Thesis on Negative Transfer Reflected in Errors Found in Compositions of TEM4, TEM6 as well as Corresponding Tactics1

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1、Thesis on Negative Transfer Reflected in Errors Found in Compositions of TEM4, TEM6 as well as Corresponding Tactics从大学四、六级作文错误中探讨母语对四、六写作的负迁移 及对策AbstractWith the rapid development of Chinas globalization, the call for qualified students who are good at using English is becoming stronger and stronge

2、r. In domestic tests, TEM4 and TEM6 have always been regarded as the criterion or standards of Chinese students English skills, such as reading comprehension, listening comprehension, or oral expression. This trend is bound to continue and no signs of shrinking have manifested. However, it is a thor

3、ny task for college students to get a high score or good result in TEM4 and TEM6. Looking for the reasons, there are numerous, of which negative transfer in second language acquisition is one important cause. This thesis is ardent to reveal negative factors influenced by mother tongue through analyz

4、ing errors and mistakes found in students compositions in TEM4 and TEM6, which can be roughly divided into these aspects, they are vocabulary, syntax, modality, discourse and so on. On the same time, all the samples and information are based on Chinese English Learners Language Materials. Through ex

5、tracting students compositions and pinpointing as well as classifying errors and mistakes, this thesis intends to provide useful and practical suggestions or propositions to English learners to help them improve their English, to English teachers to provide them strategies to enhance their teaching

6、skills, and to English teaching programs to correct some pedagogical wrong regions Key words：language transfer；TEM4 and TEM6；compositions；error analysis; tactics摘 要随着中国国际化脚步的加快，当代大学生在与时俱进的“号召”下也越来越重视自己的英语水平了。在国内，大学英语四、六级考试一直被看作是大外学生的英语水平的“衡量表”，并且，这种趋势将在很长一段时间里将继续下去。然而，对于大部分大学英语学习者来说，要在四、六级考试中获得很好的成绩

7、并不容易。究其原因，可归于二语习得的种种，如母语迁移的负影响。本文正是从母语迁移的负影响方向出发，通过分析四、六级作文的错误探讨母语对大学英语学习者带来的方方面面的负影响，包括形态、词汇、句法、篇章方面。本文立足于中国英语学习者语料库中的真实可靠资料，即抽取部分学生所写的四、六级英文作文，对其中的错误进行分析，定位出母语迁移负影响带来的错误，以此作为参照。这些参照对大学英语学习者提高英语写作水平、英语综合能力及为英语教学英语作文教授方面都有非常积极的意义关键词：语言迁移；大学四、六级；作文，错误分析；对策CONTENTSChapter1 Introduction1Chapter 2 Theor

8、ies on Language Transfer3 2.1 Definition3 2.2 Two Manifestations of Language Transfer4 2.2.1 Negative Transfer.4 2.2.2 Positive Transfer4 2.3 Two Methods to Analyze Language Transfer5 2.3.1 Contrastive Analysis.5 2.3.2 Error Analysis6 2.4 Introduction to Inter-Language.6Chapter 3 Research Methods.83

9、.1 Introduction to Chinese English Learners Language Materials8 3.2 Collecting and Classifying Samples.83.3 Analyzing and Classifying Errors.83.4 Analyzing Errors 8Chapter 4 Detailed Analysis of Negative Transfer Reflected in Compositions in TEM4 and TEM6.10 4.1 Influence on Morphological Use.10 4.1

10、.1 Influence on Using Articles.10 4.1.2 Influence on Using Case.11 4.1.3 Influence on Using Number11 4.1.4 Influence on Using Tense11 4.1.5 Influence on Using Comparative Degree and the Superlative Degree.124.2 Influence Reflected in Misuse of Vocabulary.12 4.2.1 Abuse and Misuse of Synonyms.12 4.2.

