The Influence of Native Language on English Learning of Middle School Students1.doc

母语对中学生英语学习的影响the influence of native language on english learning of middle school studentscontentsabstract and key words1chapter 1. language, culture and thought.21.properties of language.2 2.definitions and properties of culture.23.relationship between language, culture and thought.4chapter 2. influence of native language on grammar and writing.51.grammar and its learning by middle school students .52.language transfer in writing - a cultural perspective.9chapter 3. influence of chinese pronunciation on english pronunciation.101.comparing both chinese and english sound systems.10 2.a combination of techniques in teaching english phonemes to middle school students .11chapter 4 influence of chinese culture on english learning 131.the differences between chinese and english words.132.cultural differences reflected in chinese and english idioms.143 3.the way to translate the chinese and english idioms194 4.conclusion 20reference.21the influence of native language on english learning of middle school students摘 要：该论文是以母语对中学生英语学习的影响为研究目的，并将谈到汉语与英语的关系。语言在某种程度上区别于技术和知识，并可分为习得语言与学得语言。由于受到母语的干扰，学习第二外语总是比学习母语困难得多。当二外学习者学习外语时，其母语语法和表达习惯影响二外学习的现象被称为语言的迁移。二外学习的负迁移是一个普遍现象。当学习者用目标语言去与人交谈时，不由自主地会用母语来辅助目标语言。比如母语的语调、词汇、语法以及文化都会被用来辅助表达思想。这种现象在中学生英语学习中尤其常见，他们通常用汉语思维去学习英。母语对英语的影响可分为部分：语法、词汇、语音。当然，文化影响更是随处可见。关键词：母语；英语；负迁移 ；语法 ；词汇 ；语音 ； 文化abstract: the purpose of my thesis is to explore the influence of native language on second language learning in middle school students. in this thesis, i will talk about the relationship between chinese and english. language is different from skills and some other kinds of knowledge, and language can be divided into native one and acquired one. learning a second language is harder than learn mother tongue and interfered by our native language. when second language learners learned a foreign language, the phenomenon that the rules of their mother language and the expression habits applied to would be transferred on the second language learning which is called the language transfer. the negative transfer on the second language is a universal phenomenon. when learner uses the target language to maintain the human relations, they try to speak with the aid of the mother tongue, the glossary, the structures rules or the cultural conventions of the mother tongue to express the thought, especially in middle school students. when they learn english, they often think in chinese. the influence of native language on english learning can be divided into three parts. one is on grammar, the other is on vocabulary, and the third is on phonetic. of course, the influence of culture on second language learning can be seen in every aspect. key words: native language; english; negative transfer; grammar; vocabulary; phonetic; culture chapter 1. language, culture and thoughtas we all know, language is different from skills and some other kinds of knowledge. when chinese middle school students learn english, they are influenced by their mother language. why? this question may be hard to answer with one or two sentences. what i can do is to get to know the language itself and the relationship between language, culture and thought at the beginning of my thesis. 1 properties of language language is systematic, which means that it is rule governed. elements in it are arranged according to certain rules. in english, “sdylh” is not a possible word and “green made he” is not an acceptable sentence. in chinese“非他快”is not acceptable, either. people have to speak a language according to its rules.7 otherwise, there will be no communication and the learning of language by younger generations will not be possible. language is arbitrary. language consists of arbitrary symbols. language is arbitrary in that there is no logical relationship between words and objects, action or concepts these words are used to refer to. 2 definitions and properties of culture2.1 definitions of culturewhat is culture? this question is even more difficult to answer. hundreds of definitions can be found in the literature on culture. this fact along implies that defining culture is a heatedly debated issue.moreover, the term “culture” does not correspond perfectly with “文化”，its translation equivalent in chinese. for example, “他没有文化”, which often means that he is illiterate, cannot be translated into english as “he does not have culture”. lets first look into the etymology of these two terms to see what differences there exist.in english “culture” is a loan word from latin in which it mainly meant, “cultivating or tilling the land”. the word was originally associated with physical activities and production of food. later, its meaning was expended to included mental, moral, aesthetic, educational and intellectual activities. in contemporary english its original meaning is still retained.in contrast, “文化” is a native word in chinese. “文”and “化” when used together ,mean “以文教化”. they were combined into one word in han dynasty, with its meaning contrasted with “nature” on the one hand and “primitiveness” and “savage” on the other hand. so “文化” was originally associated with mental activities along. 