An Empirical Study On Positive Transfer Of First Language On English Vocabulary Learning In Junior High School

With the new reform of English curriculum, the importance of vocabulary teaching in the process of English teaching and learning in junior schools is gradually recognized. Effective vocabulary teaching not only can form a fine foundation for the students’ process of language learning, but also can develop the ability of language communication. However, it is a very common phenomenon that vocabulary teaching in junior high school is of so low efficiency as to be considered sometimes as a waste of time. Vocabulary teaching becomes one of the biggest obstacles to junior students to learn English. In order to improve vocabulary teaching efficiency, teachers should diversify their methods and find more suitable ways. It is known that learners’ first language has an influence on their second language acquisition. Thus, it can not be overlooked. In order to solve this problem more efficiently, the teaching methods of English vocabulary teaching should be diversified. Therefore, teachers should help students grasp English vocabulary taking advantage of the positive transfer of their mother tongue.The language transfer is a hot topic in providing guidance for English teaching and learning for a long time. It aroused from 1940 s when the early behaviorism dominated linguistics. Most of researchers only pay so much attention to the influence of negative transfer of first language on second language acquisition so that they may neglect the importance of positive transfer of first language. In view of the importance of vocabulary and the influence of language transfer theory on English vocabulary teaching and memorizing, the aim of this study is to find that whether the first language has positive influence on English vocabulary memorizing, and how should teachers make use of the positive transfer of mother tongue to improve the students’ ability of English vocabulary memorizing in junior schools.The research experiment begins at September 2014 in a middle school in Lvshun, Dalian and it lasts half a semester. The subjects are selected from two parallel classes of the second grade in a middle school. Class two, Grade two is the experimental class, and Class three,Grade three is the controlled class. In the controlled class, teacher applies the traditional teaching method. And in the experimental class, teacher adopts the new method with special positive transfer of Chinese to English. In order to learn the situation of English vocabulary teaching and learning in junior schools at present, the interview and questionnaire are adopted.Statistical method was applied to analyze the data of two tests. Comparing to with the results of two tests, there is a significant distance between the controlled class and the experimental class. It can prove that the positive transfer of mother tongue surely has a significant effect on English vocabulary memorizing.