The Interference of Native Language in English Writing 英语专业毕业论文.doc

the interference of native language in english writingcontentscontents.i摘要.iiabstractiiii. introduction.1ii. the relationship between native language and english writing.1iii. the interference of the involvement of native tongue in english writing.33.1 language transfer in english writing.33.1.1 definitions of transfer33.1.2 historical development of language transfer studies.43.2 inter-language.63.2.1 inter-language theory63.2.2 inter-language and fossilization.7vi. pedagogical implications in english writing9 4.1 implications for teaching.94.2 implications for learning.11v. conclusion.12references.13acknowledgements.14牡丹江师范学院西语系2012届英语专业学士学位论文iii摘要在英语学习的听、说、读、写四项基本技能当中，写作被认为是最复杂、最难掌握的一项技能。英语写作的复杂性使得学生的英语写作经常受到错误的困扰。在导致产生错误的多种因素中，母语负迁移这一因素近年来受到人们越来越多的关注，由于母语负迁移的干扰，致使学生无法运用所学的英语知识写出符合英语本族语习惯的地道的英语文章。 本文着重调查在英语写作中的错误现状与成因，揭示母语负迁移对学生英语写作所产生的实然影响，并寻求减少和克服母语负迁移对学生英语写作的影响、提高学生英语写作能力的教学对策。关键词：母语 负迁移 英语写作 abstractenglish writing is regarded as the most complex and difficult one of the four basic language skills. the students often make mistakes when they are writing: the main reason for this situation is the negative transfer of mother language, which has been a heated topic recently. the negative transfer of mother tongue always obstruct students in their english language writing. this paper makes a study of the current situation and the causes of mistakes in english writing, and reveals negative transfer of mother tongue of students english writing produced some real influence and seeks to reduce and overcome the negative transfer of mother tongue of students english writing, and improves students english writing ability in the teaching countermeasures.key words: mother tongue negative transfer english writingthe interference of native language in english writing 牡丹江师范学院西语系2012届英语专业学士学位论文- 14 -the interference of native language in english writingthe interference of native language in english writingi .introduction it has long been a controversial issue whether native language should be involved in a foreign language teaching and learning. historically, the way to deal with the involvement of native language went to extremes: either excluding it or relying on it. however, in the past few decades a trend of limiting the use of the native language has been in vogue. approaches such as the audio-visual, the functional-notional and communicative, etc. adopted in current english teaching also maintain that native language should be abandoned or limited as much as possible. however, the outcomes of english teaching in high school are not so satisfying as expected. although students oral work has been improved considerably as a whole, the same cannot be said of their writing. on the one hand, much chinglish (chinese english)the erroneous or inappropriate product results from the use of chinese patterns or rules in english-exists in their written work. on the other hand, those students who do well in their writing seem to employ mother tongue strategies in some way or other in their efforts to write well in english. is it the involvement of chinese that causes chinglish? is it necessary to avoid the use of chinese in english teaching and learning? is it possible to avoid the influence of mother tongue while learning english in the chinese environment? is it more rational to make better use of it to make english learning easier for high school students? to find answers to these questions, this paper intends to study theinterferenceofnativelanguageinenglishwriting.ii. the relationship between native language and english writingwriting, as one of the primary skills of communication, has always held an important place in the teaching of foreign languages. in applied linguistics, first language usage in the context of foreign/second language (l2) composing process has got much attention of linguists. while disparity persists concerning the nature and extent of first language (l1) influence, there is now certain recognition that the li bears a positive influence in the course of l2 learning. however, it is unclear to what extent and in which thinking activity l1 can enhance l2 writing. in the second place, an overview of the l1 and l2 writing research shows that most theories about english writing processes are largely based on research in l1 and english writing. despite the prevalence of studies on the l2 composing process, many of them are still at the theory-building stage. what the difference between l i and l2 writers is not adequately addressed. finally, the researches on the effect of l 1 on l2 writing mainly focus at the product level. how much l1 is involved in l2 writers mental operation during the l2 composing process is not adequately stated.in order to discover the role of mother tongue in the process of l2 writing, the relationship between the proportion of mother tongue in the l2 composition process and the final scores will be explored. the study also explores the effects of writers l2 development and culture element to see whether the output of native language varies with l2 development and culture-related topics. in addition, the functions of native language in each thinking activity (task-examining, idea-generating, idea-organizing, text-generating, and process-controlling) will be explored.though the amount of l1 declines with the development of students l2 proficiency, the declination varies in different thinking activitiesl1 use as a writing tool. it is found that an analysis of the product of english writing is not enough to provide a deep analysis of native language l1 influence on english composing. indeed, native language plays a more significant role during the process of english writing. despite all the negative