A Study On The Relativity Between Senior Middle School Students' Chinese Writing Proficiency And Their English Writing Proficiency

With the development of globalization, English learners in China have more and more chances to communicate with English-speaking foreigners, so it's essential to develop their communication competence in English. Writing is such an important means of communication in written forms that its proper expressions of ideas and feelings directly determine the success of one's communication. So in second language teaching, how to teach writing well is a heated topic. We all know that, in the process of second language writing (L2), the effect of the first language (L1) is inevitable; therefore, the effect of L1 on L2 writing has been another heated topic in the field of second language teaching. The effect of L1 on L2 is called L1 transfer. Taking an overview of the L1 transfer theories in our country and abroad, most researches have been paying attention to the negative transfer of L1 on L2 language writing, but comparatively there are few researches concerning the positive transfer. So, to investigate the positive transfer and the influence of the Chinese language over one's English writing will be beneficial to English learners for them to improve English writing and has important implications in language teaching. Based on Cummins'Common Underlying Proficiency Hypothesis and some other relevant theories of language transfer, the current study aims to explore the positive impact of Chinese on English writing. It attempts to investigate and analyze the relationship between L1 writing ability and L2 Writing ability.The research sets out to investigate two main issues:(1) Is there any relativity between EFL learners'Chinese writing proficiency and English writing proficiency? (2)If yes, does Chinese writing proficiency influence English writing proficiency positively? Would the learners who have a higher ability in Chinese writing also have more advantages in their English writing than those who don't perform well in Chinese writing? To answer the questions, the researcher puts forward such hypothesis:learners'L1 writing ability is positively related to their L2 writing ability. The theoretical findings of the relation between L1 writing proficiency and L2 writing proficiency can help cultivate and improve EFL learners' English writing ability.A total of 52 students in Grade 2 from Xu Beihong Senior High School participated in the study. In the research I used two research methods:the first is experimental method; the second is questionnaires. The participants were divided into two classes, which were taught with different methods:traditional English writing teaching and integration of theoretical findings of Chinese-English writing transfer teaching. Of the two classes, one is experiment group, another is control group. For the control group, traditional English writing teaching was applied and for the treatment group, integration of theoretical findings of Chinese-English writing transfer teaching. Receiving different sorts of teaching, the participants took three English writing tests and three Chinese writing tests. The data consisted of the participants' scores in the test and their answers of my questionnaire. Data were analyzed by employing Pearson correlation coefficient to measure the correlation between the students'Chinese writing ability and their English writing ability.From the data analysis and findings of this research, it is proved that there is some relativity between the Chinese writing and English writing, and that the students'ability of Chinese writing is positively correlated to their ability of English writing.