On Error Analysis Of Chinese Transfer In Junior High School English Writing

Writing, as one of the four basic language skills is now playing an increasinglysignificant role in junior high school English teaching. However, errors in writing seem tobe inevitable no matter what painstaking efforts we make in both learning and teaching.How to tackle learners’ errors, therefore, has become a most thorny issue and a matter ofthe utmost concern to teachers of English.During the last few decades, language transfer has been reassessed several times. It isan established belief that second language acquisition is strongly influenced by learners’first language, which is referred to as language transfer. Contrastive Analysis, ErrorAnalysis and Interlanguage Theory have later been developed to further the exploration oflanguage transfer. Based on the four theories mentioned above, this thesis conducts anerror analysis of Chinese transfer in junior high school English writing. It first reviews thedifferent viewpoints and classifications about learners’ errors and then investigates NorthBridge Middle School (in Suzhou Xiangcheng District), collecting6456errors from866English compositions written for the final examinations by Grade Eight students (of secondterm) in the past three years (2010-2013). The errors are classified systematicallyaccording to Dulay&Burt (1974), Krashen (1982) and Corder (1967) as well. Thefindings reveal that most errors the students have made are local errors with verb errors themost serious, that the percentage of the interlingual errors is much higher than that of theintralingual errors, and that the negative transfer of mother tongue is the chief cause oferrors in junior high students’ English writing. The proper attitude towards learners’ errors,the major methods of error correction, and some integrated strategies for junior high schoolwriting teaching are also discussed, with the hope of effectively lessening or avoiding thenegative transfer of mother tongue.