transfer as a result of native language use, the learners proficiency in native language can also be a resource for english writing process. many writing studies have proved that english writing switch to their l 1 as they plan and write in english.lay analyzed 4 chinese studentswriting process and their tests, and found that the students using more l1 in their english composs process did better in content, organization and details than those using less native language.iii the interference of the involvement of native tongue in english writing in the process of english writing, the impact of native language on english writing cannot be avoided and it has always been a focus in second english writing research. influenced by behaviourism, most researchers agreed that it needs to pay attention to language transfer.3.1 language transfer in english writing the study of “language transfer” has long been a research topic in the field of english writing and has aroused general concern for a fairly long time. it took its root in tranfer theory in psychology. psychologists defined “transfer” as a kind of learning activity in which learners previous knowledge and learning skills influenced the outcome of their later learning.3.1.1 definitions of transfer although language transfer has been studied for a long time, it is difficult to give its definition for the sake of controversy among linguists. the term “transfer” was originally defined by behaviorist psychologists to refer to the process of automatic, uncontrolled and subconscious use of past-learned behavior in attempt to produce new responses. later it could be used to mean his application in one field of study or effort of knowledge, skill, power or ability acquired in another. yet the theory transfer concerning second language learning came into being just in the 1950s, which was once closely associated with the interference of behaviorist theory of foreign language learning (fll). but it is now widely accepted that the influence of the learners mother tongue (mt) cannot be adequately accounted for in terms of habit formation as behaviorists put it. transfer has been applied by educational psychologists and educators to describe the carryover of previous performance of knowledge to subsequent learning. in foreign language learning, transfer refers to the effect of one language, usually the native language, on the learning of another, usually the foreign language. this is also a common strategy employed by the english learners. a good many linguists have various definitions for the term. transfer cannot be substituted for interference. odlin cites the findings by clark and clark who claims that, in spite of the interference of the learners native language produced, lexical similarities can be facilitative to target language learning. odlin confirms that l1 influence can be both positive and negative. the term interference implies no more than what another term, negative transfer. however, there still exists positive transfer, which is facilitating influence of cognitive vocabulary of any other similarities between the native language and the target language.finally, transfer cannot be simply regarded as a result of falling aback on the l1 knowledge. odlin argues that l1 transfer is one of but not exclusive factors interfering with the l2 acquisition. native language influences also interact other influences, which sometimes makes it hard to distinguish transfer from the other influences, whereas krashens statement implies that the transfer of the first language rules is transparent. another weak point in krashens assertion is that he ignores the fact that the falling aback on ones native language can be also be the result of long-term language contact as in bilingual or multilingual situations. in this dissertation, the discussion will be primarily carried out in accordance with odlins definition. that is, transfer is the effect due to the similarities or differences between two languages. the first reason is that transfer is a traditional term that has been universally accepted for a long time. secondly, odlins theory is more general and flexible that can be applied into different fields. and interaction in this dissertation means transfer between two languages.3.1.2 historical development of language transfer studiestransfer and transfer theory can be traced back to as early as 200 years ago. yet the theory transfer concerning second language learning came into being just in the 1950s. language transfer has long been a central issue in applied linguistics, second language acquisition, and language teaching since then. the focuses of the study and researches of scholars have shifted from simple habit formation into social factors. a famous linguist expert johnson offers a brief but complete history of the transfer phenomenon in foreign language learning (fll). that is, the origins of the term go back to behaviorism and its view that the first/native language habits influence the acquisition of the second/foreign language habits. although it is later discredited, the notion of transfer has been revived again and remains one of the most fundamental one in l2 acquisition research. as俞理明mentions, peoples attitudes toward language transfer have undergone three stages of development: approval and application; criticism and neglect; rediscovery and reevaluation.the stage of approval and application. at the beginning of the 1950s, behaviorism played a predominant role in the field of language learning theory which showed just like formation of other behaviors, language acquisition was also viewed as a simple habit formation. so, language transfer was initially associated with interference in behaviorist theories of foreign language learning (fll), which