Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue in Middle School Students’ English Learning

王靖

【Abstract】Based on language transfer theory， the article makes a detailed study on familiar mistakes caused by negative transfer of mother tongue and then provides some suggestions.Hoping students and teachers treat such errors with a proper attitude to overcome the interference of mother tongue.

【Key words】Negative transfer； error analysis

1. Introduction

“Transfer” is originally a basic concept in psychology. According to Ellis，which refers to “the phenomenon of previous knowledge being extended to the area of new knowledge”.In second language acquisition，language transfer is the influence result-ting from similarities and differences between the target language and the language that has been previously acquired.Odlin proposed that transfer can not only be seen in learnersgood influence，that is positive transfer；but also can be reflected on learnerserror，that is negative transfer. If the first language structure differs from that of the second language， negative transfer occurs.

2. Error Analysis

Human learning is a process involving in making errors.And these errors that can be observed，analyzed，and classified led to a surge of study errors，called error analysis The founder of Error Analysis was Corder，and he pointed out that the practice of error analysis can be divided into three steps. Identifying error is the first step.Errors reflect gaps in learners knowledge of the target language.Corder proposed four major categories of Describing errors：omission of some required elements；addition of some unnecessary or incorrect elements；selection of an incorrect element；and disordering of elements.The final step，Explaining errors，is the task of tracing the source of errors.In terms of sources，errors are divided into intralingua errors and interlingua errors，based on whether they are caused by L1.Interlingua errors are caused by mother tongue interference.

3. Error Analysis in Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue on Syntactic Level

3.1 The omission of subject

Except for special sentence pattern，there must be a subject in English sentence.

However，in Chinese，subject often can be omitted.

（1）Buy anything you want.（You need buy anything you want.）

（2）Very blue.（It/The sky is very blue.）

3.2 Misuse of Tense of Verbs

In English，different tense represents the things or actions happen in what time.In Chinese，the tense is usually expressed by adverbial word of time，such as“已經”“了”or“將來”，and the verb dose not change.

（3）I brrow a book yesterday.（I borrowed a book yesterday.我昨天借了一本書）

（4）I borrow a book tomorrow.（I will borrow a book tomorrow.我明天要借本書）

3.3 Errors in Subject-predicate Agreement

There are three principles guiding subject-verb agreement： principle of gramma-tical，notional agreement and proximity.Ggrammatical agreement is the basic principle，which requires the verb to match its subject in number.Students always ignore that predicate verb must be in accordance with the subject.And，there are many special situations that define which noun is singular form and which noun is plural form.

（5）The whole family is watching TV.（The whole family are watching TV.）

（6）Two years are not a short time for me.（Two years is not a short time for me.）

3.4 Errors in the Passive-voice

In English only transitive verbs can be used in passive-voice.This is special for English that in Chinese there are no such verbs .So this difference often causes errors in passive-voice for middle school students who are not competent enough to dis-tinguish between transitive verbs and intransitive verbs.There are also other situations in which verbs cannot be used in passive-voice.

（7）Wars are frequently broken out in these countries.（“break” is an intransitive verb. Wars frequently break out in these countries）

（8）Shopping on internet is sounded a good idea.（ “sound” is a linking verb that also cannot be used in passive-voice. Shopping on internet sounds a good idea.）

4. Suggestions for Avoiding Negative Transfer

4.1 Explaining New Words in English

Word is the smallest unit in a sentence.Each word is not isolated and is must combined with others obeying some rules.Knowing the literal meaning of the word is not enough.Students must know in what situation the word is used and the words fix-ed collocation.It would be better for students to learn new words in context.Then teacher explain it and list meanings in common use.It will be much more effective for students to understand and memorize new words.

4.2 Making Use of Dictionary

Dictionary is a useful tool for students. An Ehglish-Chinese dictionary is more helpful at the beginning of studying English.With the study going further，students should use English-English dictionary，which can tell the accurate meaning for each new word in English and identify what the exact form and meaning.Then it can give more examples of the new word in which context each word should be used and it provides students with different meanings in different context as well as the special use and different collocation of the new words.

4.3 Developing Chinese Thinking Mode into English Thinking Mode

Language is a carrier of culture，and languagesdifferences are come from culture. Reading is considered to be the main resource of language input. Through reading， students cannot only enlarge vocabularies，know the idiomatic expressions，but also can master the way of thinking mode of English native. So English teachers should provide students with more worthy reading materials and encourage them to master authentic English widely after class.

5. Conclusion

Based on above，English teachers should help students take a positive attitude to-wards to mother tongue and negative transfer of mother tongue. There is an old saying that you can lead a horse to water，but you can not make him drink.Both of them have a long way to go in English learning and teaching.

References：

[1]Brown，H.D.Principles of Language Learning and Teaching.Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2001.

[2]Corder，S.P.Idiosyncratic dialects and error analysis.IRAL 2：147-159，1971.

[3]Ellis，R.Understanding second Language Acquisition.Oxford：Oxford University Press，1985.

[4]Odlin，T.Language Transfer.Cambridgr：Cambridge University Press，1989.