11、2 Influence on Collocation.13 4.2.3 Wrong Spelling of Words134.2.4 Cultural Conflicts13 4.3 Influence Reflected in Syntax.144.3. 1 Influence on Ellipsis14 4.3.2 Influence on Agreement.154.4 The Order of the Words.164.5 Influence on Discourse.16Chapter 5 Suggestions to Teachers and Students17 5.1 Adv

12、ice on Pedagogical strategies.17 5.1.1 Due Attention should be Paid to Similarities between English and Chinese17 5.3 Advice to English Learners18Conclusion20Reference.21Chapter 1 IntroductionIt is known to every college student that TEM4 and TEM6 are possible and in some situations indispensible te

13、staments of ones abilities at using English. Therefore, TEM4 and TEM6 have always received due attention either from students, teachers, colleges, or many companies. The rapid development of globalization has witnessed a new request for highly qualified students who are good at English. As a result,

14、 more and more college students want to get a high score in their TEM4 and TEM6. However, high scores are not accessible to every student, only those with a solid foundation of English are able to be closer to high scores. Looking for the reasons, there are numerous, and different student has dispar

15、ate reasons. Anyway, negative transfer of mother tongue is a key problem in these reasons. This thesis is ardent to reveal this problem through pinpointing and classifying errors made by students in writing compositions as well as try to give some reasonable and sensible advice on how to avoid these

16、 errors or improve the situation.Just as I mentioned, the importance of TEM4 and TEM6 has manifested itself in many aspects. As a matter of fact, many linguists have showed interests in this research and have provided us, laborious English learners a bunch of precious and useful advice to learn Engl

17、ish well or how to get a high score in those English tests. When strolling around book shops, those books labeled with advice on improving English are everywhere. Though research in this field is considerable, but it is still too early to say that this field is saturated and needs no new blood. Fres

18、h researches are still wanted to improve the current situation. Noticing the strong requests from English learners, the writer here is designed and devoted to research into this field and try to provide useful information. The target of this thesis then is clear, that is giving advice on how to impr

19、ove the situation, either to English learners or the teachers. After reading and consulting many relevant and populous books or thesis on this topic, the writer tries to find something useful to the readers. Since the writer is merely a student, whose knowledge in this field is very limited, the wri

20、ter hopes the readers would be reasonable and sensible when adopting the information. In a bid to give the reader a quick look at this thesis, the writer here is willing to present you a brief introduction of the body of this thesis, that is, how this thesis goes on step by step. First of all, any g

21、raduation thesis is basing on tested and accepted theories that weve learned, so is this thesis. In the next chapter, the writer would give a detailed presentation of theories on which this thesis is basing on. The third chapter is devoted to introduce the methods utilized to research this issue, wh

22、ich are the curtain of the whole thesis. The fourth chapter, which is the main body of the thesis, is ardent to classy the errors made by students. Advice to English learners, teachers and English teaching programs are included in the fifth chapter. The chapter is a concise and succinct conclusion o

23、f the whole thesis. 21Chapter 2 Theories on Language Transfer This chapter is devoted to give a detailed as well as comprehensive introduction to language transfer, which has two common and converse manifestations. They are positive transfer and negative transfer respectively. In this chapter, posit

24、ive transfer and negative transfer are clarified. Following them is an explanation of two popular methods utilized by linguists to research language transfer. They are contrastive analysis and error analysis.2.1 DefinitionAs a matter of fact, many linguists have gravitated towards the definition of

25、language transfer, and so far, no unanimous agreement was reached on this issue. Even linguists reaching in this field are not able to give an exact and accurate definition of language transfer. In a bid to shed some light on this issue, wed better have a look at different definitions made by differ

26、ent linguists. According to the explanation of Wikipedia, a famous website, language transfer is also known as L1 interference, linguistic interference, and cross meaning refers to speakers or writers applying knowledge from their native language to a second language. It is most commonly discussed i

27、n the context of English language learning and teaching, but it can occur in any situation when someone does not have a native-level command of a language, as when translating into a second language.In the eyes of great linguist Odlin, “language transfer” is not confined to linguistics, but to a lar

