| As a new viewpoint in the domain of language transfer research,conceptual transfer theory attempts to probe into the phenomenon of language transfer and the psychological activities of learners in the process of second language acquisition from the perspective of the conceptual system.To learn a new language,we should not only learn the surface grammatical rules and syntactic structures of the language,but also learn deep conceptual system.Chinese and English belong to different language families,and their conceptual systems are greatly different.When Chinese middle school students learning English,it is easy for them to have the conceptual transfer of mother tongue due to the diversities between the two languages.Therefore,to analyze the phenomenon of mother tongue negative transfer in middle school students’ English compositions at the conceptual transfer level is important and necessary for English learning and writing of students.Guided by the conceptual transfer theory,the study takes 86 students from Grade Eight of Guandu Middle School attached to Yunnan Normal University as the informant.It adopts the method of writing sample analysis,supplemented by questionnaire survey,aiming to analyze the phenomenon of negative transfer of mother tongue in junior high school students’ English compositions from the viewpoint of conceptual structure.The study attempts to answer three questions:(1)What are the manifestation patterns of negative transfer of mother tongue in English writings of junior high school students?(2)What are the causes of mother tongue negative transfer at the conceptual level in junior high school students’ English writings?(3)What are the strategies to deal with the negative transfer of mother tongue at the conceptual level?Through the quantitative analysis of 84 questionnaire data,as well as the analysis and exploration of the errors result from negative transfer of mother tongue in 86 composition samples,the research results are as follows:(1)In the English compositions of junior high school students,there are mainly 13 types of errors caused by negative transfer of mother tongue,which cover lexical,syntactic and discourse levels.Among them,the negative transfer of mother tongue at the syntactic level are the most.(2)From the perspective of concept system,the reason why middle school students make mistakes in English writing is that they do not correctly realize the differences in conceptual representation and thinking mode between Chinese and English,and L1-based concepts and shared concepts make students wrongly use the concept system of mother tongue in the process of second language production,resulting in the mother tongue negative transfer.(3)In order to reduce the negative transfer of mother tongue and improve students’ English writing proficiency,English teachers should increase the English language input to students,lead students to discriminate the differences of English and Chinese,and help them to establish a complete conceptual system and thinking pattern of English.Based on the results,this study draws the following conclusions and teaching implications.As the students are in the initial stage of English learning,they do not have enough knowledge of English;in addition,they learn English in a Chinese context,which lacks of sufficient language input,mother tongue is bound to have the negative impact and interference on middle school students’ English learning.Consequently,in the daily teaching activities,English teachers should take notice of mother tongue transfer in English instruction,correct wrong transfers of mother tongue thinking methods and grammatical structures in students’ English learning in time. |
