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EffectofLanguageTransferonEnglishWritingofChineseStudents

1Introduction

Asaninternationallanguage,Englishisplayinganincreasinglyimportantroleininternationalcommunication.Listening,speaking,reading,translationandwritingarefivebasicrequirementsforEnglishlearners.However,theresultsofmanyresearchesandvariouskindsofEnglishtestsindicatethatthecurrentsituationofcollegestudent’sEnglishwritingisnotoptimistic,withapproximately50%studentsnotbeingabletowritegoodEnglishwritings.Thelowwritingabilityofcollegestudentsisexposedinthefollowingaspects.Thefirstisagreatnumberofgrammaticalmistakes,suchassubject-verbdisagreement,wrongpluralform,messofvoiceandtenseandsoon.Thesecondisvocabularyproblem,forexample,scarcityofglossary,wrongspellingofwordsandcollocationerror.Thethirdispoortransformationofthinkingpattern.Inmostcases,studentstendtoorganizeinChinesefirstthentranslatewhattheyhavethoughtintoEnglish,thuscausingtheemergenceofChinglish,ahybridEnglishformwithChinesecharacteristicswhichdeterioratescommunicationinitsaccuracyandexpressiveness.Theforthisstudents’passiveattitudetowardswriting.ThemajorityofstudentslackenoughmotivationandinterestinEnglishwriting.

Thereisamixtureofreasonsforthelowqualityofcollegestudents’Englishwriting.Asfortheteachingprocess,collegeteachersalwaysattachtoomuchimportancetogrammaracquisitionandintensivereadingandneglectthesignificanceofwriting,thusitisoftenthecasethatstudentsseldomhavewritingtasksexceptinthefinaltest.Teachersusuallyencouragestudentstoaccumulatemorewords,butseldomdotheyinspirestudentstoputthewordstheyhavelearnedintoapplication.Hence,studentsonlymastertheconceptualmeaningofword,whilearenotfamiliarwithitsusage.Inaddition,someteachers’writingknowledgeandwritingskillsarerelativelyweak,whichalsomakesthemlookbeyondtheirgraspinguidingthestudents'writing.Intermsoftheexaminationpaper,themajorityofquestiontypeismultiple-choice,whichcanonlyteststudents’languageinputcapacityinsteadoflanguageoutputcapacity.InuniversityCETexampapers,themarkofwritingpartonlyoccupy15%anduptonowthenationalaveragescoreforthispartisunder7.Asaresult,teachersandstudentsallholdtheviewthatwritingisnoteasytoscoreanywayandmoreenergyshouldbegiventothesectionoflisteningandreadingcomprehension,whichfurtherweakentheirwritingcapacity.Fromtheperspectiveoftheteachingofwriting,thereisalackofspecialwritingteachers.Students,especiallynon-Englishmajors,arenottaughttolearnstepbysteptowriteacomposition.Thelearnerisdifficulttostandintheperspectiveofdiscoursetounderstandandgraspoftheprocessofwritingasawhole,letaloneflexibleandeffectivewritingstrategies.Whenitcomestothethinkingpattern,ChinesestudentssufferheavilyfromthenegativetransferoftheirmotherlanguageinthatideaconceivedinChineseisungrammaticallyorunidiomaticallyexpressedinEnglish.Totacklethepoorqualityofcollegestudents’Englishwriting,thispaperoffersaliteraturereviewoflanguagetransfer,focusesonpositiveandnegativetransferofChineseasamothertongueinEnglishwritingfromtheaspectsofdefinition,manifestationandcausesoflanguagetransferaswellasexploresmeasuresagainstnegativetransfer.

2LanguageTransferTheory

2.1Literaturereviewoflanguagetransferstudy

Languagetransferhasbeenanimportantissueinsecondlanguageforalongtime,whichgoesthroughupsanddownsaswellascontinuouscontroversythroughoutthe40yearshistoryasanindependentdisciplineinsecondlanguageacquisition.Thehistoryoflanguagetransferresearchdatesbacktoseveralcenturiesago.Fromitsrisesandfalls,withthedevelopmentandtransformationofthetheoryofsecondlanguageresearch,thestudyoflanguagetransferhasundergonethreestagesofdevelopment.Thefirststageistheflushingperiodfrom1950sto1960s.Undertheframeworkofstructurelinguisticsandbehavioralpsychology,thestudyoflanguagetransferisdominatedbycontrastiveanalysishypothesis.Theperiodbetweenlate1960sand1970switnessedthecriticismoflanguagetransfer.AffectedbyChomsky’stheoryofuniversallanguage,behavioristpointofviewhasbeenseriouslycriticized,contrastiveanalysishypothesisandlanguagetransfertheoryhasbeendeserted,theinfluencesoftransferinsecondlanguagehasbeenweakenanddenied.Since1980s,however,therehasbeenarenewedinterestinlanguagetransferstudies.Withthegradualformationanddevelopmentofcognitiveandsocialschool,studyoflanguagetransferhasachievedfullexpansion,fromtheinitialstudyonlanguageitselfonlytothestudyoflanguagelearnersandreorganizedtheeffectoftransferinsecondlanguagelearninginvariousangles,suchascognitivepsychology,language,socio-culturalandsoon.Uptonow,agreatmanyofresearchpapersandworksconcerninglanguagetransferhavebeenpublished.AmongthemanypublicationsareLanguageTransfer:

Cross-linguisticInfluenceinLanguageLearningbyOdlin（1989）,CrosslinguisticInfluenceinLanguageandCognitionbyJarvisandPavlenko（1989）,InterlanguageandLearnabilityfromChinesetoEnglishbyYip（1995）,tonameonlyafew.

