Study on Positive Transfer of Native Language on English Teaching and Learning

王智悦

【Abstract】Language transfer has long been a hot issue in second language acquisition for it plays a significant role in learners second language acquisition. Although native language was considered as interference in early times， many domestic and foreign scholars recently confirmed the positive transfer of native language. This paper， then， will analyze the similarities of Chinese and English so as to help College English teachers and students to take advantages of the positive transfer of Chinese in their English teaching and learning.

【Key words】native language； positive transfer； English learning

1. Introduction

Since we have spoken our native language for quite a long time， there is no need to think whether we have followed the right pattern. Therefore， as language learners learning English as second language， it is really hard to get rid of the impact of our native language. Although negative transfer is inevitable， positive transfer can also be found which will be conductive to English learning.

2. Aspects of positive transfer of native language

2.1 Similarity of pronunciation

Chinese and English have similar system of consonants and vowels and boast similarity in areas including places of pronunciation and manners of pronunciation. For example， speech sounds such as nasals， plosives and fricatives can also be found in Chinese. In addition， rhotic accent is a common phenomenon in Chinese， which is not been clearly put forward in English but can still be found in some English words. For example， when we utter the word “car”， it will be weird if we overlook the last sound “r” and utter it as [ka： ].

2.2 Similarity of words

Similarities of Chinese and English in the aspect of words can be found in the following two aspects. First， the classification of words in both English and Chinese is based on the function of words in sentences. They all have nouns， verbs， adjectives， adverbs， prepositions， etc. Second， most words in English have their correspondences in Chinese， which helps Chinese learners to recognize and memorize words.

2.3 Similarity of syntax

As for simple sentences， subject， predicate， object， attribute， adverbial and complement can all be found in both English and Chinese. Thus sentence structure of both languages includes three basic forms—SV， SVO， SVC and compound sentences. Once learners have a good command of Chinese rules to make up sentences and comprehend by analogy， they can have a good understanding of English sentences.

3. Application of positive transfer of native language

First， teachers should guide students to find out the similarities between English and Chinese. Though positive transfer occurs frequently in English learning， learners may hardly find it out. So comes the significance of teachers guidance. And in order to put into full play the role of teachers guidance， teachers themselves are supposed to think carefully the positive function of Chinese and take advantage of it in English teaching.

Second， apart from teaching language knowledges， teachers are also responsible to have students paid attention to culture disparity and properly make use of the positive transfer at the cultural level. Language is always thought to be a part of culture， so what we learn will just be at a superficial level if cultural learning is not included. And compared with study of words and grammar， cultural learning is an interesting part that can stimulate students interest to learn language.

Third， students should be informed that they cannot totally depend on their native language. Due to the existence of negative transfer， students will be confused when facing aspects where Chinese and English are totally different. Thus， teachers should tell students that native language does not only help promote but also interfere English learning， so students will not totally depend on their native language in English learning.

4. Conclusion

Positive transfer of native language is an important instrument to make English learning a relative easy process. What teachers should do is to guide students to think of their native language when there are some similarities between the two languages. Meanwhile， students are required to know that too much reliance on their native language can also interfere language learning. So there should be a balance between positive and negative transfer of native language.

References：

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