英语专业论文-On Negative Cultural Transfer in English Writing

On Negative Cultural Transfer in English Writing1. Introduction (1)2. Significance of the research (2)3. Theoretical basis (3)3.1 Definition (3)3.2 Error analysis (4)3.3 Anderson’s three phases model of the language producing (4)4. Research questions (4)5. Research design (5)5.1 Participants (5)6. Classification of the negative transfer errors from the sample writings (6)6.1 Transfer at the lexical level (6)6.1.1 Collocation errors (7)6.1.2 Wrong parts of speech (7)6.1.3 Misuse of words (8)6.2 Transfer at the syntactical level (9)6.2.1 Improper voice (9)6.2.2 Run-on sentence or sentence fragments (10)6.2.3 Misuse of articles (11)6.3 Transfer at the grammatical level (12)6.3.1 Wrong tense (12)6.3.2 Number (13)6.4 Transfer at the discourse level (13)6.4.1 Coherence and cohesion (14)6.4.2 Discourse pattern errors (15)7. The causes of negative transfer (15)7.1 Different languages (15)7.2 Different cultures (16)7.3 Different mental concepts and logic (16)8. Some solutions to remove negative transfer (17)8.1 Enhancing students’ cultural awareness (17)8.2 Reinforcing the contrastive analysis (18)8.3 Building up a good knowledge of English vocabulary and grammar (18)8.4 Teaching writing as a process (19)8.5 Thinking in English (19)9. Conclusion (20)References (21)1. IntroductionNowadays, with globalization and English being an international language, muchimportance has been attached to English learning all over the world. English writing, as one of the four basic skills, is considered the most effective means of communication. Almost all important English tests have the writing part to evaluate learners’writing competence. However, the present situation of English writing in China is far from satisfactory. English writing remains students’ weakest point (Zhang Yanping, 2007: 52). Chinese students consciously do the English writing in the Chinese mode of thinking and express themselves from the point of Chinese. Negative transfer or interference of the mother tongue culture results in errors in the writing communication. This paper uses spot check as an instrument to explore the negative transfer in English writing. Fifteen sample writings of thirteen junior students were collected as the data source for analysis. The errors found in students’ sample articles were illustrated so that they could provide enough information about how and on what aspects transfer occurs. Those transfer errors occur in the writings will be classified at first, and then the data was analyzed, later the reasons for their occurrence were found out, and finally the solution to remove negative transfer are given.2. Significance of the researchOn account of the importance of writing and students’ failure in writing, many theoretical attempts have been made to find insightful implications for English learning in China. Since the 1990s an increasing number of researchers in China have attached their attention on the study of English writing, hoping to find ways to improve students’ writing competence. For the same interest, this paper would focuson the study of transfer errors in students’ English writing, trying to find out how and on what aspects Chinese culture influences their English writing. The paper will also analyze the reasons for such errors from cultural and linguistic perspectives and then provide some helpful solutions to remove the negative transfer. Such a methodic analysis is not only meaningful but also helpful to improve students’ English writing competence.3. Theoretical basis3.1 DefinitionTransfer is a psychological term. It is an influence brought by mother tongue, which has a great effect on the foreign language learners (Zhu Zhongdu, 1999: 28). That is to say, learners are willingly, uncontrolledly and consciously using mother tongue as the time they learn the target language. If the mistakes were caused by the differences between target language and mother tongue, it is called “Negative transfer”. Differences are the root of the negative transfer.Negative transfer, also known as interference, is the use of a negative language pattern or rule, which leads to an error or inappropriate form in the target language (Richard et al 2000: 484).Oller and Reading ever did a research, the result showed that when learning English as a second language, the students who write articles in their mother tongue must have a better mastery of English writing than those who without any articles in their mother tongue (Li Ruihua, 1996: 66).3.2 Error analysisError analysis was proposed by Pit Corder in 1970s. He considered that errors are unavoidable; it is an essential part of learning. He said that the learners would be hindered if they didn’t make mistakes and did n’t improve from the correction. The process of error analysis include language material choice, errors affirmance, errors classification, explanation of producing reasons and the teaching significance evaluation (Gao Yuan, 2002: 211).3.3 Anderson’s three phases model of the language producingEnglish writing is the product of English, and it is a process from bottom to the surface. Anderson’s Cognitive Psychology provides a theory which called three phases model of the language producing: first, create, and then transform, finally, carry out (Zhu Zhongdu, 1999: 28). It means that students have to switch their minds to language structure of different levels, lexical level, and grammatical level, etc. Therefore the transfer errors occur in the conversion process.4. Research questionsAlmost all students have difficulty at