A Study On Chinese Negative Transfer In Efl Writing Of Senior High School Students

Language transfer has been one of the important issues in the field of Second Language Acquisitionfor over half a century, which has undergone three stages from Contrastive Analysis to Error Analysisfurther to Interlanguage Theory. Numerous studies have demonstrated that second language learners withdifferent native languages are influenced on different levels by their native language, in which both thepositive influence and negative influence that are also called the positive transfer and negative transfer inthe field of Second Language Acquisition are involved. The studies on the various difficulties L2learnersmeet and errors they make indicate that they are influenced by the negative transfer of their nativelanguages in the process of L2learning and the phenomenon is inevitable.English, as a foreign language, has been learned widely in China in recent years, and the effect ofChinese on English learning, especially the negative effect has been also concerned. English writing whichis one of English learners’ important outputs can really reflect the negative transfer phenomenon of Chinese.Therefore, the dissertation focuses on investigating the negative transfer of Chinese appearing in Chineselearners’ English writings. The aim of the study is to learn about the types and percentages of errors madeby senior-high-school students who are influenced by Chinese by gathering statistics, classifying andanalyzing errors in students’ writings. And the sources of all types of errors are analyzed based on thestatistics to help the English teachers in middle schools realize these sources, and take actively effectivemeasures to help students overcome the inhibiting function of Chinese and improve the efficiency ofEnglish teaching and learning.Based on Contrastive Analysis, Errors Analysis and Interlanguage Theory, the combined methods ofthe quantitative and qualitative analysis are adopted to investigate and analyze those errors appearing in theEnglish writing samples from the senior sophomores in the Affiliated Middle School of Henan NormalUniversity. The result indicates that72.4%all errors in students’ English writings are caused by thenegative transfer of Chinese, and are mainly manifested in the various levels of morphology, vocabulary,syntax and text. Meanwhile, with the aid of the questionnaire survey and interview, the results of the studyare explained further to ensure the effectiveness of the study. The questionnaire and interviews are carried out respectively from the points of students and teachers to learn about whether they realized the variousdifferences between English and Chinese and the sources of Chinese interference errors.The results show that the senior-high-school students are impacted greatly by all levels of Chinese intheir English writings. So aiming at the transfer errors that students make in their English compositions,English teachers should take various effective measures to help students learn about the differencesbetween English and Chinese and the negative transfer factors of Chinese reflected in the progress ofEnglish writing, and to improve the students’ ability of writing in English. According to the result, somesignificant suggestions are provided for English teachers:(1) Regarding rightly the negative transfer ofChinese language;(2) Contrasting English and Chinese, and valuing errors analysis;(3) Cultivatingstudents’ cross-cultural and cross-linguistic awareness；(4) Following the natural principle of languagelearning;(5) Correcting and providing effective feedback for students.