Native Language's Negative Transfer On English Writing Of Huangguang Media University's Students And Its Practical Enlightenments

Native language's negative transfer is one of the problems that has been puzzling both language learners and language researchers. English writing indicates English learner's multiple practical ablities. And it is the native language's negative transfer that has mostly been the obstacle to English writing for Chinese language learners. Based on the language transfer theory and the studies made in such a field previously, this thesis makes an attempt to study the native language's negative transfer in English writing made by the students of Huanggang Media University. The author of this thesis has accumulated her first-hand materials, that is, all mistakes ever produced in students' English translation and composition, with a wide range from words, sentences, articles to thought and culture. By analyzing typical mistakes in student' English writing due to native language's negative transfer, the author intends to reduce mistakes of these aspects and seeks for a more effective teaching method of English writing, thus enhance students' level of English writing.To start with, this thesis introduces the concept and the source of language transfer theory. This theory was originated in the 1950s,which has greatly influenced second language learner and second language researchers. Robert Lado, representive of this theory advanced that the language transfer phenomenon has been a main barrier to language acquisition. The contrastive analysis theory has been emphasized during the last two decades. They took it as the most effective method to compare native language with the target language. And some researchers discovered that the mistakes made by the learners whose native language is Chinese made up to 51%,owing to the negative transfer(Shu Dingfang 1996:52).While correcting the students' English composition, the author of this thesis collected all kinds of mistakes and came to a conclusion that the greater the difference between Chinese and English, the more mistakes students would make.In second chapter, this thesis concentrates on listing the negative transfer in various aspects. They are in vocabulary, syntax, semantics and rhetoric. And then this thesis discusses there aspects by classifying them. The mistakes in vocabularymainly lie in mechanical application, redundancy, misinterpretation of parts of speech and ill words collocation. The mistakes in syntax mainly He in comma's wrongly used, short and simple sentences' compiling, lacking of the necessary conjection between sentences, producing sentences accounts of daily routine, seldom using comparative structure, unable to use passive voice and so forth. The mistakes in rhetorics lie in simile, metaphor and hyperbole.Then, the author of this thesis analyzes why students would make mistakes mentioned above. First in vocabulary, they tend to convert words and phrases of Chinese into English literally. As a result, they often become meaningless. They also turn some Chinese verbs into English which are misunderstood. They change the pairs of conjunctions from Chinese into English mechanically. By writing words collocations from Chineses into English, the special meaning of English idioms is utterly distorted, thus the value in English does not become clear. Next comes the syntax. First, the theme of a sentence in Chinese is mistakenly transferred into English. Second, the negative sentence in Chinese is misinterpreted. Third, the omitting of the subject in Chinese is not properly transferred into an equal English sentence. And then the thinking model's negative transfer is because planning in a Chinese manner: long year's habitual writing. And writing short, simple sentences in fear of making mistakes. And the trainer's negative transfer ever since the learners' childhood.In the last stage, this thesis supplies some implications for improvements of English writing.(l)Renewing concept of English writing to reduce native language's negative influence.(2)Laying emphasis on the contrast between Chinese and English to reduce native language's negative transfer.