the lexical level. They often do not know how to distinguish different parts of speech, use wrong words or wrong collocations. (Zhang Yanping, 2007: 53) They have many problems at lexical level, one of the students said. Since they do not master enough vocabulary to express their minds,they cannot use the exact words at the first time. Therefore they don’t notice the part of speech, cannot distinguish the synonyms, etc.There is always incompact sentence structure. Chinese students often ignore the tense and words order of English sentences while they wrote, thus those writing, become run-on sentences or sentence fragments, which always confuse the teachers. Obviously, the missing subjects enable the sentence to be incorrect.If Chinese students consider things only from the point of view of Chinese culture while they write in English, the negative transfer will occur in the process and, which brings difficulty to intercommunicative (Long Yue, 2003: 94). The articles Chinese students write have a loose discourse mainly due to their Chinese mental concepts and logic.5. Research designThe negative transfer can be manifested by various mistakes and inappropriate usage. We are going to find the negative transfer errors from the sample writings and then analyze the causes of the errors mainly from the cultural and linguistic perspectives, finally, provide some solutions to remove the mistakes. Furthermore the errors can be seen from the Appendix I. The research lasted 6 days before this paper was written.5.1 ParticipantsFifteen sample articles are from thirteen students. All of the students are junior ofGrade 2005 in English Department of Jiaying College.5.2 Academic backgroundThey are three boys and ten girls. Only three girls’ writings are better than others. All of them had studied English for at least nine years and had had writing lessons for two years after they majored in English. Those sample writing were required to write in writing lessons, and were checked by their teachers and classmates.6. Classification of the negative transfer errors from the sample writings6.1 Transfer at the lexical levelLexical interference mainly involves with word choice. Words are the basic units of language and human communication. It is the words that compose the English language or any other language. Apart from the correct usage of words, there can be no effective writing. But the biggest problem of word choice lies in the semantic transfer of native language. Contrasting the two languages of English and Chinese, we find that some English words and their Chinese counterparts are superficially identical, yet different by nature. In English, many synonyms are of the same meaning but their usage and grammatical features are totally different. However, these are the points to which Chinese students seldom paid attention.6.1.1 Collocation errorsAs we know, collocation refers to the way in which words are used together regularly (Li Jianhua, 2007: 90). In English, certain words are conventionally collocated with other certain words and the collocations cannot be changed freely. Once they were changed, the meaning of them would not be the same as before. But Chinese students who are not familiar with the collocations are likely to make mistakes; they rarely notice that some phrases are used together regularly to express exact meanings. The following are some examples.1. We can make (draw) a conclusion that lovers get benefits from each other.If the writer wanted to express a conclusion, he should use the regular expression “draw a conclusion” in sentence or “to sum up” before the sentence.2. …do sports, listen (listen to) the music…It should be regularly expressed as “listen to the music”.6.1.2 Wrong parts of speechSome words of different languages are close or similar in conceptual meaning, yet their lexical implication is completely varied and different. Many students make a perfect sentence with words after the words were firstly introduced to them because it is quite familiar for the students to use the same Chinese version to modify. Therefore the students always notice the definition of the words instead of the exact part of speech. The following are some examples.1. There is a great deal of true (truth) in it.“true” is an adjective, but there should be a noun after “of”, so we should use“truth”.2. In their view, honest (honesty) is the best quality.“honest” is an adjective, “honesty” is its noun.3. …he must face it with relax (relaxed) mood and strong mind.“relax” is a verb, so we should use an adjective “relaxed” to modify “mood”4. …this is a good chance for us to improve ourselves (our) abilities.“abilities” is a noun, so we should use a possessive “our”.6.1.3 Misuse of wordsStudents often literally translate Chinese words into their English counterparts. Thus the articles confuse the teachers. What they notice is the word’s conceptual meaning, meanwhile misunderstand the word’s inner meaning. Thus the misuse of words occurs. The following are some examples.1. …since the believing (trust) between them was built in daily life.“believing” means someone has belief, but in this sentence, “trust” will be more appropriate.2. We only learn our specialized (professional) subjects…The writer wanted to express the subjects only be learned for their major.3. the teaching between students and the teacher will become happiness (moreharmonious).“happiness” expresses a feeling, but “harmonious” means compatible, describes the relationship better.4. …if we put learning in the first place and arrange our time properly,amativeness (romance) will help with schoolwork.