母语在农村小学英语教学中的正迁移.doc

Positive Transfer of Mother Tongue in the Rural Primary School English Teaching论母语在农村小学英语教学中的正迁移Contents1 Introduction2 Language transfer 2.1 The definition of language transfer 2.2 Positive transfer of mother tongue 3 The relationship between mother tongue and the foreign language learning4 The reasons of using mother tongue in the rural primary school English teaching 4.1 The current situation of English learning in the rural primary school 4.2 The positive transfer of mother tongue in the rural primary English teaching 4.2.1 Helping learn phonetic 4.2.2 Helping explain contrat words and expressions 4.2.3 Helping learn grammar 4.2.4 Helping enhance the interest of learning5 The implementation of using mother tongue in the rural primary school English teaching6 ConclusionBibliographyAcknowledgements论母语正迁移在农村小学英语教学中的运用摘 要: 在语言学的漫长发展史中，如何合理使用母语是一个相对古老的话题，但是却很少有人去研究在农村小学的实际条件下应如何合理使用母语。随着母语在外语教学中积极作用的认识和研究越来越受到关注，人们已经不再片面地强调其负面作用，而是表现了一种更为理智和实事是的态度:合理利用母语在知识和技能上的帮助和正迁移，能有效地促进外语知识的理解与深化，能有效地促进英语学习。论文首先从语言迁移理论出发，分析母语的正负迁移。同时，论文还指出了母语与外语学习的关系。然后，论文对母语知识在农村小学英语教学的积极作用作了粗略的梳理和分析，并着重从教学实践方面对母语与农村小学生英语学习的相关性问题作了初步的探讨，分别从目前农村小学英语教学的形势和母语在英语教学中对于学习发音，记忆单词，讲解语法和提高学习兴趣上的积极作用，分析了在农村小学英语教学中应该使用母语的原因。最后得出在农村小学英语教学上运用母语的启示：教师应充分发挥母语的积极作用，在教学实践中合理地运用母语，以期取得更佳教学效果。 关键词: 母语 正迁移 农村小学 英语教学The Use of Mother Tongue in the RuralprimarySchool EnglishteachingAbstract:In the process of linguistic study, how to use mother tongue properly is a relatively old disciplince in linguistic study. But few people study it in the condition of rural primary school.In this paper, based on the language transfer theory, there are positive and negative transfers in English teachingteaching. At the same time, the paper points out the relationship between mother tongue and foreign language learning. Then, the paper gives the reasons of using mother tongue in the rural primary school English teaching and the positive transfer of mother tongue in learning pronounciation, remembering words, explaining grammar and enhancing the interest of learning. Last from the implementation of using mother tongue in the ruralprimaryschool Englishteaching，the teacher should make full use of the positive transfer of mother tongue, and use mother tongue properly to achieve the most satisfactory teaching result.Key Words: mother tongue positive transfer rural primary school English teaching1. IntroductionIn the history of language teaching, the attitude towards the use of mother tongue in the foreign language teaching changed dramatically over centuries. But few people study it in the condition of rural primary schools. In traditional foreign language teaching, mother tongue was the sole “medium of instruction” (Vivian Cook, 1993) However, in the past few decades, a trend of limiting the use of mother tongue has been in vogue. The methods, such as the Audio-Visual, the Function-Notional, the Direct method and Communicative, etc, maintain that mother tongue should be limited or abandoned in English teaching. Up to now, it has long been a controversial issue whether native language should be involved in foreign language teaching and leaning. Many linguists think that using mother tongue in English teaching will lead to weak pragmatic competence and chinglish. So mother tongue should be limited or abandoned in English class. However, they neglect the current situation in primary school, especially in rural high school, such as the learners aim and motivation of learning English, the experience of native language learning, teachers professional level, the environment of English learning, and so on. They overlook the significance of using mother tongue in arousing more of learners interesting, in raising the efficiency of English teaching and learning, in clearing away the obstacles in English learning, in developing learners linguistic competence as a whole. In fact, from the current situation of the country, it is difficult to lead rural primary school students directly to “thinking in English” without the use of their mother tongue. So having a proper understanding of the use of mother tongue in the rural primary school English teaching is significant to improve the quality of English teaching.2 Language transfer 2.1 The definition of language transfer“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.” (Krashen, 1981) If this transfer comes from mother tongue, it is called mother tongues transfer. “Language transfer refers to the phenomenon that the influence of learners mother tongue on the second languages acquisition and development” (Ellis, 1985)Transfer is a learning strategy employed by learners in L2 learning. As Lado put it Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture一both productively when attempting to speak the language and to act in the culture, and receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and the culture as practiced by the natives. (Lado 1957:2) This learning strategy not only helps but also hampers foreign language learning because transfer can be positive and negative. When people learn a new language they will be generally affected by mother tongue. The foreign learning beginners are not familiar with the rules of the foreign language, and they only can rely on mother tongue. Therefore, the content of mother tongue is very easy to influence the use of the foreign language. 