Mother Tongue Transfer In Non-english Majors' Vocabulary Acquisition

Mother tongue transfer is a common phenomenon in foreign language learning process because of the differences and similarities between the mother tongue and the target language.The negative transfer of mother tongue occurs easier in the second language learning process,especially under the influence of native language's habits and thinking patterns.With the increasing frequency of globalization and international communication,the applications and interpersonal skills of English language learning draw more and more people's attention.Vocabulary is the foundation of language learning and is the cornerstone of the language building.Likewise,vocabulary learning is very important in English learning.Mother tongue transfer also has some effects on learners in the process of English vocabulary learning,which can be divided into promotion and inhibition,namely,mother tongue positive transfer and negative transfer.And the impact of negative transfer on vocabulary is of great significance.There are obvious traces of mother tongue negative transfer in non-English majors' vocabulary acquisition,which has become a bottleneck of improving their English level.Therefore,the author has explored the influences of mother tongue transfer on non-English majors'vocabulary acquisition,based on the theories of language transfer and previous research results,aiming at finding out the main forms of both positive transfer and negative transfer on vocabulary acquisition as well as the main reasons for negative transfer.And then there are some useful suggestions related to the development of vocabulary learning and teaching.In this thesis the author chooses questionnaire,test and interview as instruments to explore the current condition of non-English majors' vocabulary acquisition and the typical errors.The author classifies the interlingual errors caused by negative mother tongue transfer according to the collected data.The errors are discussed in two aspects:grammatical errors and semantic errors.Grammatical errors are discussed in three aspects:specific word form errors,part of speech errors,and the lexical collocation errors.And semantic errors are mainly about words'meanings,including improper choice of words,items not suitable for customs of the target language and Chinglish.The typical examples of each type of the errors are presented and analyzed to point out that the main cause of errors is the language distinction between English and Chinese.The author gives a conclusion based on the data analysis:non-English majors' vocabulary acquisition is influenced by mother tongue transfer,especially the negative transfer;errors relating with the negative transfer of the mother tongue on vocabulary acquisition can be divided into grammatical errors and semantic errors.The former include specific word form errors,part of speech errors and the lexical collocation errors.The latter refer to the errors caused by improper choice of words and neglecting the cultural backgrounds and language habits,mainly presenting as Chinglish.Besides,the similarities between the two languages can promote learners' vocabulary acquisition,which is called positive transfer of the mother tongue.The main reason that causes negative transfer is the distinction between English and Chinese,including grammar,culture,custom and so on.At last,the author puts forward several suggestions for both learners and teachers,hoping the study can draw their attention and promote the development of English learning and teaching.