“amativeness” is more clumsy than “romance”.6.2 Transfer at the syntactical levelIt is found that numbers of English sentences coined from Chinese sentence structures by word-for-word translation. In English, the main sentence is clear with a lot of nouns, especially abstract nouns and prepositions. While expressing complicated ideas, the English sentences are usually direct to speak it out, and then draw support from the relative pronouns, which belong to the English language (Chen Jing, 2006: 123). By the use of these conjunctions and relative pronouns, the structure of an English sentence is just like “a cluster of grapes, with a lot of short branches and abundance of fruits” (Chen Anding, 1998:5). On the contrary, the interrelationship of Chinese sentences is usually hidden in themselves (Chen Jing, 2006: 123). You have to analyze them logically. Syntactical transfer involves the transference of syntactical structures, such as voice, word orders and articles. The following are some examples.1. Thanks to my father’s lie, if he did not do so…(If he did not tell me a lie)Obviously, the former is a Chinglish sentence2. In that case, you won’t have a well performance (perform well).“perform well” is more ordinary.6.2.1 Improper voiceThe active voice is in general preferable to the passive, and is more frequently used in English writing because it makes the writing more concise and vigorous. However, students always miss passive voice while there should be passive. Thepassive voice is in itself not a stylistic fault, but the overuse of it is. Students often overuse the passive construction under the mistaken impression that it will make their writing look mature and scholarly. They are not aware that the unnecessary use of the passive voice will very likely make their sentences wordy and flabby. The following are some examples.1. This kind of material was sold（sells）well.This sentence actually is a passive voice sentence, but uses active voice instead of passive voice to express passive meaning.2. The dinner is cooked (cooking).This sentence uses active voice to express passive meaning.6.2.2 Run-on sentence or sentence fragmentsA grammatically complete sentence is one that contains at least a subject and a predicate verb. It is important to remember this basic structure of a sentence. Otherwise, students might make sentences without a subject or a predicate verb. The basic word order of English is SVO, and the structure is rigid, while Chinese has SOV and SVO as its basic word order in that its basic word order to some degree is determined by pragmatic and semantic factors rather than grammatical ones(Li Jianhua, 2007: 91). The following are some examples.1. Only to believe himself, the others would believe him. (Only if you canbelieve in yourself, the others would believe in you.)Before “to”, the student missed a subject.2. Some may keep a deep impression (on us) and (some may) teach a lesson thatwe cannot learn in class.The student missed an object in the former half of the sentence and missed asubject in the latter half of the sentence.6.2.3 Misuse of articlesIn English, there are three articles: “a” (an), “the”, “zero”. The form “a” is used before consonant sounds, and the form “an”before vowel. Both of them are used before the singular form of countable nouns, countable group nouns that have not previously been made specific. They are called indefinite articles. The form “the” is called definite article which refers to the specific person(s) and thing(s). Still, there is another form of article, that is zero article, which is often used before noun, indicating an activity such as at school, at sea. However, there is no such grammatical category as “article” in Chinese. Chinese students are not familiar with articles. They always create sentences without articles. Therefore, it is much more difficult for Chinese students to acquire the usage of articles. They always forget to add articles in the sentences, or they misuse the articles. The following are some examples.1. In the social communication, the confidence also plays an important role.“social communication”is an activity, so there should be zero article before it;“confidence” is not a specific thing, so “the” is unnecessary.2. So I think it is important for us to choose (the) right people to be partners.“right people” is a specific person to the partners, so we should use “the” before it.3. whenever you join the (a) competition…“competition” didn’t mentioned before, and it is a singular form, so we should use “a” before it.4. To be (an) excellent student…“excellent” is a vowel, and “student” is a singular form, so we need to use “an”before it.6.3 Transfer at the grammatical levelWhen an English learner with a Chinese linguistic background approaches to English learning, his rooted native grammar will undoubtedly have a negative transfer (Zhang Yanping, 2007). According to my study, negative transfer at grammatical level can be divided into two subcategories.6.3.1 Wrong tenseThe tense system in Chinese is totally different from that of English in that there is no inflectional change in Chinese verbs (Li Jianhua, 2007: 90). Therefore, what Chinese students concerns with is whether an action is performed or continuous, while tense is a indispensable part of English verbs. No matter an action performed in the past or it is continuous tense is necessarily represented by the verb. So students unavoidably make mistakes. The following are some examples.1. I still remembered (remember) when I first learned to ride a