Language transfer 语言迁移.doc

Negative Transfer in Foreign Language Learning Abstract According to the language transfer theory, it is assumed that the learner’s mother tongue will positively or negatively affect one’s learning a foreign language. When there are differences between one’s mother tongue and target language, the mother tongue tends to interfere with the learning of the foreign language. This paper attempts to give a brief analysis of negative transfer in students’ pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and culture learning. It also discusses what pedagogical concerns the existence of negative transfer warrants and what learners can do to reduce the influence of negative transfer. Key words: Native language, Negative transfer, pedagogical implication 1. Introduction Language transfer has been an important issue in applied linguistics, second language acquisition and language learning. When language learners have been using their native language for many years, they are very likely to transfer those roles in their mother tongue into the foreign language that they are learning. That’s what we call negative transfer. Therefore, differences between the native language and the foreign language should be taken into consideration to find out what difficulties might be. At the same time, teachers as well as learners should come up with solutions to reduce the influence of negative transfer. 2. Defining negative transfer Language transfer refers to speakers or writers applying knowledge from their native language to a second language. When the relevant unit or structure of both languages is the same, linguistic interference can result in correct language production called positive transfer. However, that language interference is most often discussed as a source of errors known as negative transfer. Negative transfer occurs when speakers and writers transfer items and structures that are not the same in both languages. Within the theory of contrastive analysis, the greater the differences betwe