The Effect Of Cultural Transfer On Native English Speakers' Chinese Language Learning And Its Coping Strategy

Language and culture are integrated inherently. The influence of mother-tongue culture on Chinese language learning should not be neglected in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Among the Chinese learners, quite a number is from English speaking countries or regions, thus it is very important to research the cultural effect of English as mother-tongue on Chinese language learning and finding out the corresponding dealing strategy.This essay defines the definition of culture, compares and contrasts the similarities and differences between Chinese and English culture, trying to trace out the similarities and differences of the two nationalities in mode of thinking, value system, world outlook and faith.I also explore the deeper reasons of causing them. There are both objective reasons such as geography, history, manners and customs, and subjective reasons, like cognitive style, cognitive psychology, thus causing the language expression variation. As a part of culture, language has distinct national characters, embodying in various profiles of language system.As the reflection of culture, the similarities and differences between Chinese and English could be found easily in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, especially in vocabulary. Different connotation hides in name and surname, forms of addressing, numbers, color words, animal and plant words, and idioms.Based on the comparison and contrast between Chinese and English, it is not difficult to find the cultural effect of English as mother-tongue. English culture, as mother-tongue, will transfer in the process of Chinese langue learning, affecting the learning of Chinese. Those effects are mainly as follow:intervene of Chinese learners' motivation, affecting their mood and attitude, anticipation of the result of learning, the effect of communication in real Chinese environment, and influence on their learning procedure and learning strategies. Of course, there can be also positive transfer and negative transfer.The cultural effect of English as a mother-tongue on Chinese language learning is extensive and diffusible. Facing such effect brought by Chinese learners from English speaking countries or regions, we should adopt dealing measures both from positive transfer and from negative transfer to explore effective coping strategies. I advocate that we should utilize fully the positive transfer, try our best to eliminate the negative transfer. I clarify my proposal both macroscopically and microscopically. Macroscopically we should follow these three principles, the principle of comparison, the principle of progressiveness, and the principle of cultural equality. Microscopically, I discuss the coping measures from the edition and design of the content of textbook, utilization of mother-tongue, the teaching of vocabulary, grammar, Chinese characters, suggesting that we should start from the similarities of the two cultures to conduct Chinese language teaching, making cultural transfer smoothly and naturally by fully use of positive transfer and eliminating negative cultural transfer. In teaching process, positive creating of Chinese language context is necessary, promoting the learners' learning strategy and mood develop and optimize. The teaching method and class organization way should be flexible, not confined by old regulations, thus finish the smooth transfer from English culture to Chinese culture in every aspect.