bicycle.2. I learn (learned) from a book that interviewers always like those who…3. …such as watch (watching) film, go (going) shopping, and give (giving)presents to each other.4. However, the students who made full use of everyday will rejoice to discoverthat they led (have led) a rich and varied life in the past 2 years.6.3.2 NumberThe notion of “number”in Chinese is quite different from that in English. English resorts to the morphological device, that is, adding the suffix “-s”to the singular form of a noun if it is a regular noun (Li Jianhua, 2007: 89). Moreover, in English, all the common nouns are divided into two classes: countable nouns and uncountable nouns. The plural form of nouns necessarily bears its plural marker: -s (-es). It is really tough for Chinese students to distinguish the two classes of nouns. The following are some examples.1. For businessman (businessmen), maybe only one minute can decide…“businessman” is singular, “businessmen” is its plural form.2. I haven’t been involved in love but I am not interested in them (it).“love” is an uncountable noun, so we should use “it” but not “them”.3. they would like to work outside rather than stay at home forhouseworks (housework).“housework” is an uncountable noun, it has not plural form.4. Thus, men were willing to do what their wifes (wives) did in the house…“wife” is not a regular noun, so its plural form should change “-fes” into “-ves”.6.4 Transfer at the discourse level“As early as Watters (1989) it was observed that Chinese speakers and writers organized their discourses in ways which presented interpretive difficulties forEnglish users (Mu, 2002:30). Discourses are larger units of language such as paragraphs and conversation. Transfer at the discourse level mainly refers to the coherence and discourse pattern errors.6.4.1 Coherence and cohesionAt discourse level coherence and cohesion is the most important foundation in writing. According to Halliday and Hasan, coherence and cohesion include reference, ellipsis, substitution and conjunction (Li Jianhua, 2007: 88). For Chinese students, there are some difficulties in this aspect. The following is an example.There are many activities in the university, academician have chance to join them.When reading such a sentence, we may try to find out what “academician” refers to. But the writer thinks he has made it clear.Another great negative transfer at discourse level for students is in the usage of conjunction. In Chinese when using conjunctions, one has to use a pair, such as “虽然…但是…”, “因为…所以...” in order to show clearly the logic relationship between clauses. But in English, there is no need to use a pair. Moreover, there is conjunctions omission between two relative sentences. The following are some examples.1. (Before) Going so far to the needy area, I should take my parents’ opinions into consideration.The sentence lacks a conjunction to connect the two parts.2. For that (Because) if you are dishonest…“For that” is a Chinglish translation, so we should use “because”.6.4.2 Discourse pattern errorsWhen developing an article, the native speakers attach importance to the theme of the article, so they usually give the top sentence directly. Then they develop the top sentence step by step logically (Li Jianhua, 2007: 92). Native speakers’thinking pattern is linear, while Chinese thinking pattern is circular. So when in writing, students like beating around the bush before they focus on the theme. The following is an example.When asked to write a composition “My Views of Campus Love”, some students violate the standard English usage and start their articles with the sentence “There are many sweethearts rambling intimately on campus every night while others have to press on with study.” While the native speakers of English prefer the direct developing of the top sentence “I would like to propose that campus love is bound to affect sweethearts’learning.”7. The causes of negative transfer7.1 Different languagesEvery language is a part of a culture. Language is the symbolic representation of a nation, comprising its historical and cultural backgrounds, its customs, and its ways of life and so on. It is hard to master every skill of a foreign language and it needs a long process. Many people consider that writing is more difficult than reading,listening and speaking. Writing is a complicated process, no matter what the language we use. Because English and Chinese have something different on grammar, syntax, etc. learners will look for the similarities when they learn foreign languages. But they don’t pay attention to the differences; as a result, they make mistakes, and the negative transfers occur.7.2 Different culturesCultures are different in customs, history, and art, etc. As a part of a culture, people’s different ways of life influence the languages of different nations. The misunderstanding of different cultures may cause embarrassing intercommunication. Many Chinese students are not familiar with foreign cultures and background, thus they always use the wrong expression and then cause negative transfers.7.3 Different mental concepts and logicLanguage and thought interact with each other. Language facilities thought. Through language, people perceive and understand the world. Through language, people express their inner feeling and emotions, and communicate with others mentally and emotionally. Language reflects people’s world views, modes of thinking as well as their psychic states. Therefore, people’s modes of thinking influence their modes of expression.Many of the negative transfer errors