28、ger extend, it is an important conception in psychology. Great linguists proposed a hypothesis suggesting that transfer was influence of learning task A on learning task B. According to James, another linguist, if given task A the conception of first language acquisition and B the second language ac

29、quisition, then transfer here could be conceived as language transfer. Owing to Odlins populous book language transfer, the technical word in linguistics “language transfer” was preserved. It was also Odlin that gave an exact and accurate definition of language transfer. According to the definition

30、of language transfer made by Odlin, transfer not only refers to influence of mother tongue in traditional sense, but to any effect of any acquired language on the learning language. Therefore, the transfer of mother tongue is termed as “transfer of first language” in order to distinguish any other l

31、anguage transfer. On the same time, Odlin absorbed Sharwood Smith and Kellermans ideas of inter-lingual effects, proposing that language transfer was reflected in either Negative transfer or Positive transfer. Osdins definition about language had been widely accepted and received due attention. His

32、contribution to linguistics was that he offered us a useful and practical tool to deal with problems in first language acquisition and second language acquisition. Other linguists have proposed different conceptions.2.2 Two Manifestations of Language Transfer In order to understand this phenomenon c

33、learly, here the writer tries to condense those definitions to an easy sentence, that is, language transfer is the Influence of First Language Grammar (L1) on the English Language (L2). A phenomenon as language transfer is, it must has its external manifestations. Generally speaking, its manifestati

34、ons can be roughly divided into two main aspects, positive transfer and negative transfer.2.2.1 Positive TransferWhen the relevant unit or structure of both languages is the same, linguistic interference can result in correct language production called positive transfer. To put it in a simpler way,

35、that is the greater the similarity between two languages is, the more the learner is aware of the relation between the two languages, and as a result, the easier for the learner to study the second language and the fewer the mistakes. For example, it would cause fewer efforts for a westerner, say a

36、German to learn English than a Chinese to learn English. As for the reasons, thats because German and English all belong to Indo-European family while Chinese is a member of another family that differs from Indo-European family. A German learner of English may correctly guess an item of English voca

37、bulary from its German counterpart, but word order and collocation are more likely to differ, as will connotations. Though such an approach has the disadvantage of making the learner more subject to the influence of false friends, positive transfer helps a leaner to learn a second language quicker a

38、nd easier. As a matter of fact, the results of positive transfer go largely unnoticed, and thus are less often discussed. Nonetheless, such results can have a large effect. 2.2.2 Negative TransferWhen talking about language transfer, the first thing that spring into many peoples minds is that langua

39、ge interference is a source of errors which is terminated as negative transfer in language transfer. Just as a coin has two sides, so does language transfer. After looking at positive transfer, lets have a view at negative transfer. Different from positive transfer, negative transfer suggests that t

40、he greater the differences between the two languages, the more negative transfer can be expected. Negative transfer is what this thesis really driving at since all errors and mistakes made by English learners are the resultant consequences of the differences between English and Chinese. Chinglish, w

41、hich is familiar to English learners and English teachers, is a typical example of negative transfer. Chinglish is a kind of English language spoken or written by Chinese English learners, and which is not reasonable or sensible to a native English speaker. For example, a popular Chinglish sentence

42、is “long time to see”, it is not original and it is discovered by Chinese English learners. The term Chinglish is commonly applied to ungrammatical or nonsensical English in Chinese contexts, and may have pejorative or deprecating connotations. Other terms used to describe the phenomenon include Chi

43、nese English, China English, and Sinicized English. The degree to which a Chinese variety of English exists or can be considered legitimate is disputed. As a matter of fact, many English learners often make chinglish mistakes. 2.3 Two Methods to Analyze Language Transfer Second language acquisition

44、is a productive field with many useful theories, of which language transfer is one that have long been the spotlight of linguists. As we all know, every research field needs methods to delve into the issues, and this is the same case with language transfer. In this field, there are many methods, of

45、which Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis are famous. These two common and populous ways have been utilized by linguists in the cases of second language acquisition. In order to shed some light on the issue of language transfer, wed better have a look at these two methods. A detailed introductio