2.2 properties of cultureculture is human specific. though some kind of institutions and organizations can be observed in some animal communities, none of them have what deserves the name culture.culture is a social phenomenon. this statement emphasizes the contrast between society and nature. culture is a cooperative product of human societies. for example, oil is a natural substance. however, when it is obtained from the oil well and refined into petrol or kerosene, it becomes a cultural product. it is the embodiment of human knowledge, skill and cooperative labor. only human societies have culture. nature does not.culture is a national phenomenon. each nation has been living in its unique geographical and historical framework in which a unique culture has been established and is developing. as there are no two languages in the word that are identical in every way, there are no two cultures that are the same in every aspect. each culture is unique. but it is not to say that there are no similarities between cultures. people living in different national boundaries are all human beings living in the same world. there should be in theory and are in reality many similarities among national cultures. these culture similarities reflect the universal aspect of culture.2 culture is also a historical phenomenon. each generation inherits the culture established by its forefather. that why, for example, christmas has been celebrated for more than one thousand years in western countries and the spring festival has a long history in china. but this is not to say that culture has remained the same in its long history and will remain the same forever. in fact, culture has been developing and changing all the time. each generation makes its own contributions to the development of culture. new materials are constantly produced. new ideas keep emerging. more and more new subjects or interdisciplinary subjects have been established. and owning to culture contact foreign influences have constantly caused culture to change. buddhism traveled from india, its native land, into china and became one of the most important religion in ancient china.the last but not the least important thing to note is that the term culture is general and abstract, being manifested by western culture, asian culture, latin american culture, etc. these can be further analyzed. for example, english culture is part of western culture, yet it can be further analyzed into american, british, australian and new zealand cultures, each of which has several subcategories. even chinese culture, one of the chinese people alone, has many subcultures. the life style of the people in the northern part of china is somewhat different from that of the people in the southern part of the country. a culture is not monolithic. this is a thorny problem to its learners, especially those who are learning it as a foreign culture.3 relationship between language, culture and thought3.1 relationship between language and culturelanguage is part of culture. it cannot be equated with culture, which has several other components. few would seriously attack this concept. the chinese language is part of chinese culture and is part of english culture. we do not know the exact period of time when language and culture appeared, but we can say for sure they appeared at the same time. there is no culture that has no language as its part. language and culture are not separable.however, the relationship between language and culture is not just that between a part and whole. it is much more complex than that. language is the carrier and container of culture. hummed knowledge and experience are described and stored in language. customs, habits and behavioral patterns can be described and analyzed in language. as a mirror of culture, language is strongly influenced and shaped by culture. eskimo tribes commonly have as many as seven different words for snow to distinguish among different types of snow: falling snow, snow on the ground, fluffy snow, and wet snow, etc. they live in the world of snow. it is important for them to be able to distinguish among and refer to different types of snow. in contrast, certain african cultures in the equatorial forest of zaire have no word at all for snow. it is said that there are more than four hundred words for camel in arabic while there is only one word for it in english or chinese. chinese has more kinship terms. “叔”，“伯”，“舅父”,“姨夫”，and “姑父”in chinese correspond to only one word “uncle” in english.so, a language can never be learned in a culture vacuum. culture is learned through language. without language as the medium for formal or informal instruction, no culture could be learned.3.2 thoughtno discussion about the relationship between language and culture is complete without some treatment of thought and the relationship between language and thought.thought is the function and product of the human brain. this bodily organ handles and produces thought. but thought is not what the human brain produces as apples yield apples: human experiences enter the human brain, are processed there and human thought results.thought also refers to patterns of ideas characteristic of a social group. in this sense it is a social product, part of culture. the western people, as heirs to greco-latin heritage, are good at formal logic, which, together with experimental research, forms the basis for modern science.9 the chinese people are accustomed to dialectic or holistic thinking. the traditional chinese medical science is closely associated with this thinking pattern.abstract or logical thinking refers to thinking in terms of pure reasoning. it is often said that the western people who may have received strict training in formal logical are good at abstract thinking. artistic thinking refers to thinking in which images are particularly attended to. people often say that the chinese people are particularly good at artistic thinking. of course, we do not mean to say that the western people cannot think in terms of images or that the chinese people cannot think logically. abstract and artistic thinking themselves are not mutually exclusive.3.3 relationship between language and thoughtit is generally accepted that thought is communicated in language. without language we could not get our ideas known to others. nor could we know others real intention. language is an instrument used in the communication of thought.however, there has been heated debated over the question whether language is the instrument