What Are the Cognitive and Cultural Influence of Chinese Contexts on Students’ English Learning.doc

what are the cognitive and cultural influence of chinese contexts on students english learning?abstract: language transfer is a common phenomenon in the language learning. language transfer is the influence resulting from the similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously acquired. this paper presents the importance , the current phenomenon of the chinese students english writing and the influence o f chinese cognition and culture on the students english writing .in the third part , it puts emphasis on making a contrastive study of the different characters between chinese and english while analyzing the various mistakes in chinese students english writing caused by the negative transfer from chinese on the levels of lexis, syntax and discourse. the purpose is to minimize the negative influence from chinese and improve students english writing. key words: negative transfer from chinese english writing, influence chinglish1.introductiondifferent countries have different cultures , which is known to us. “culture is the collective programming of the mine which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another”(hofstede , 1991). there is never coexistence between two language systems in the learners, but constant conflicts are mainly on cognition and culture. the mistakes made by students in the writing during their english learning come from the interference of chinese on english, which is called cultural conflict , thats to say, culture transfer.transfer is a psychological term, which refers to the influence of previous learning on subsequent learning. transfer is the influence resulting from the similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired. (odlin, 1989) language transfer is a common phenomenon in the language learning. language transfer is the effect of one language on the learning of another. (longman dictionary of language teaching & applied linguistics, 2000) in the process of the foreign language learning, learners will unconsciously bring the pronunciation, lexical, grammatical structures, and thoughts of the mother tongue into the target language. as a result, the mother tongue has some influence on the target language. this phenomenon is called language transfer. language transfer includes positive transfer and negative transfer. positive transfer refers to the transfer in which language learners knowledge of the mother tongue improves the acquisition of the new knowledge of the target language. negative transfer, also called interference, is the phenomenon in which language learners use the models or rules of their mother tongue in the target language, resulting in the output of the informal or even wrong expressing forms of the target language.in the english language learning, chinese students try to utilize some mother tongue features more than that of the english language during learning. english writing is one of the output ways of language, and it is a process from deep structures to surface structures. from what to write to the output composition, it may take students quite a lot of steps to finish the writing tasks, that is, from their thoughts to words, sentences, passages and contexts. in this process, students may make a lot of mistakes caused by the negative transfer from their native language-chinese.2. influence on english writing from the cognition and culture of chinese2.1 why learn to writeas we all know , writing is more and more important in life , business and so on with the development of society. so writing is an important task in the students english learning .and that is why writing is an important part of the teachers job. “students learn to write by writing, and they learn to write correctly by writing, revising, and proofreading their own work”-with some help or direction from the teacher when it is necessary. they do not learn to write correctly by studying about writing or doing isolated workbook exercises unrelated to their own writing. the most important technique a teacher can use to guide students toward grammatically correct writing is to let them write, let them write things related to their own experiences. there is no limit to the kinds of text the teacher can ask students to write. teachers decisions should based on how much language the students know, what their interests are., then guide the students to write.2.2 the current phenomenon of writing in the students english learningi am the teacher in senior high school english. when i and other english teachers discuss the process of marking student papers, we often have dissatisfaction and frustration over the problem of dealing with the errors in student writing -the most mistakes in grammar. the students often create chinglish. sometimes we spend hours at night with papers but im not sure the students get as much from it as the time i spend on it. most students find it very dispiriting if they get a piece of written work back and it is covered in red ink, underlings and crossing-out. it is a powerful visual statement of the fact that their written english is terrible. of course, some pieces of written work are completely full of mistakes, but even in these cases, the teachers should achieve a balance between being accurate and truthful on the one hand and treating students sensitively and sympathetically on the other.2.1.1 why the phenomenon exists in the students english learninglanguage transfer is a common phenomenon in the language learning. language transfer is the effect of one language on the learning of another. the mistakes made by students in the writing during their english learning come from the interference of chinese on english, which is called cultural conflict , thats to say, culture transfer. language