Language Transfer And English Teaching In High School

In foreign language learning, there are always problems arising here and there. Among many factors involved in the learning process, the cross-linguistic influence is a key effective approach to solve those problems. The foreign language learners are developing their second language competence and performance based on their previous knowledge of language so they have to face the potential influence of their mother tongue. Therefore, language transfer has long been a key issue in second language acquisition research and the topic of the first language influencing on the second language is mostly focused on by language teaching researchers.Transfer and transfer theory can be traced back to as early as200years ago. It mainly deals with the influence made by the native language on the target language (English). Thus, the objective of the present study is to show that native language transfer phenomena is an important issue in middle school English teaching. By comparing the two language systems and analyzing the language transfer phenomena, we can have a clear idea on the language transfer phenomena and help teachers see what difficulties the students are encountering and how they can be better facilitators of second language learning, which leads to improving the language learning and teaching methods, reducing students difficulties, and speeding up the whole learning process.The research methods employed in the research are translation samples and interviews. It’s hoped that such study and analysis can help recognize the native language transfer phenomena properly and contribute to improving the language learning and teaching methods in middle school English teaching.