A Case Study Of Language Transfer In English Learning Among Primary And Secondary Students In Yanbian Area

Language transfer has long been the part and parcel of the studies on the Second Language Acquisition(SLA) , and the influence that mother tongue exerts on SLA is constantly a hot issue that concerns most researchers in the field of SLA. In Yabian, different from the students of the Han people whose prior knowledge is Chinese, the Korean-Chinese students learn English based on their prior knowledge of Korean and Chinese. The major objective of this thesis is to investigate the roles that students' prior knowledge play in the learning of a second language and in the learning of a third language, as well as the features of English learning among primary and secondary students. The subjects came from the 16 classes which were chosen from primary school, junior and senior middle school. The testing points are agreement between subject and verb, There.be construction, the plural form of nouns and two conjunctions but and because .And the testing points are defined on the criteria of markedness.The results of the tests show that negative transfer is pervasive in English learning among primary and secondary students. The diagrams presenting the results of the two conjunctions but and because are developing in much the same way. Agreement between subject and verb and the plural form of nouns are the grammar focuses in the teaching of primary and junior middle school students. But it is found that the students still made many mistakes even when they are in senior middle school. There be construction proves to be difficult to master. The diagram presenting it shows different tendency from the other ones.The data show that Korean-Chinese students have a better command of the testing points compared with Chinese in primary school, which reveals that Korean-Chinese have the advantage of Chinese at the beginning of English learning. But it is harder for them to internalize the grammar points. Students in first year junior middle school and second year senior middle school made the most mistakes in each stage respectively. It is recommended that teachers should know not only what they are gonging to teach but also what students have already learnt.