An Empirical Study Of Syntactic Negative Transfer In Junior High School Students' English Writing

Syntactic transfer is a branch of language transfer which has aroused much more by researchers recently.During the period of several-month-internship in a junior high school,the author collected various examples of syntactic errors in students' English compositions,aiming to explore and discuss the negative transfer based on the influence of mother tongue on English writing.This research is under the guidance of language transfer theories.By collecting the results of a writing test for Grade Three students from two classes,the writer explores how students master the syntax.After the test,the data about the error rate in students' writing test is gathered and analyzed.Moreover,some questionnaires are sent to students in order to analyze the causes of syntactic errors based on a case analysis of passive voice.Furthermore,some interviews are arranged for students and teachers so as to seek for suitable strategies that can weaken the influence of negative transfer on passive voice or syntax for students in junior high school.The results of this empirical study show that one of the major sources of those syntactic errors is native language interference in the syntactic learning and such interference can mainly be attributed to different thinking patterns between the two languages.The results from the interview show that we can still overcome the syntactic negative transfer by designing effective teaching methods.For instance,by comparing syntactic differences and analyzing causes from the perspective of cultural discrepancy,students' English learning strategies are to be improved,succeeding in forming the habit of English thinking as well.