transfer includes positive transfer and negative transfer. positive transfer refers to the transfer in which language learners knowledge of the mother tongue improves the acquisition of the new knowledge of the target language. negative transfer, also called interference, is the phenomenon in which language learners use the models or rules of their mother tongue in the target language, resulting in the output of the informal or even wrong expressing forms of the target language. in the english language learning, chinese students try to utilize some mother tongue features more than that of the english language during learning. as language and culture combine together, chinese students meet cross-cultural barriers of every aspect in the process of english learning. obviously, fundamental to learning is the readers ability to master the language knowledge and understand the culture of the language. the improvement of this ability is the main approach for reducing and even eliminating the cross-cultural barriers in the process of writing.2.1.2 influence on english writing from the negative transfer of chineseresearches show that language transfer occurs in all aspects of language of phonology, lexis, syntax, and pragmatics etc. “chinese english learners may have a lot of mistakes in their english language learning, some of which are caused by the negative transfer from chinese.” (su dingfang, 1996) during my english teaching in the senior middle school, ive collected large quantities of mistakes in the students english writing. and ive found that the more differences exist between chinese and english, the more mistakes students may make. it is likely to make use of the findings in second language teaching to facilitate second language learning and to minimize the negative effects. in this paper, id like to make a contrastive study of the different characters between chinese and english while analyzing the various mistakes in chinese students english writing caused by the negative transfer from chinese on the levels of lexis, syntax , discourse, avoidance and overuse, etc.i) lexis leveleach language has its own special rules of word combination and sentence making. chinese and english belong to two different language systems. of course, they have different language rules. chinese is analytic language in which word forms do not change and word order and the use of function words show grammatical functions. english is synthetic language, that is a language in which affixes may be added to the stems of a word to add its meaning or to show its grammatical functions. due to such differences, chinese english learners often make mistakes in oral or written works. generally speaking, negative transfer from chinese on the level of lexis can be shown as the following aspects: the use of articles, single or plural forms of nouns, verbs and tenses, the use of words, etc. for example, “变质” can be translated as “to go bad”. as a negative language transfer, in the chinese language, people will say “bad eggs (fruit, cheese, milk, tooth, etc.)”. but in fact, in the english language, therere many synonyms of “bad”. we should describe the above things suitably as “坏蛋”, “spoiled fruit”, “rotten cheese”, “sour milk”, “decayed tooth”, etc.ii) articles(1) there is public library in every town in britain. there is a public library in every town in britain.(2) i have a good news to tell you. i have a piece of good news to tell you.analyze: there being no such words in chinese that can be equal to articles in english, chinese english learners often neglect the use of articles in english. but after theyve learnt some english, sometimes they are confused by the use of articles in english.iii) single or plural forms of nouns(1) they were eager to know everything about china and asked me lots of question. they were eager to know everything about china and asked me lots of questions.(2) i hope that you two could come and visit us some times soon. i hope that you two could come and visit us some time soon.(3) the riches are always respected and the poor are always worth nothing at all. the rich are always respected and the poor are always worth nothing at all.analyze: both chinese and english have the grammatical item about single and plural forms of nouns. but in the chinese language, this item is just used to describe persons. however, in the english language, this item can be used to describe both persons and objects. also therere regular and irregular rules about plural forms of nouns. because of the difference between chinese and english, chinese english learners sometimes will neglect the plural forms when using this grammatical item. another reason is that in the chinese language, one noun is considered to be countable, while in the english language, uncountable, or vice versa. and this also brings difficulty to learners in telling countable nouns from uncountable nouns. take “一张纸” as an example. in chinese, “纸” is countable but in english, we should say “ a piece of paper”. here “paper” is an uncountable noun.iv) verbs and tenses(1) this medicine will good to you. this medicine will be good to you.(2) play football not only makes me grow up. playing football not only makes me grow up .(3) this method can helps teachers to teach better. this method can help teachers to teach better.(4) i learn about you from my english teacher, miss fang. i learnt about you from my english teacher, miss fang.