The Influence And Implication Of Mother Language On Senior High School Students’ English Writing

Language transfer is an important factor that must be taken into consideration in the study of Second Language Acquisition. In China, Chinese is our first language,also called mother tongue, therefore it has great influence on students’ English learning. And it is impossible for Chinese students to avoid it in English writing as well. Thus, the research on L1 transfer works as a guide on effective English writing learning and teaching.In this thesis, an empirical study on Chinese senior high school students is conducted to find out L1 positive and negative transfer in English writing based on language transfer theory, second language writing theory, Error Analysis and Common Underlying Proficiency Hypothesis, uncovering this phenomenon from both linguistic and non-linguistic perspectives.The samples are collected from 166 senior high school students ranging from Grade One to Grade Three in three different high schools in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi province. There are three kinds of data resources: questionnaire, Chinese writing scores and English writing scores, writing samples.The method adopted in this research is combined with quantitative and qualitative studies. Correlation Coefficient of Chinese and English writing scores is firstly used to reveal the relationship between Chinese writing ability and English writing ability. The results of the questionnaire are presented by some tables and charts to find out L1 impact, such as metacognitive strategy and Chinese writing strategy, on English writing. Finally, writing samples are analyzed with Error Analysis method to find out other L1 transfer influence.Based on the analysis and discussion of the study, it is found that L1 exerts great influence on English writing. And positive transfer often happens in non-linguistic level and negative transfer often happens in linguistic level. From the results of Correlation Coefficient, Chinese writing proficiency is positively related to English writing proficiency. Also, by analyzing the results of questionnaire, it is indicated that metacognitive strategy, Chinese writing strategy and L1 thinking have positive influence on English writing. Furthermore, from the analysis of errors occurring in writing samples, L1 negative transfer reflects in the level of word,sentence, discourse and writing habits because English word inflection, sentence pattern, discourse pattern are different from Chinese.Based on those findings, some pedagogical implications are put forward:improving Chinese writing proficiency, strategy training, adequate English input and proper attitude towards L1 transfer.