Effects Of L1 Transfer On English Writing In Senior High School

The transfer of native language is a phenomenon that cannot be denied in the process of a learner's second language acquisition, due to the fact that the learner has had a rather developed prior L1 system in his or her mind. Native language's transfer, especially negative transfer has been a major concern of both language teachers and language researchers. The phenomenon of native language transfer can be clearly traced in Chinese senior high school students'English writing and it is the native language's negative transfer that has mostly been the obstacle to the English writing for Chinese language learners. Based on the language transfer theory and the studies made in this field previously, the thesis focuses on L1 transfer, which is shown in the errors that the students committed. By analyzing typical mistakes in students'English writings caused by native language's negative transfer, this thesis intends to seek for more effective teaching methods for English writing, thus enhancing students'proficiency of English writing.On the basis of contractive analysis theory, error analysis theory and other relevant theories, the author has carried out the statistical analysis on the compositions collected from four classes of four different senior high schools. Chiefly speaking, this thesis carried out the research and analysis as the classifications of words, syntax, texts, thinking models and the writing mechanism. For the lexical transfer part, the author has found that the most obvious transfer phenomenon is about the transfer of lexical meaning, the order of words in one sentence and the absence of some necessary words. In the analysis of syntax transfer, the author highlights six elements about the differences between Chinese and English syntax, parataxis and hypotaxis, topic-comment structure and subject-predicate structure, the favorable expressions, the differences about the negation sentences, the meaning transfer on the syntax level and the lack of some classical English sentence structures, which is not so obvious to take out like the other grammatical errors caused by the effects of the native language transfer. For the part of text transfer analysis, special attention is paid to the text construction, the difference of topic sentences and the text cohesion. In the analysis of thinking models transfer, the author chiefly made some analysis on such items as the circular thinking pattern and linear thinking pattern, the concrete thinking pattern and the abstract thinking pattern, the synthetic thinking pattern and the analytical thinking pattern. And in the sample analysis part, this thesis addresses the differences about the writing criteria between Chinese and English writings.Finally, this thesis sums up all the analyses and offers some implications and suggestions for the learning and teaching of English writing from the angles of the inputting process and the outputting process, with the former being illustrated in terms of word study, grammar study, contrastive study, intercultural awareness and reading, and the latter being illustrated in terms of scientific corrections of errors and taking proper practices.