Abstract

Language transfer phenomenon, which refers to the influence resulting from similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously acquired, has always been a problem which cannot be ignored in the field of second language acquisition. In recent years, English writing has drawn more and more attention from scholars and experts. Thus, people start to make an attempt to explore how Chinese negative transfer influences students’ writing. This paper has collected some English compositions from college students and concluded the effects of negative transfer, through analyzing the errors occurring in their writings. The negative transfer mainly occurs in lexical and syntactical levels and students’ thinking mode. Specifically, students tend to make mistakes in word collocation, plurality, grammar accord, word verbosity, word order and so on, affected by Chinese negative transfer. The purpose of the research is not simply classifying students’ errors, but providing an opportunity for teachers to reconsider their teaching approaches and methods. Therefore, the paper also puts forward some suggestions for English teachers to improve students’ English Writing, such as reinforcing students’ basic knowledge of English language, introducing native cultures of English speaking countries, and giving effective feedbacks to their writings. It is hoped that this research can contribute to the designing of English writing course in the future.

Keywords: negative transfer, English Writing, College students

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

2. Theoretical Basis-2

2.1 The Definition of Transfer-2

2.2 The Development of the Significance of Language Transfer-2

2.3 Positive Transfer and Negative Transfer-2

2.4 Related Research on Negative Transfer-3

3. Common Methodologies Used in Linguistic Experimental Research-5

3.1 Error analysis-5

3.2 Comparative analysis-5

3.3 Method used in the paper-5

4. Findings and Discussions-7

4.1Lexcial Level-7

4.1.1Part of Speech (POS)-7

4.1.2 Words Collocation-7

4.1.3 Plurality and Grammatical Accord-8

4.1.4 Word Verbosity-9

4.2 Syntactical Level-9

4.2.1 Word Order-9

4.4.2 Subordinate Clause-9

4.2.3 Conjunctions-10

4.3 Thinking mode-11

5. Pedagogical Implication-12

6. Conclusion-14

References-15