46、n must provide useful information and inspirations in dealing with this issue.2.3.1 Contrastive AnalysisAccording to the series of Spark English books, Contrastive analysis is a way of comparing the forms and meanings across the native language and the target language to spot the mismatches or diffe

47、rences so that people could predict learners difficulty, then what needs to be learned and what does not need to be learned in a second language learning situation is decided. I may use some examples to clarify this point. For example, between English and Chinese, there are many “false friends”. Bec

48、ause of the differences between the two languages, culture clashes lying between the two languages and thats “false friends” are many. Some typical examples are “to touch the society” and “there are more people come to study in the States”.There are some foundations that contrastive analysis is buil

49、t on. Firstly, language is a habit and language learning involves the establishment of a new set of habits. Secondly, because the greater the differences between L1 and L2, the more frequent the errors will occur, the major source of error in the production of a second language is the native languag

50、e. Thirdly, there is no need for careful analysis of similarities and differences between L1 and L2.Contrastive analysis came into fashion in the 1960 and brought some conveniences to the study of second language acquisition. Though Contrastive Analysis helps us to understand language learning and t

51、eaching in many ways, it was soon found problematic. First of all, it mixes the conception of “difference” and “difficulty”. These two are not identical and should not be mixed up. Contrastive analysis cant do this job well. Secondly, though differences between the native language and the target lan

52、guage can be pointed out, but sometimes, difficulties may arise from psychological aspect. Thirdly, not all errors can be predicted and some difficulties dont seem to be difficult actually. Whats more, because of its association with an outdated model of language description and the increasingly dis

53、credited learning theory, the once predominant contrastive analysis was gradually replaced by error analysis.2.3.2 Error Analysis Though contrastive analysis did bring some inspirations to linguistic researches in second language acquisition, it was soon found problematic and then a new way, error a

54、nalysis, which is often taught today, was proposed. A new theory, many errors made by second language learners are caused by factors other than native language interference, is introduced. . Error analysis involves, first independently or objectively, describing the learners inter-language Then a co

55、mparison of the two is followed to locate mismatches. Different from contrastive analysis, error analysis gave less consideration to learners native language. By the late 1960s, error analysis had become the acceptable alternative to the behaviorism-tainted contrastive analysis and entered its heyda

56、y in the 1970s.In error analysis, two conceptions are made clearly, they are error and mistake. Error is the grammatically incorrect form. It arises from the learners lack of knowledge which represents a lack of competence. Mistake appears when the language is correct grammatically but improper in a

57、 communicational context. Mistakes often occur when learners fail to perform their competence. In the efforts to categorize learners errors and to find out ways to avoid or remedy errors, two main sorts of errors were diagnosed: inter-lingual errors and intra-lingual errors. The inter-lingual errors

58、 mainly result from cross-linguistic interference at different levels such as phonological, lexical, grammatical or in discourse. . The intra-lingual errors mainly result from faulty or partial learning of the target language, independent of the native language. There are learning strategies-based e

59、rrors, communication strategies-based errors, induced errors, and some compound and ambiguous errors among which overgeneralization or cross-association have been well exploited.2.4 Introduction to Inter-LanguageAfter introducing contrastive analysis and error analysis, lets have a look at another i

60、mportant point in language transfer, inter-language. It is not difficult to guess its meaning as its name suggests its meaning, it is a language between two languages. According to A New Course On Linguistics For Students Of English, inter-language is defined as established as learners second indepe

61、ndent system of the second language which is of neither the native language nor the second language, but a continuum or approximation from his native language to the target language. Since inter-language is an important conception in the study of the issue, we should pay due attention to this questi

62、on.A persuasive case can be made that the native language plays an inseparable role in second language learning and people cant afford to ignore it. Hence, the role of native language in learners second language learning is worth careful examination.When behaviorism gained popularity among linguists, people noticed that a second language learners use of former linguistic information or some physically carryover of native language surface to a second language context, and thats what we