Native Language Transfer In The English Writing For Chinese Non-English Majors

The research in this paper is undertaken to explore the relation between native language (L1) transfer and the English writing by Chinese non-English majors, and the correlation between the individual differences such as motivation and gender and the L1 transfer in English writing. Through the quantitative and qualitative study that includes questionnaires about learners' motivation and L1 strategies use, error analysis and the interview, the author found that L1 transfer plays an important role in Chinese English writing not only in the writing output but also in the process of writing. For the students, especially those who are non-English majors in higher vocational college, strongly rely on the L1 strategies, which is more significant as for the male students. From the error analysis, the author discovered that the negative transfer in a large part accounts for the errors that learners made. Based on the qualitative study of interview, the author noticed that individual differences, such as learners' educational background, English learning experience, gender and motivation, also affect learners' L1 transfer in their writing. These findings have certain implications for English teaching. One of the most important implications is that, in the English class, the teachers should pay more attention to individual differences with the chief concern for how people are different in learning a second language, especially in learners' writing proficiency.