langua
8、ge learners, they study the second language on the base of their mother tongue. He or she has a certain social status, so the acquired language knowledge will inevitably have a great influence on their second language learning. The native language will become a reference when facing the second langu
9、age. Peoples weltanschauung and concept of value will be transferred. So when we Chinese people learn English we are in a Chinese learning style, that is we make these three things together. They are English grammar, English words and our Chinese culture background. We use English in our own backgro
10、und, that means we separate the relationship between language and its own culture. So under this kind of phenomenon our English is Chinese English but not idiomatic English, our spoken English is discourse in English rather than English discourse. In order to avoid the culture shock, teachers should
11、 foresee the culture shock, compare the native language with the target language, minimize the negative transfer. Only by these methods could improve students learning and communicating ability.II.Negative Transfers Impact on Language Learning 1. The impact on PhoneticBefore our Chinese people learn
12、 English, we have learned our Chinese phonetic writing. The Chinese phonetic writing are much the same as the English letters. So when the Chinese learners learn the 26 English letters they often make mistakes. They pronounce the English letters as our Chinese, for example Aa/ei/, they often say a(啊
13、音), Dd/di:/ as d(得音)。This is quite wrong. The most famous Chinese phonetician 朱鑫茂once said that most teachers in china, even the college professors, dont know how to pronounce a phonetic symbol correctly. So when we say a word foreigner dont know what our Chinese talking about. These are all due to
14、our Chinese accent. Phrase is made up of words. Sentence is made up of different phrase. When we talk with the foreigners some mistakes will be made. In foreigners mind our oral English is quite poor. In American only those who are uneducated and the African Americans oral English is poor. So its qu
15、ite indecency. Foreigners will look down up on the people with poor oral English. And for the Chinese, because of the different sound made by the foreigners, our Chinese dont understand what they are talking about, we thing their accent is quite fast and very strange. But in fact, its our error. So
16、the negative transfer on phonetic makes people from different countries couldnt communicate with each other fluently and smoothly. If there is on good translator, it will be a big problem for both sides.2.The impact on English grammarThe Chinese expression and English expression are not the same, so
17、metimes even opposite with our Chinese expression style. So they make a lot of mistakes. For example our Chinese say “我父亲是教师”, but when it is translated directly into English, its like this” I father is a teacher”. Students will not care for the word “I”, it should be unsteadied by the word “my”. Th
18、at is because “I” and “my” have different grammar function. The word I couldnt be used with nouns. He word my should be used here. In English pronouns are divided into many pars. Each part has their own function. For example the word “I, he, she, it, they” are used as subject. Words like “ his, her,
19、 their, my” are used before nouns. But Chinese pronouns dont have these rules.English also have the character of tense. It has three main tenses. They are past tense, present tense and future tense. Verbs should be changed with different tenses. For example, if a verb used in past tense it should ad
20、d a suffix “ed”, if in present tense sometimes it wont change and sometimes a suffix “ing” is needed, if in the future tense the word “will” should used before the verb. In Chinese we say “昨天，今天，明天”, but the verbs have no change. So when we learn English grammar we have to spend time in getting used
21、 to this rule.3.The impact on pragmaticsPragmatics is the study of how people use their language. For example, people how to greet with each other, how to reply to others questions, how to persuade others. When students learning a second language, they have had the ability of using their native lang
22、uage to communicate and think easily. So when they communicate in English, they will say a lot of sentences which are right both in grammar and meaning, however, native English will not say that. For example when a foreigner praises a Chinese student, he says “you speaking English is very good”. But
23、 to his surprise the Chinese student will say “no, no, my English is very poor”. This makes the foreign quite confused. The answer is quite right in grammar. But English native dont say that. They say “thank you very much”. In our point of view, the Chinese students answer is right, this shows our m
24、odesty and connotation. This phenomenon is due to our culture background.The above three aspects show that our native students are quite used to our own culture. So when we study English the negative transfer will have a great influence on our learning. So how to control the negative transfer, there
25、 are some methods to do that.Teachers play an important part in English learning. So the teachers should be qualified. They should pass certain examinations before become a teacher. Their knowledge about the foreign culture background must be rich. And then their oral English should be very good. St
26、udy with teachers of this kind, students could not only enrich their knowledge but also have a good spoken English. To be a good English teacher, he or she has some psychology knowledge. Teachers should encourage students speak in English in class.For students they should not only learn the knowledg
27、e the teachers give them but also some foreign culture. At the same time they should download some news from VOA Special English, listen to these and imitate their pronunciation. They should also read some newspapers such as china Daily, to read newspapers they can learn how native speakers express
28、their ideas and minds.III.ConclusionPeople from different continents have both commonness and individuality. Commonness do good for peoples intercommunion, individuality do harm to cross-culture communication. So there comes the transfer. Transfer is influenced by different background cultures and thinking methods. So make research on transfer, especially on negative transfer do good for intercommunion and enlarge peoples horizon.
