There is an unavoidable problem in the teaching of English. That is, those we areteaching are Chinese, and they are learning English in Chinese-speakingcircumstances. L1 transfer is an important source of errors in the process oflearning a second language, and this influence can occur in the course of learningall the subsystems of the second language such as phonology, lexicon,morphology, syntax and culture. However, when the second language (L2)learners experience difficulty in communicating an idea for lack of the necessaryknowledge of the target language, they will resort to their L1 to make up theinsufficiency. The concept of "interference"should be reframed as "intercession".L1 should be viewed as a resource which learners can use for ad hoc translation toovercome their limitations. This paper not only concentrates on the relationshipbetween native language transfer and foreign language learning, but also paysmuch more attention to how to fully mobilize the functions of positive transfer ofnative language in foreign language learning. That is to say, we should try to takeadvantage of positive L1 transfer as much as possible and avoid negative L1transfer as much as we can in foreign language teaching and learning. Besidesthese, we should change the attitudes towards the errors that foreign languagelearners will often make. Some of them are developmental errors, which L1doesn't contribute to. As teachers, we must know the theory of Error Analysis, thetypes of errors, and the causes of the errors. And then, we can try to find thestrategies of treating errors. In a word, native language transfer should play anactive role in foreign language teaching and learning. Thus, we will raise theefficiency of learning a foreign language.
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