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1、Negative Transfer of Native Language in College English WritingContentsAbstract11. Introduction.22. Defining transfer.23. Manifestations of the negative transfer in college English writing.3 3.1. Grammatical mistakes.3 3.1.1. Migrating Chinese expressions into English.3 3.1.2. Negative transfer of s
2、entence patterns.3 3.2. Negative transfer in applying words.3 3.2.1. Neglect of lexical connotations in different languages3 3.2.2. Errors in word collocation.3 3.2.2.1 Assumed synonymy.3 3.2.2.2 De-lexicalized verbs4 3.2.2.3 Redundancy.43.3. Inappropriate translation of Chinese idioms and phrases i
3、nto English.4 3.4. Developing an English article in Chinese style.54. The causes of language transfer 4.1. Cultural differences.5 4.2. Different modes of thinking65. Thoughts about teaching writing.7 5.1. The input of knowledge of cultural and thought.7 5.2. To teach writing as a process.7 5.3 Makin
4、g comments and error corrections.76. Conclusion.8Acknowledgements.9Bibliography.10 Abstract: The transfer of native language is a phenomenon that cannot be denied in the acquisition of a learners second language because the learner has had a rather developed the first language (L1) system prior in h
5、is mind. This paper will mainly analyze the negative transfer in college English writing, as well as the manifestations of negative transfer in grammar, applying words, using idioms, word collocation and developing an article in Chinese style. Then the paper will make a further study on the causes t
6、hat lead to the negative transfer such as culture differences and different modes of thinking. The thesis enriching the study of language transfer is hoped to be of help to both English learners in China to increase their writing ability and to improve their language proficiency, and the English tea
7、chers in tackling students writing errors and making adjustments in their teaching methods.Key words: negative transfer; native language; college English writing 1. IntroductionWriting, as one of the basic skills of English learning, refers to the ability to use English to express ones thought, whic
8、h is supposed to have been put stress on. It can objectively reflect students competence of thinking, organizing and expressing. English writing has always been considered complicated and difficult for many Chinese students, because it involves vocabulary, organization, grammar and so on. At present
9、, there is a serious problem in college English writing. Students cannot write correct English sentences even though they have learned a large vocabulary and have studied a lot of grammar. Because of the strong interference of the mother tongue, students think in Chinese and put what is in their min
10、ds into English, and then use English words to express their ideas in Chinese ways. This is why those English compositions by Chinese students are like translation work rather than a real English essay. It also explains why those compositions are often grammatically right but cannot be understood by
11、 the native people. This phenomenon is called interlanguage or Chinglish by some researchers. Chinglish, totally different from English rules, expressions and style, often causes misunderstandings of English native speakers. Chinglish is mainly caused by the negative transfer of the mother tongue in
12、 English learning. Negative transfer is often caused by culture differences and different modes of thinking of eastern and western people. In the traditional teaching of college English writing, teachers usually focus only on grammar and vocabulary while ignore others. However, language, as an art o
13、f culture, reflects a culture and is influenced and shaped by a culture. At the same time, peoples modes of thinking influence their modes of expression. In order to avoid Chinglish and the negative transfer of Chinese in English writing, teachers should pay attention to the importance of cultural i
14、nput as well as the knowledge of the discrepancies of oriental and occidental modes of thinking. This paper will mainly focus on the negative transfer in college English writing, as well as the analysis of the errors and inappropriate expressions caused by the negative transfer. Then the paper will
15、make a further study on the causes that lead to the negative transfer. Based on all the analysis, the paper will give some suggestions on how to reform the teaching methods of English writing and how to teach English writing more efficiently. 2. Defining Transfer Transfer, derived from the Latin wor
16、d “transferre”, means “to carry”, “to bear” or “to print, impress or otherwise copy (as a drawing or engraved design) from one surface to another” (Websters Third New World International Dictionary, 1986). Transfer can also mean “the carry-over or generalization of learned responses from one type of
17、 situation to another”, especially “the application in one field of study or effort of knowledge, skill, power, or ability acquired in another” (Websters Third New World International Dictionary, 1986). Here transfer does not indicate whether what is carried over is bad or good. The meaning of trans
18、fer here is neutral in origin and nature.Defining transfer has proved to be a painstaking job in the eyes of linguists. The origin of the term goes back to Behaviorism and it views that the first/native language（L1）habits influence the acquisition of the second/foreign language（L2）habits. Transfer w
19、as considered responsible for error occurrences in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural studies. Nevertheless, Richards (1971) pointed out that transfer of strategies was partially responsible for the learners errors. In a similar manner, Jain (1974) reported that transfer was but one of the sources
20、of error. Since then, transfer was more and more indirectly mentioned as an apparent factor of error (Corder, 1981).A further development of transfer, based on Interlanguage Theory, distinguished two major types of transfer: positive and negative transfer (L. Selinker, 1983). Positive transfer occur
21、s when a native form is used in the production of an L2 utterance, and it is also a part of the L2 norm. Odlin (1989) pointed out that the facilitative effects can only be observed when learners with different native languages are studied and learner comparisons are carried out. Negative transfer oc
22、curs when the L1 form used in L2 production is not a part of the L2 norm.In this paper, negative transfer of Chinese in EFL learners writings will be discussed.3. Manifestations of the Negative Transfer in College English Writing Language transfer refers to the effect of one language on the learning
23、 of another. Negative transfer, also known as interference, is the use of a negative language pattern or rule, which leads to an error or inappropriate form in the target language (Richards, Jack, 1999). The negative transfer of mother tongue can be manifested by various mistakes and inappropriate u