2.2 Positive transfer of mother tongue Language transfer includes positive transfer and negative transfer. When learning from one situation assists learning in another, this is referred to as positive transfer. The positive transfer is most likely to occur when learners recognize common features among concepts, principles, or skills. When the theory is applied to language learning, it is named the positive transfer among languages, which do exist in the language learning. Because there are similarities among different languages in the world and the first language facilitates learning where the native language and the foreign language structures are the same, positive transfer is very helpful to foreign language teachers and learners. That is to say, learners mother tongue can facilitate their foreign language learning. Most studies has emphasized the negative transfer of mother tongue in foreign language learning. However, nobody can ignore the positive role of mother tongue in the foreign language teaching process.This means that in order to learn foreign language well, we should take advantage of positive transfer and at the same time try our best to avoid negative transfer. Teachers are key factor of teaching and learning process. They should research Mothers Positive Transfer Theory, and formulate effective strategies to help students learn English well. They use mother tongue in the classroom teach-practice-doactivities appropriately.3 The relationship between mother tongue and the foreign language learning Lay (Cohen, 2000:174) found in a case study of four native Chinese-speaking ESL students at the primary school, there were a number of benefits from thinking through the mother tongue:(a) greater ease at brainstorming about topics and finding points to make about them; (b) increased facility at raising questions; (c) increased likelihood of being able to work through complicated ideas; (d) ease at recalling past experiences; (e) greater facility at evaluating the organization of the essay; (f) the enhancement of their self-expression; (g) the availability of greater lexical variety; and (h) greater propensity to display cultural sensitivity. The research have shown that positive impact of the mother tongue in the target language teaching and learning should be valued rather than ignored. All the students do not step into the teaching room with empty heads, the mother tongue is also not a coat that can be taken off and throw it away before entering into the foreign teaching room. On the contrary, the concepts of mother tongue are firmly fixed in their minds, and the foreign language learning is also related to the knowledge that they have experienced. So they can not ignore the transfer of mother tongue and only use English to think. It is natural for them to regard mother tongue as a medium to link the foreign language and their thinking together.4. The reasons of using mother tongue in the rural primary school English teachingAs we know, any foreign language teaching and learning activities are conducted after the learners have acquired their mother tongue. For example, in primary school in china all the students begin to learn English after they have acquired Chinese, which inevitably has some influence on their English learning. The idea seemed to get around that using mother tongue in the English class was a “bad thing”. Everything should be done in English, giving the learners maximum exposure to English. This is fine in principle, but the reality turns out to be somewhat different. While it is perfectly possible to use only English in teaching, this approach fails to take account of a number of factors. Obviously, from the current situation of the rural primary school in China, it is impossible to ignore mother tongue and only use English to teach. The follows are some reasons of using mother tongue in English teaching.4.1 The situation of English learning in the rural primary schoolChinese rural primary school students are, strictly speaking, learning English as a foreign language. They are just learning English in a Chinese environment. Their listening and speaking abilities are very poor. And the teachers professional level are weak points in many Chinese primary schools. Its a big challenge for them to use English all the class. At school, students have only two or three English classes every week and all the other classes are given in Chinese. And the size of the teaching is usually about 50 students, which is too crowd for all the students to have enough chance to practice English. We will also find cases of learners who begin with positive attitudes but who, for one reason or another, experience inadequate learning opportunities, fail to progress as they expected, and consequently, become more negative in their outlook. (Rod Ellis, 1994:198)It is very difficulty to accept the method of non-mother-tongue by these students. So, teachers usually use Chinese in order to complete the teaching task and maintain students interesting.On the other hand, the chief objective for rural primary school students to learn English is to get enough scores to pass kinds of exam, which mainly focus on vocabulary, phrases and grammar, but not pragmatic competence. Because of schedule, teachers have to teach grammar again and again in Chinese so that students completely master. That is to say, their motivation is somehow misled. Tests in fact become indispensable components of a curriculum. Tests can aid learning in a number of ways (H, D, Brown, 1994). Many types of tests have been designed to examine students linguistic competence in china, but no systematic tests for pragmatic competence are given to students. So if we dont introduce a new text and assessment system, its impossible and unrealistic abandoning mother tongue in rural primary school English teaching. 