The Influence Of Native Language On The Syntactic Structures In Chinese College Students' Writing

A lot of research reveals that anyone who wants to offer sufficient interpretation of second language acquisition has to take the critical factor-language transfer into consideration (Gass & Selinker, 1992). Pica (1984) listed ten most popular subjects concerned by foreign language teaching researchers, among which the influence of native language (NL) on second language acquisition is on the top. The study of language transfer brings great, realistic significance to foreign language teaching in China.The current study intends to investigate the influence of NL on the syntactic structures of Chinese college students in their argumentative writing. Specifically, the thesis aims at answering the following questions: (1) Why do Chinese college students prefer to use some syntactic structures in their English writings but have a tendency to exclude some others? (2) Why do some syntactic errors occur frequently while those, associated with difficult syntactic structures, which should occur, decrease? (3) What are the developmental features of the syntactic structure in the students' writing?The method used in the research is a combination of qualitative and quantitative studies, in which empirical study is dominant and descriptive study serves as an important supplement. Four approaches are adopted in the research: writing sample collection, rewriting task, questionnaire, and interview.The author collects 90 different writing samples, among which 30 samples are from three groups respectively: the "basic" group formed by freshmen of non-English majors; the "advanced" group composed of sophomores of English majors; and the native group comprising American college teachers and students. 48 variables are selected for investigation and T-test is used for statistical analysis; the results are further tested or discussed in the rewriting task, the questionnaire and the interview.The analysis and discussion result in some findings: First, the syntactic structures inChinese college students' writing are related to language transfer; positive transfer comes from similarities between the syntactic structures of NL and those of target language (TL), and it will facilitate the use of the structures in TL early but lead to over-use of them later; negative transfer comes from differences between the syntactic structures of NL and those of TL, and it will result in errors and avoidance; the degree of markedness of the syntactic structures in both NL and TL and the frequency of using the structures in TL will work together in language transfer. Second, avoidance may reduce the number of errors and yet may affect the variety and fluency of syntactic structures used in the students' English writings. Third, the syntactic structures in the college students' English writings will follow the pattern of "simpleness-complication-simplification" and language fossilization may occur from the stage of complication to that of simplification. Fourth, as for the acquisition of syntactic structures in the students' English writing, there exists a dialectic relationship between positive transfer and negative transfer: "overt facilitation" may convert into "covert interference", and "overt interference" may turn into "covert facilitation". In addition, the study contributes some pedagogical implications to the teaching of English writing.