of thinking. some argue that we have to think in language and that thinking is talking to ourselves or is a form of monologue. without language thought would have no form. others believe that ideas can exist without language, as shown by the common utterance “i dont know how to express my idea with words”. this utterance implies that the idea has been there before one finds words to express it. moreover, the deaf-mute is able to think but cannot speak the language of his own community.perhaps the debate will continue for a long time. but it is quite safe to say that language is closely related to thinking. though not all people believe that language is the instrument of thinking, most of them would accept as true the proposition that language facilitates thinking and is an instrument used for the communication of thought.since language represents thought, it is influenced and shaped by thought. it aids them in thinking about some ideas and molds many aspects of their daily affairs.3.4 concluding remarks on the relationship between language, thought and cultureeven though the relationship between language, thought and culture has been a matter of controversy for quite a long time, people now generally agree that the three aspects interact, each influencing and shaping the other two. they can never be separated.so, if middle school students want to learn english well, they should pay much attention to the relationship between language, thought and culture. in fact, when chinese middle school students learn english, they are influenced by their native language in many aspects, for instance, in grammar, in writing, and so on. chapter 2. influence of native language on grammar and writing 1 grammar and its learning by middle school students grammar is often misunderstood in the language-learning field by chinese middle school students. the misconception lies in the view that grammar is a collection of arbitrary rules about static structures in the languagefurther questionable claims are that the structures do not have to be learn as a question，learners will acquire them on their own, or if the structures are learned in the class，the lessons that ensue will be boringconsequently，communicative and proficiency-based learning approaches sometimes unduly limit grammar instruction 1.1 grammar should be acquired naturally it is true that some middle school students acquire second language grammar naturally without instructionfor example，there are immigrants to the united states who acquire proficiency in english on their ownthis is especially true of young immigrantshowever，this is not true for all learnersamong the same immigrant groups are learners who may achieve a degree of proficiency，but whose english is far from accuratea more important question may be whether it is possible with instruction to help learners who cannot achieve accuracy in english on their own it is also true that learning particular grammatical distinctions requires a great deal of time even for the most skilled learnerscarol chomsky（1969）showed that native english speakers were still in the process of acquiring certain grammatical structures in english well into adolescence.4thus，another important question is whether it is possible to accelerate students natural learning of grammar through instructionresearch findings that can be brought to bear on this question from a variety of sources（see larsen-freeman long，1991）pienemann（1984）demonstrated that subjects who received grammar instruction progressed to the next stage after a two-week period，a passage normally taking several months in untutored developmentwhile the number of subjects studied was admittedly small，the finding，if corroborated，provides evidence of the efficacy of teaching over leaving acquisition to run its natural coursewith regard to whether instruction can help learners acquire grammar they would no form-focused instruction to improve learners accuracy over what normally transpires when there is no focus on form（see larsen-freeman，1995） 1.2 grammar is a collection of meaningless forms this view may have arisen because many students associate the term grammar with verb paradigms and rules about linguistic formhowever，grammar is not meaningless；it embodies the three dimensions of morph syntax（form），semantics（meaning），and pragmatics（use）. we should say it is not the false of grammar, but the false of the way that chinese middle school students learn grammar. when they learn english grammar, they often use chinese to mark english grammar. for example, if they want to learn “help some body to do something ”, they like writing “帮助某人做某事” after the english. by this way they just remember some meaningless forms, but grammar is not a collection of meaningless forms, so do language. the purpose of learning grammar is to help students to have a better understanding of the language. it is no use remembering grammar rules by rote because there are no rules without exceptions. it is sensible to use english grammar as a tool to help students to understand and master english. students should learn grammar mainly through language phenomena because it comes from it. so students should learn those rules and do some exercises to practise them. 1.3 grammar is boring for many chinese middle school students, grammar can only be learned through repetition and other rote drills. this learning habit may come from many years experience of chinese learning. but learning a foreign language is different from learning their native language. so, learning grammar does not mean to repeat models in a mindless way，and it does not mean memorizing rulessuch activities can be boring and do not necessary in learning grammarthis does not mean there is no method for drills， drills should be used in a meaningful and purposeful way for example，to practice past-tense and yes no sentences in english,