4.2 The positive transfer of mother tongue in the rural primary English teachingMother tongue plays a positive role in English teaching, which indicates that it is not interference, but intercession, and a resource which students can resort to for making up insufficiency of the English knowledge.4.2.1 Helping learn phonetic When students begin to learn a new phonetic system, what they mainly focus on are the speech organs, the manners of articulation ,the places of articulation, which is difficult for the primary students. As to most of the speech organs, the students even dont understand the Chinese, not to speak of the English. Therefore understanding is a premise in learning phonetic. Using the English to explain again and again is too time-consuming and ineffective, if not impossible. On the contrary, if the teachers use mother tongue, the students will not have the obstacle in 字面上understanding. In Phonetic, the sonud of mother tongue already existing in English learning process will facilitate its acquisition. For example, the students in learning of English letters I /ai/ pronounciation, is not simply identify imitation, yet compare with the Chinese ai pronounciation, then identify their similarities and differences, and you will easily send I to the sound. And when learning consonants of /b/ /d/ /g/ , it is almost similar to the manners of articulation of the Chinese 拼音, “b” “d” “g” .The mother tongue plays a positive role in the process of mastery English. So if the teachers take into consideration of using mother tongue appropriately in learning phonetic, it is more easier for the students to get the point.4.2.2 Helping explain contrat words and expressionsAs is known, vocabulary is a main obstacle for learners in English learning. However, “It will be more fruitful to teach abstract words or concepts with appropriate use of mother tongue in second language teaching” (Liu Ting, 2006). This is true with English teaching. When students are learning English, they already have acquired a series of information about mother tongues knowledge and cognitive competence, thus they could use Chinese to explain some abstract nouns, such as: memory, time, culture, etc. Teaching will be time-consuming and ineffective if English is used exclusively to explain the meanings of these words. Teachers will make every effort to help students understand these meanings, but students will still feel confused though they may have listened to the teachers attentively. As a matter of fact, when learning English, “students have already formed the ability to accept new knowledge which is expressed in their mother tongue” (Kecskes, 2000). The students are more likely to adopt the mother tongue unconsciously in the foundation stage, which is a facilitator in English learning. Therefore, when introducing these abstract words, the teachers can make an appropriate use of mother tongue, for instance, using jiyi to explain memory, shijian to illustrate time and wenhua to explain culture, respectively. With the background knowledge they have mastered, the students will be clear about the meanings of such words. Moreover, a lot of time can be conserved for other teaching activities. 4.2.3 Helping learn grammar In English learning , grammar also plays a very important role. Without grammar, language will be disorderly and incomprehensible. There are a lot of grammatical points that exist in English but do not have the same equivalence in Chinese such as the concept of number and tense. And there are a lot of grammatical rules which are too abstract for the students to accept. Here takes the explanation of aspect for example. There is a common phenomenon that learners always prefer to say “He is sleep” and “He sleeping” rather than “He is sleeping”. Since we do not have progressive aspect in Chinese, this concept is abstract for students. Using English to explain this point will make it more difficult for students to understand this concept for they are not familiar enough with English description of aspect. “Mother tongue can be used to explain the abstract concept” (Zhang Qi, 2009). Because of familiarity with mother tongue, using mother tongue will make it easier for students to accept this concept. And although Chinese and English in the sentence are very different, yet Chinese and English are substantially the same in the order of word in declarative sentence. For example, “ gao su wo zheng xiang” Tell me the truth. This is because the English and Chinese are similar in nature in the declarative sentence, that is subject+predicate+object, which is native to achieve a migration. Making full use of migration laws, teachers play a leading role in the full mobilization of students to increase their efficiency in learning English so that students learn easily and happily.4.2.4 Helping enhance the interest of learningAs an old saying goes: Interest is the best teacher of learning. A thing that students have a deep interest can promote their learning activities. On the contrary, it can prevent their learning. The idea of abandoning mother tongue is too stressful to many rural primary school learners who need a sense of security in the experience of learning a foreign language at the beginning of learning. What is more, the ability of each student is different. They may have a poor listening, or even have a poor basic knowledge. So in the full English teaching they can not keep up with the teacher, even though they want to learn well. From the real life, students often use their mother tongue as a supplementary method in English learning. If we force them to think in English, it would make them feel nervous and think English is too hard to learn. Gradually, they will feel frustrated, and then lose their confidence, at last lose their interest of learning, maybe they would never like to learn it any more. However, if the teacher uses mother tongue to explain some abstract or difficult expressions appropriately, another result can come out. 5. The implementation of using mother tongue in the rural primary school English teachingTaking the influence of mother tongue, the relationship between mother tongue and foreign language, the current situation of the rural primary school, and the advantages of mother tongue into consideration, it is impossible to aba