| Writing is an important skill for modern senior high school students,which often appears in the relatively advanced stage of English learning and can reflect students’ overall English learning ability.Therefore,writing has become an important part that cannot be ignored.For Chinese students whose English is not their mother tongue,it is inevitable that their English writing will be influenced by their mother tongue in the writing process.How to make full use of the common underlying proficiency of students’ mother tongue and English,give full play to the positive influence of mother tongue on English writing and improve their English expression ability is of practical research value.Based on the Common Underlying Proficiency Hypothesis,this research explores the relationship between senior high school students’ mother tongue ability and English writing ability through empirical research.The main study involves 100 freshmen of senior high school in Wan Zhou Senior High School.All of the participants are aged from 15 to 17 and they have certain basic Chinese and English knowledge in their previous study.According to their overall Chinese scores in the final exam,they were assigned to two groups — advanced learners(50 students whose scores were above average)and average learners(50 students whose scores were below average).Through the SPSS 13.0 data analysis software,this thesis makes a Pearson correlation analysis of the Chinese-English composition scores of the tested students,so as to test whether there is a correlation between the Chinese and English writing abilities of senior high school students.At the same time,this study also discusses the similarities between Chinese and English through text comparison,and analyzes the positive influence of mother tongue on senior high school students’ English writing from the aspects of thinking,syntax and logic through a large number of examples.Finally,through questionnaires and interviews,we can further understand students’ thinking process in English writing and their views on the relationship between their mother tongue and English writing.Through correlation analysis,text analysis,questionnaires and interviews,it is found that:(1)there is a significant correlation between students’ mother tongue and English writing ability,which indicates that the higher their Chinese ability,the higher their English writing ability.There is a common underlying proficiency between students’ Chinese writing ability and English writing ability;(2)There are a large number of sentence patterns with similar structures in students’ Chinese and English writing,which is especially obvious in lower Chinese scores group.It shows that students with lower mother tongue ability tend to use the common underlying proficiency between Chinese and English to organize their English writing.Compared with those with high mother tongue scores,students with lower Chinese scores group are more dependent on their mother tongue when they are writing English compositions.And they often need the help of their mother tongue to complete their English compositions if they were given limited time.(3)In the choice of English connectives,students prefer connectives with the same usage in Chinese,which also shows that students will use the similarities between Chinese and English to reduce the frequency of mistakes in their English compositions.This study supports Cummins’ Common Underlying Hypothesis and proves that there are similarities between Chinese and English writing ability of senior high school students.Students’ L1 writing ability can be positively transferred to their English writing,which has a positive impact on students’ English writing.However,it is limited by students’ own English level,English expression ability and other factors.For example,if students’ own English level is deficient and their vocabulary and grammar are not well mastered,it is difficult to achieve high-quality output of English compositions even if their mother tongue ability is high.Therefore,this study puts forward some suggestions for teachers in English writing teaching: First,teachers need to fully realize the positive role of mother tongue in English teaching,and encourage students to think and write directly in English by comparing the similarities and differences between Chinese and English.For students who can’t write in English,they are encouraged to use Chinese language cognitive ability and Chinese comprehension ability to identify the deep meaning of sentence patterns.Secondly,teachers need to guide students to compare the relationship between English and Chinese sentences and choose reasonable conjunctions to make their English writing more logical.Finally,teachers should pay attention to the improvement of students’ English level,so that students can have basic English knowledge,improve their own English level,increase the reserve of senior high school students’ English knowledge,and consolidate the foundation of English writing. |
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