(5) it was kind of them to meet me at the railway station and drove me to their home. it was kind of them to meet me at the railway station and drive me to their home.analyze: in the english language, “subject + verb” (sv) is the core of a sentence. people put much attention on it. while in the chinese language, subjects and verbs are not so related as that in the english language. when writing, chinese english learners sometimes miss verbs, pay no attention to the agreement between subjects and verbs or modal verbs used together with verb forms of the third person. another aspect is about tenses. in chinese, people dont describe the tenses through the verb forms. while in english, therere quite a lot of forms to express tenses. take the past tense as an example. in english, people say “ i did it ” while chinese people say “ 我做过了”. in chinese, people use “过了” etc. to describe things done. v) the use of words(1) whether you success or not, you should work hard. * whether you succeed or not, you should work hard.(2) the dictionary spent me a lot of money. * the dictionary cost me a lot of money.(3) 看书 to read a book / to read 注意身体 to notice your body / to pay attention to your health微机 small machine / (micro)compute进入房间 to enter into the room / to enter the roomanalyze: in the chinese language, we cant tell the word or phrase whether its a noun, verb or adj. etc. but in the english language, from the word form, sometimes, we can see its a noun or verb, etc. this difference makes chinese english learners feel it difficulty in using proper words when writing in english. chinese english learners cannot tell the slight difference when using synonyms. they sometimes have to express their thoughts in chinglish (china english) because they havent learnt enough english words to express their thoughts, or they will describe something in english according to chinese grammatical rules.vi) avoidanceavoidance refers to learners “avoidance of using linguistic structures which they find difficult because of differences between their native language and the target language.” (ellis, 1994) for example, chinese english learners always avoid the use of complex sentences in both oral and written situations, for they feel it hard to apply for it or liable to make mistakes in using it. but in the english teaching and learning, sometimes we find it is hard for students and teachers to locate the problem and solve it. we should pay enough attention to avoidance.vii) over-use (over-indulgence)learners prefer to use linguistic and discourse features that seem simple to them, which is called “over-use” in transfer. it may be as a consequence of the avoidance of some difficult structures or a result of intralingual processes such as over-generalization.it can also result from transfer-often as a consequence of the avoidance or underproduction of some “difficult” structure.3.what should the students and their teachers do ?3.1 the students should increase reading materialsreading can provide good models for english writing, provide opportunities to study language vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and the way to construct sentences, paragraphs and texts.good reading texts can introduce interesting topics, stimulate discussion, excite imaginative responses and be the springboard for well-rounded, fascinating lessons.3.2. what should the students do?so in their free time , students must read widely because only a fraction of knowledge about the world can come from other experiences in their short lives. no one has learned to swim by practicing the skills of backstrokes, flutter kicks or treading water while staying on the edge of the swimming pool. yet, during the course of learning to write , the students often do just that. they should drop into “the water”, buried in skills books learning rules about letters, syllables or definitions of words rather in the book itself, being immersed in the language which comes from the authors as the readers try to reconstruct the written message.3.3 what should the teachers do?the teachers also should give their students proper reading tasks. and when the teachers give reading class to students, they should notice a balance-a balance to be struck between real english on the one hand and the students capabilities and interests on the other. there is some authentic written materials which beginner students can understand to some degree: menus, timetables, signs and basic instructions, for example, and, where appropriate, teachers can use these. but for longer prose, teachers can offer their students texts, which, while being like english, are nevertheless written or adapted especially for their level. anyway, the materials to be read should be interesting and meaningful. teachers should become better acquainted with books written specially for teenagers and dealing with their problems. but the teachers should obey the principles when they instruct their students to read:i) encourage students to respond to the content of a reading text, not just to the languageof course, it is important to study reading texts for the way they use language, how many paragraphs they contain and how many times they use relative clauses. but the meaning, the message of the text, is much more important. teachers should help students understand that the main reason to read is for them. the y have to have their own purpose to read and reading must make sense, they have to find ways of doing something about it. they should be encouraged either to reread or to continue reading to gain meaning. but they must realize that the meaning is not in the teacher, but in the interaction between the reader and author. students should be encouraged to ask themselves repeatedly, “does this make sense to me?” students should be encouraged to reject and to be intolerant of reading materials that do not make sense.ii) encourage students to guess or predictreaders guesses or predictions are based on the cumulative information and syntactic structure they have been learning as they have been reading. therefore, their guesses are more often than not appropriate to the materials. students have to realize that risk taking in reading is appropriate; that using context to decide what wor