成绩西南大学本科生课程论文论文题目：The Influence of LanguageTransfer to English Study课程名称：第二语言习得任课教师：林文治专业：英语师范班级：英师1014学号：罗雪梅姓名：2220103100114022013年12月4日西南大学外国语学院制Abstract: Language transfer has a great influence to learning English for Chinese students . This paper focus on the influence of positive transfer and negative transfer between English and Chinese by analyzing three aspects: sound, vocabulary and grammar. The purpose of the paper is to promote the positive transfer and conquer the negative transfer on the basis of analogical analysis, and finally improve English learning.Key words: language transfer; positive transfer; negative transfer; English learning1.Introduction1.1 Definition of language transferThe origins of the term “transfer”go back to Behaviorism and its view is that the mother tongue habits influence learning of the foreign language habits. Although it was later discredited, the notion of transfer has been revived again and remains one of the most fundamental in foreign language acquisition research. Transfer in terminology of foreign language research has been giving rise to much controversy. Odlin(2001) assumed that transfer is not 1) A consequence of habit form action; 2) Interference; 3) A falling back on the mother tongue. And transfer is not always mother tongue influence. He offers the working of substratum transfer as a basis for his own thoughtful treatment of such influence: transfer is the influence resulting from similarities and differences between one language and any other language that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired. This working definition, although somewhat vague, provides an adequate basis for the materials to be deserved discussion.Language transfer is also called cross linguistic influence. Kellerman and Sharwood(1986) argued that a superordinate term that is theory-neutral is needed and suggest cross linguistic influence. And it is one of the key factors contributing to the learner’s interlanguage. According to Odlin(1989) , transfer is the influence resulting from similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously acquired. Krashen(1983) views transfer as padding, the result of falling back on old knowledge when new knowledge is lacking. Corder(1983) holds that transfer is primarily a communication strategy, or borrowing, which is a performance phenomenon, not a learning process. Jarvis(2000) identifies three criterion for identifying transfer (1) inter-group homogeneity, (2)inter-group heterogeneity and (3)similarities between the native language and inter-language performance.1.2 Classification of language transferThe notion of transfer as above- mentioned is closed related to the behaviorist theories and in 1950’s Lado introduced this term into the field of second language learning. They assume that learners tend to transfer the characteristics of their native languages and cultures into the foreign languages and cultures that they are learning. Therefore, the learning of a second language was seen as rather an increase of a behavioral repertoire. Learning another language is in fact learning a set of alternatives for some sub-set of the rules of the language they already know. Accordingly, similarities between L1 and L2 are believed to facilitate the learning of L2. Facilitation of this kind is called positive transfer. However, the other type is negative transfer which is regarded as the cause to errors for learners when they learn a foreign language. Negative transfer means that the differences between L1 and L2 cause learning difficulty and result in making errors. Selinker once said that the errors were the result of the interference frommother tongue. Negative transfer is considered to be responsible for error occurrences in foreign language learning. Then, Richards ( 2000 ) evidenced that negative transfer of strategies was but partially responsible for the learners' errors. Since then, it seems that negative transfer shall be avoided no matter in learning or in teaching.1.3 Three periods of language transferGenerally, the study of language transfer has experienced three periods: behaviorist, mentalist and cognitive period. In the 1950s, transfer in behaviorist accounts was seen as a impediment. In the late 1960s, under the influence of Chomsky’s Universal Grammar, its importance waned while learner’s errors were seen not as evidence of language transfer but rather of “the creative construction process”. Some researchers virtually denied the existence of transfer. From 1970s, a more balanced perspective has emerged in which the role of transfer is acknowledged. Mother’s tongue’s transfer in English language teaching has been emphasized and studied since then. But there are two distinctive opinions. Some linguistic researchers hold that there is unnecessary to use mother tongue in English teaching in order to reduce the errors that caused by mother tongue negative transfer while others argue that mother tongue in English language teaching is helpful to learners in English language mastering. Two studies of relative clauses illustrate how transfer can have a facilitative effect by Gass and Selinker (1983). In this paper, the author agree to the later opinion. Mother tongue in English language teaching is beneficial if teachers could help students promote positive transfer and conquer negative transfer.nguage Transfer in English LearningIn practice, attention is almost exclusively directed to the differences of L1 and L2 today because negative transfer is more noticeable than positive transfer. The positive transfer is ignored by many linguists. But the truth is there are many similarities between the two languages. It is easy to find that a person who can speak English fluently must speak Chinese well. The similarities can stimulate the positive transfer from L1 to L2. 2.1 Positive transfer in English learningGenerally speaking, the more similarities there are between two languages, the more possibilities of positive transfer happen. Similarities between English and Chinese do exist in speech sound, vocabulary and grammar. So it is possible and helpful to make use of those similarities to facilitate our English teaching and promote students learning.2.1.1 Positive transfer in speech soundsChinese students have no difficulty in pronouncing phonemes like /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /g/, /k/, /h/ and /f/ as we have sounds in Chinese which are articulate almost in the same manner: b, p, d, t, g, k, h, f.2.1.2 Positive transfer in vocabularyChinese and English have the same word-formation: compound. For example, the English word “goldfish” and Chinese word “金鱼” have the same meaning and same structure. They are both consisted of the same structure: adjective of color+object.2.1.3 Positive transfer in grammarA lot of grammar similarities between English and Chinese make it possible for students to transfer positively some Chinese features into learning English. For example, the following five basic English sentence patterns are almost structurally the same as the Chinese sentences.(1) S+link-v+Predicative.I am a student.我是一名学生。