An Analysis Of Transfer Errors In Junior High School Students' Writings

Writing is an important part in English learning, in which learners' comprehensive language proficiency can be reflected. English Curriculum Criterion of the Full-time Compulsory Education (2002) points out emphatically the importance of developing middle school students' writing ability. However, there exists a big problem in students' writings. Junior high school students tend to make some Chinglish which is also known as transfer error. It may be because Chinese middle school students have learned English for such a short time that it is impossible for them to acquire enough knowledge about the differences between Chinese and English. When they write their compositions, they get used to making a draft in Chinese first, and then make word-for-word translation. Or while writing, they resort to the experience in Chinese. Thus many transfer errors are frequently found in their writings. The major concern of the thesis is to investigate transfer errors in students' writings and explore relevant teaching methods to deal with such errors.In the thesis, a review of the studies on language transfer shows that there are considerable reasons that cause the transfer errors. On the basis of cognitive and psychological views, the phenomenon of negative transfer is analyzed. In order to identify transfer errors, Error Analysis is adopted. Then based on Kellerman's theories of prototypicality and psychotypology, three teaching methods are proposed to solve the transfer errors in students' writings: imitation, error correction and reading. In order to make sure the effectiveness of the three...