Investigation On The Usage Of Mother-Tongue Mental Translation In English Writing By Senior High School Students

Senior high school students in China have basically formed the habit of thinking in a Chinese way, which, to a certain extent, leads to their dependence on their mother tongue and the Chinese way of thinking. The common manifestation of this dependence is called’mental translation’or’mother-tongue mental translation’(MMT). Resulted from cross-linguistic influence, MMT is not only a kind of linguistic transfer strategies, but also a kind of cognitive mental processes. Based on a study of the English writing processes by six senior high school students through think-aloud protocol, instant interview, and text analysis, this thesis discovers the actions of MMT in the students’English writing processes, analyses the effects resulted by MMT, and clarifies the differences in usage of MMT between high-level and low-level students. The value and significance of the major findings are confirmed in this thesis, and the following conclusions are obtained from quantitative and qualitative analysis of collected data.(1) Overall, the amount of MMT is negatively correlated with composition scores, which illustrates that the higher proportion of MMT students use, the lower scores students gain. So, MMT has a significantly negative effect on the English writing quality; meanwhile, MMT is adopted in accordance with students’level of English writing. The higher the students’English writing level is, the less the amount of MMT he will use.(2) In the students’writing process, MMT is mainly functioned as task analysis, content conception, structure conception, text output and process control. According to the average amount of L1thinking, the group of high scores uses more L1than that of the group of low scores during writing activities of structure conception and process control, and conversely, use less Llduring writing activities of text output and task analysis. Both groups use a same proportion of L1thinking in the writing activity of content conception.(3) The correlation analysis is made between the amount of MMT (or L1thinking) and composition scores during different kinds of writing activities. The more amount of MMT is used during writing activities of word choice and sentence formation, the lower composition scores students get. However, it has no effect on quality of English composition and its final score when L1is used in writing activities of idea organization, content conception and structure conception. Furthermore, it may contribute to clarifying ideas, enriching content and organizing structures. Thus, it helps to improve the quality of English compositioa(4) MMT has a negative effect on English writing in terms of morphological, lexical, syntactic and discourse aspects. So, it causes the negative transfer of native language knowledge and usage in English writing. Consequently, students’ writing pattern investigated in this thesis tends to be more complicated. It not only has the linear pattern features of English writing, but has the spiral pattern features of Chinese writing.The conclusions made above shed some light on a comprehensive understanding of MMT’s role in English writing by senior high school students. Thus, this thesis provides some practical guidance for teaching and learning of English writing in senior high schools.