can be explained by thinking pattern differences between Chinese people and the westerners. Western thought assumes a direct relationship between mental concepts and concrete reality (Zhang Yanping, 2007: 53). English speakers discover truth by active searching and the application ofAristotelian modes of logic, with the belief that logic is the most essential in understanding the nature of things. In contrast, Chinese tend to depend on intuition in understanding the world. People brought up in Chinese culture are likely to synthesize parts and examine the whole (Li Jianhua, 2007: 93).Objectivity is predominantly the thinking pattern of the westerners. They always evaluate or describe something very objectively just as it really is. But Chinese are used to using beautiful modifiers and singing high praise for something with some exaggerations.8. Some solutions to remove negative transfer8.1 Enhancing students’ cultural awarenessLanguage learning involves not only linguistic rules, but also cultural conventions. The ignorance or confusion of cultural differences between Chinese and English-speaking countries results in errors at almost all levels. So enhancing students’cultural awareness is of great significance in English writing. Only when students realize the differences can they consciously promote their cultural understanding. Therefore, it is of vital importance for teachers to reinforce the input of cultural backgrounds and modes of thinking of the English native speakers. The cultural elements including English literature, customs, politics, religions, and ways of life and so on should be added in the curriculum. For example, analyzing to studentssome excellent articles written by native people may be a good way. Students should also be encouraged to read newspaper and magazines, watch films and play roles. 8.2 Reinforcing the contrastive analysisContrastive analysis is the most essential way to intercultural research, which is also a common way to learn (Gao Yuan, 2002: 2). English and Chinese still have similarities on every aspect. On the one hand, we should make full use of the positive transfer. On the other hand, there are more differences between English and Chinese. It is necessary for us to contrast and analyze them so that to avoid the interference. 8.3 Building up a good knowledge of English vocabulary and grammarWe can find that negative transfer causes a lot of mistakes both at the lexical level and the grammatical level, which greatly damage students’ writing. V ocabulary and grammar are the most basic elements in improving students’ writing competence. However, many Chinese students use English vocabulary and grammar in a wrong way: they remember English words by translating them into Chinese but neglect their usage in the context, the collocations etc.; they only memorize some grammatical rules but pay little attention to the words’ practical use. Consequently, students should build an integrated knowledge of English vocabulary and grammar. For the teachers, they should pay great attention to the practice of the vocabulary and grammar teachings or emphasize the minor problems during the teaching process.8.4 Teaching writing as a processWriting is a process which includes reading, thinking, and speaking. Reading is the most helpful way for developing writing skills (Zhou Zhaoxing, 2007: 138). They are two related language skills. Through reading, students learn how writers put sentences together and organize ideas. In addition, they acquire new words. Through writing, they will use what he has learned by reading. They also gains intensive practice in being logical. Thinking is an efficient way to develop writing. Teachers should encourage students to use some good English expressions that they have learned from the process of reading and try to help them get rid of the habit of thinking in Chinese. Thinking can also improve the organization of an article. Just in this procedure of thinking, students get some original ideas and create a logical organization of the article. After thinking, teachers can ask students to talk about their articles to each other. Talking is a procedure which is to turn the idea in their minds into reality. This procedure helps the idea become clearer and more mature. Through talking, students may be aware of some inappropriate things in their organizations. Then, in the last procedure of writing, students can easily write an article with the logical organization and appropriate expressions.8.5 Thinking in EnglishWhen required to write a composition, many students often think in Chinese and their writing seems more like a Chinese translation. So in order to produce idiomatic English writing, students must first learn to think in English.9. ConclusionFrom the above, we can see that negative transfer influence Chinese students’English writing in many aspects. For examples, collocation errors, misuse of words, improper voice and misuse of articles. Those problems are mainly caused by the influences of different cultures and languages. Chinese students consciously do the English writing in the Chinese mode of thinking and express themselves from the point of Chinese. Therefore the negative transfers occur.For this spot check, I cannot say the design is perfect. There are still some limitations which may twist my anticipated findings. For example, students may type the wrong words carelessly; some students have better understanding for the topics while others do not. I hope this brief survey has provided a beginning, and even a motivation to explore further.。