2.2Interpretationoflanguagetransfer

Beingahottopicinsecondlanguageacquisition,however,languagetransferhasnotyetformedacompleteandcleardefinition.Theconceptoftransferderivesfrompsychologyofbehaviorism.Transferis“atermusedbypsychologistsintheiraccountsofthewayinwhichpresentlearningisaffectedbypastlearning”（夏新蓉,2004:

17）.LadoinhisworksLinguisticsAcrossCultureputsforward:

“Transferreferstoamentalprocessinwhichtheknowledgepeoplehavegraspedactsinanewlearningenvironment”.Ladoholdsthatpeopleinclinetotransferthelanguageformsandmeaningsofonelanguage（usuallymotherlanguage）andcorrespondingcultureintoanotherlanguage（usuallythesecondlanguagelearning）”（1957:

92）.However,Corder（1981）regardstransferasborrowing,emphasizesthatborrowingisatypeoflanguagebehaviorratherthanaprocessofstudyorcharacteristicsoflanguagestructure,while,othersinsistedthattransferisastrategyforcommunication.Now，themostfrequentlyquoteddefinitionisOdlin’sworkingdefinition,whichdefinesthattransferistheinfluenceresultingfromthesimilaritiesanddifferencesbetweenthetargetlanguageandanyotherlanguagethathasbeenpreviously（andperhapsimperfectly）acquired（1989:

27）.

2.3Themaincategoriesoflanguagetransfer

Therearedifferentkindsofcategoriesaccordingtodifferentyardsticks.Fromtheperspectiveoftheeffectonthesecondlanguagelearning,languagetransferisoftendividedintopositivelanguagetransferandnegativelanguagetransfer.

2.3.1Positivetransfer

Whatdoesthepositivetransfermean?

Therearemanywaystodefinethisterm“positivetransfer”.ThedefinitionfromWikipidiaislikethis:

whentherelevantunitorstructureofbothlanguagesisthesame,linguisticinterferencecanresultincorrectlanguageproductioncalledpositivetransfer —"correct"meaninginlinewithmostnativespeakers'notionsofacceptability.Accordingtothisdefinition,itisnotdifficulttounderstandthetermofpositivetransfer.Itreferstohabits,modelsandrulesofmothertonguepromotingthesecondlanguagelearning.Andgenerallyspeaking,themoresimilarthetwolanguagesare,andthemorethelearnerisawareoftherelationbetweenthem,themorepositivetransferwilloccur.Positivetransfercanpromotelearners’abilitytoperceiveanduseforeignlanguage.Forexample,similaritiesbetweenChinesePinyinandEnglishPhoneticAlphabethelpChinesestudentsmasterthecorrectpronunciation,similaritiesbetweenGermanvocabularyandEnglishwordscanreducethetimeneededtoremembernewglossary,andsimilaritiesbetweennativelanguageandtargetlanguageinculturecanhelplearnersunderstandthemeaningofsomespecialvocabularyeasily.

2.3.2Negativetransfer

Asforthedefinitionofnegativetransfer,itisoppositetothatofpositivetransfer.Theinterferenceandobstructionofmotherlanguageintheprocessofthesecondlanguagelearningcanbecallednegativetransfer.Andnegativetransferoccurswhenspeakersandwriterstransferitemsandstructuresthatarenotthesameinbothlanguages.Tosomeextent,itisnegativetransferthatleadstoerrorsintheprocessoflearningthesecondlanguage.Forinstance,differenceinconceptualmeaningandconnotativemeaningresultsinmisunderstandingofforeignlanguage,differenceinsentenceformationleadstowrongsentencestructure,anddifferenceintextualorganizationcomestotheobscureEnglishwritingswithChinesecharacteristics.

3TheInfluenceofPositiveandNegativeTransferuponWriting

3.1Thepositivetransferanditsperformanceuponwriting

3.1.1Thepositivetransferinlexicallevel

Thepositivetransferofmothertonguefirstlyrepresentsonthecognitivelevel,intheunderstandingprocess.Itisknowntoallthatmasteringalanguagerequiresagoodmanagementinvocabulary.Inthepreliminarystageoflanguagelearning,itisnotadvisableforteacherstoexplainallthenewwordsandlanguagephenomenainEnglish,forstudentsarenotabletogetitanditmayreverselydamplearners’confidenceandinterestinlearningasecondlanguage.Infact,beforelearningaforeignlanguage,theknowledge,intelligence,ability,andexperienceweacquiredfrommothertongueserveasatoo