Positive And Negative Transfer Of Mother Tongue In ELT

Language transfer has been a controversial topic in English language teaching. Transfer is a psychological term originally and falls into two categories: positive transfer and negative transfer. People always focus on the negative transfer and even some researchers hold that mother tongue is "interference" for English language learning. One thing must be remembered in English language teaching, that is, those are teaching are Chinese and they are learning English in Chinese speaking circumstances. So mother tongue transfer can not be avoided in English language learning.Mother tongue transfer is an important source of errors in the English language learning process and the influence can occur in the course of learning all the systems of English language. However, when the English language learners confront difficulty in communication for lack of the necessary knowledge of English language, they will resort to their mother tongue to make up the insufficiency, so the concept of "interference" should be refrained as "intercession". Mother tongue transfer can not be avoided and should be viewed as resources which learners can use for overcoming their limitations. Not only the relationship between mother tongue transfer and English language learning should be concentrated, but also much more attention to how to fully mobilize the functions of positive transfer of mother tongue in English language learning should be paid. In another word, both the teachers and the students should try to take advantage of mother tongue's positive transfer and avoid mother tongue's negative transfer as much as possible in English language teaching and learning. In addition, what should be noticed are the attitudes towards the errors that English language learners will often make. As a teacher of English, the factors that affect English language learning, such as motivation, self-confidence, perseverance, anxiety and etc. should be always born in mind. With the method of error analysis, better ways in English language teaching could be abtained. In order to raise the efficiency of learning English languages, mother tongue transfer should play an active role in English language teaching and learning. "Using mother tongue where possible, using mother tongue when necessary."...