prevailed in the 1950s and 1960s. interference from prior knowledge was believed to be the main barrier to learning. in the case of l2 learning, the learners didnt need to forget their l1 in order to acquire l2, although in some cases, loss of the native language might take place eventually. for this reason, behaviorist theories of l2 learning emphasized the idea of difficulty, defined as the amount of effort required to learn an l2 pattern. linguists regarded language transfer as the major obstacle of l2 acquisition and believed that the learners errors and difficulties could be predicated through contrast analysis of native and target languages. contrast analysis hypothesis (cah) was most popular at that time. when the structure of the two languages were identical, learning would take place easily. the degree of difficulty was believed to depend primarily on the extent to which the target language pattern is similar to or different from a native language pattern. when the structure of target language differed from that of native language, learning difficulty would arise and errors might occur. such errors are considered damaging to successful language learning.the stage of criticism and neglect. opposite to the behaviorists theory, the creative construction theory claimed that the universal cognitive system and the characteristics of the target language played a decisive role, while the learners native language involved little. even some researchers virtually denied the existence of language transfer in english writing. this theory was raised on the discovery that learners, whose native languages were different, acquired the target language in almost same sequence. the result of this discovery seemed to indicate that learners native language exerted no influence on second language acquisition. if this could be true, teachers might apply the same method as well as the same courses to language teaching without concerning the learners nl(native language) background. in their viewpoint, the differences in english writing among learners came from their motives, anxiety, and the environment provided for them. the proposition that completely ignored the influence in foreign language learning was later in turn met criticism for it was too absolute. some pointed out that it focused merely on syntax and as a consequence and neglected phonetics, vocabulary and many other aspects in language acquisition in which there were obvious traces of transfer.3.2 inter-languagethe term “inter-language” was first used by seiinker. as the key concept in the revised thinking about process of learning, inter-language was used to refer to the systematic knowledge of language, which is independent of both the learners native language system, and l2 system that he is trying to learn.3.2.1 inter-language theory the notion of inter-language is vital in the study of second language acquisition (sla). inter-language, according to the longman dictionary of applied linguistics, is the type of language produced by second-and foreign-language learners who are in the process of learning a language. it evolves over time as learners employ various internal strategies to make sense of the input and to control their own output. the term “inter-language” seems appropriate to describe the system for- the following reasons. (1) it captures the indeterminate status of the learners system between his native and the target language; (2) it represents the a typical rapidity with which the learners language changes, or its instability; (3) focusing on the term language, it explicitly recognizes the rule-governed, systematic nature of the learners performance and its adequacy as a functional communicative system, at least from the learners point of view. the theory of inter-language may be considered to incorporate the assumptions ofboth ca (contrast analysis) and ea（error analysis）. while ca contrasts the learners native language with the target language, and ea involves the contrast between the learners performance and the target language, inter-language takes all three systems into consideration, explicitly incorporating the contrastive analysis of the learners inter-language with both his native language and the target language. the difference is that, in inter-language, the contrastive analysis is an initial filtering device, making way for the testing of hypotheses about the other determinants of the learners language. selinkers inter-language hypothesis assumes that inter-language is a natural language, systematic throughout its development.il reflects the learners attempt at constructing a linguistic system that progressively approaches the target language.sridhar claims that ca, ea and inter-language can he looked upon as three evolutionary goals of one goal: to understand and explain the nature of the target language learners performance. they are labeled “evolutionary” for various reasons, such as the attitude toward the learners errors, the explanatory hypotheses regarding the sources of the errors and the data regarded to relevant for study and in the suggested methodology.3.2.2 inter-language and fossilizationone strong point of markedness is that it takes learners language-inter-language into more consideration, so more and more attention of applied linguists turned to inter-language. the term “inter-language” was first coined by the american linguist larry selinker in 1969. in his essay “language transfer”, he used inter-language to the systematic knowledge of language, which is independent of both the learners native language (nl) and target language(tl) systerm he is trying to learn. different linguists have used different kinds of terms to refer to the phenomenon. the term “approximative systerm” was used by nemser and “