24、sage. This paper analyzes the negative transfer mainly from the following four aspects.3.1. Grammatical Mistakes 3.1.1 Migrating Chinese Expressions into English Take some conjunctives as an example. In Chinese, people often use two conjunctives in pair to connect two clauses, such as “不但而且”, “因为所以”
25、 to show the correspondence of the two clauses. While in English, these conjunctives are used separately and one conjunctive can fully express the corresponding relationship. Therefore, students often make mistakes when using these conjunctives. For example: “Though he is old, but he is still workin
26、g.” “Because English is very useful, so we must learn it well.” Students also make mistakes when using some verbs because the transitive verbs (vt.) and intrusive verbs (vi.) in English are not absolutely corresponding to those in Chinese. A vt. in Chinese may be a vi. in English such as “sympathize
27、”. Influenced by Chinese expression, Chinese students may often forget the preposition “with”. For example: F (false): I sympathize you. T (true): I sympathize with you.3.1.2 Negative Transfer of Sentence Patterns In Chinese, the negations that involve negative meaning in complex sentences are gener
28、ally put ahead of the verbs even though the verbs are in the clause. While in English, the negations are put in the main clause. Students often make false sentences according to the Chinese rules. They will say: “I think that he has no arrived yet.” instead of “I dont think he has arrived yet.” Besi
29、des, some sentences which express the meaning of definite negation in Chinese will express the meaning of partial negation when directly translated into English. For example, when translating “没有一个是正确答案” this sentence into English, students often use the sentence “All the answers are not right.” How
30、ever, this sentence in English actually means “some of the answers are right while some are wrong”. Therefore, the correct sentence should be, “None of the answer is right”. Because negative pronouns such as “none, nobody, and nothing” are often used to express the absolutely negative meaning in Eng
31、lish. 3.2. Negative Transfer in Applying Words3.2.1 Neglect of Lexical Connotations in Different LanguagesThere are some words that may have the same meaning literally both in Chinese and English, but sometimes they cannot be translated directly because of different connotations, the neglect of whic
32、h may cause pragmatic failures and misunderstandings. For example: A Chinese students uses a sentence “The revolutionary organizations quickly mushroomed” to describe their good future, but foreigners cannot understand. The student only knows the “mushroom” means developing fast, which is similar to
33、 the Chinese “spring bamboo shoots”. While in English “mushroom” often has the connotation of disappearing fast, and there are “mushroom fame” and “a mushroom millionaire”.3.2.2. Errors in Word Collocation3.2.2.1. Assumed SynonymySynonym refers to a word which has the same or nearly the same meaning
34、 as another word (Richards, Platt, 2000)English is rich in synonyms since it borrowed many words from French, Latin and Greek in the past. However, as Palmer (1981) notes, there are no real synonyms in English. That is, no two words have exactly the same meaning. For example, some differ in emotive
35、meaning such as “statesman”, and “politician, some are different in collocational meaning such as “rancid” only collocates with “bacon” and “butter”, while “addled” with “eggs” and “brains”.The following examples are erroneous collocations caused by assumed synonymy:(1) It will be a “large improveme
36、nt” in economics. (great/significant improvement).(2) Our living condition develops “very much”.(greatly)In example (1), the error occurs on the co-occurrence of “large” and “improvement”. Though synonyms are similar in meaning, they have different collocational restrictions when they co-occur with
37、different words in a sentence. Words like “large” and “great” are intensifying adjectives, which express ideas of great degree or strength (Longman dictionary of contemporary English, 4th Edition). But the choice of a particular adjective depends on the noun it modifies and different nouns have diff
38、erent adjectives to intensify them. “Large” is often used to express physical size, numbers or measurements, such as “a large number”, “a large population”, “a large quantity”, etc. It does not collocate with uncountable nouns which are modified usually by “great”, for example “great improvement”, “
39、great damage”, or “great joy”. Thus, a collocation of “large improvement” is unacceptable in English.In example (2), the error is caused by students confusion of the usage of the adverbial phrase “very much”. In English, the intensifying adverbial phrase “very much” can only modify verbs containing
40、emotive sense (Quirk, 1973). For example:I like him very much.They miss her very much.But not:They got up late, and so they missed the bus very much.If the verbs do not contain emotive sense, they cannot collocate with the adverbial phrase “very much”. Therefore, the collocation of “develop very muc
41、h” is unacceptable in English.3.2.2.2. De-lexicalized VerbDe-lexicalized verbs are verbs like “have”, “get”, “do”, “make”, “take” etc, which carry least meaning themselves, but enter into the widest range of patterns (Yang Huizhong, 2002). It is rather difficult for learners to master the usage of d
42、e-lexicalized verbs because the meanings of those verbs depend on the words following them. For example, the word “make” can collocate with many words, (e.g. make a telephone call/trip/visit/claim/decision/suggestion), while its own meaning is de-lexicalized and difficult to identify in collocations
43、 like “make a decision”, “make a suggestion”. Here, “make”, and its collocates have formed conventional usages, which cannot be changed randomly. For example, people can say “make an experiment”, but not “take an experiment”, people say “make a visit”, but not “do a visit”. In English, collocations
44、of de-lexicalized verbs are determined by their conventional usages. If EFL learners do not know such conventional restrictions, they may produce imprecise collocations. For example:(3) Dont be afraid of failure, just “make practice”. (take practice)(4) Developing countries will “have a new step” in
45、 the future.(take step)Errors in this category are mainly concerned with confusable words like “make/do”, “take/make”, and “take/have”. In English, de-lexicalized verbs are interchangeable in many collocations. For example:make/do a job take/have a walkmake/do a jump take/have a resthave/make common
46、 cause have/make/take a stabmake/take a decision have/take a bathBecause of the semantic overlap in de-lexicalized verbs, students often have problems in dealing with their co-occurrence with other words.3.2.2.3. RedundancyRedundancy refers to the degree to which a message contains more information than is needed
