非英语专业学生英语口语母语迁移研究

On Non-English Majors Mother Tongue Transfer in Spoken English非英语专业学生英语口语母语迁移研究 摘要摘 要口语是人与人交流最直接最有效的方式之一。随着我国大学英语教学改革的逐步深入，英语口语越来越引起语言研究者和大学英语教师的重视。但是相比较阅读与写作，口语仍然是大多数非英语专业学生较薄弱的一个环节。本研究旨在通过对母语迁移理论的深入分析，正确认识母语对非英语专业学生英语口语的影响；同时为了尽量减少母语负迁移对大学英语口语教学以及非英语专业大学生口语学习的影响，本文提出了一些有益的启示。在二语习得过程中，母语迁移是一种无法避免的现象。近年来，国内外学者对大学英语教学领域中的母语迁移研究越来越多，角度也各不相同。但是关于母语迁移对非英语专业学生英语口语影响的研究并不多见。本文基于语言迁移相关理论，主要是对比分析、错误分析和中介语理论，以100名大学非英语专业二年级学生为实验对象，分析了英语口语过程中出现错误的原因和语言范畴。他们要完成一个口语测试，回答一份调查问卷，作者还对一些学生进行访谈。经过对实验数据的分析和调查，作者发现学生在说英语的过程中出现的口语错误主要受语言负迁移和文化负迁移的影响。语言负迁移带来的口语错误主要体现在语音、词汇、句法和语用等方面，本文将重点分析其中的词汇、句法和语用三方面。另外，数据分析表明母语迁移与性别是相关的，男生和女生受母语影响程度不同，男生更容易受母语影响。实验还显示大多数非英语专业大学生在说英语的过程中最大的困难是词汇量不足，难以用英语表达他们的思想。本文分为六章：第一章是引言，简要介绍了本文的研究背景和研究意义；第二章是文献综述，回顾了语言学领域中与语言迁移的相关理论和研究成果，阐述了语言迁移理论，迁移种类及迁移发展，具体介绍了对比分析、错误分析和中介语理论；第三章介绍了本文的研究方法及研究过程；第四章定性分析了学生英语口语过程中出现的错误；第五章阐述了本研究对大学生英语口语学习和大学英语口语教学带来的有益启示；第六章是对整篇论文主要内容的简要总结，并指出了局限性。关键词母语迁移对比分析错误分析英语口语错误III AbstractAbstractSpoken language is one of the most direct and efficient communication means. Asnowadays college English teaching reform has attracted considerable attention in China,English language researchers and English teachers have also attached importance to theteaching of spoken English. However, to peoples disappointment, most Chinese collegestudents especially non-English majors cant speak fluent and standard English after theirgraduation from universities. The present study not only helps us to have a betterunderstanding of mother tongue transfer in spoken English, but also mentions somecountermeasures aiming to reduce the negative transfer from our mother tongue, hoping thattransfer errors can be diminished to some degrees in English speaking and also hasimplications for college spoken English learning and teaching.Mother tongue transfer is an inevitable phenomenon in the field of Second LanguageAcquisition. Language transfer comprises positive transfer which facilitates language learningand negative transfer which hinders language learning and leads to errors. In recent years, theresearchers home and abroad have done great work on mother tongue transfer in collegeEnglish teaching from various perspectives. Whereas few have done about non-Englishmajors spoken English. The theories related to mother tongue transfer, including contrastiveanalysis, error analysis and interlanguage are illustrated firstly. Then the text errors areanalyzed in linguistic categories and 100 sophomores of non-English majors participate in thisstudy. They are asked to have an oral task and answer a questionnaire. An interview is alsoconducted. The results of the study show that mother tongue transfer plays an important rolein determining to what extent a second language learner can attain in speaking competence.Mother tongue transfer can occur both linguistically and culturally. In this thesis, the commonerrors that due to the negative transfer of native language in the process of speaking inEnglish are collected and classified into the lexical level, the syntactic level and the pragmaticlevel, hoping to help the Chinese students to know their errors and the causes of their errorsmore consciously. Whats more, its found that male students rely more on mother tongue thanI Abstractfemale students. For the most non-English majors, the main problem in spoken English is toexpress ideas in English for the lack of vocabulary.This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the wholethesis describing the background, significance and purpose of the study. Chapter 2 is aliterature review on relevant theories and researches concerning transfer, laying a solidtheoretical foundation for the research. Chapter 3 is a research design on negative transfer, inwhich the research questions, subjects, procedures and data collection are stated. Chapter 4reports the results gained from the study and analysis, the occurrence of mother tongue, theinfluence of spoken English proficiency on Chinese and the effects of Chinese use in spokenEnglish. Then in Chapter 5 the author states the pedagogical implications of the research forspoken English learning and teaching. Finally, Chapter 6 concludes the whole thesis andpoints out the limitations.Key wordsmother tongue transferspoken Englishcontrastive analysiserror analysiserrorsII Chapter 1IntroductionChapter 1Introduction1.1 Background of the StudyWith the entry into WTO and the operation of 2008 Olympics by China, English learninghas enjoyed widespread popularity throughout China. Of the five skills in English listening,speaking, reading, writing and translating, speaking is of top importance as one of the mostefficient tools of communication.Spoken English learning could be considered as the most difficult step during the processof English learning. So the variance between the time the students spend and effect they gainleads to awkward situation which attracts more attention of teachers and students. However,the effect of English learning seems far from satisfying, since we have learned it for morethan ten years from elementary school to university. Some people consider exam-orientededucational system should be responsible for it. Others argue that traditional teaching methodsmust be blamed for it. Therefore college English teachers tried to adopt communicativeteaching approach in their classrooms, but ended up with little effect. Generally, students startto learn English at the beginning of junior middle school. While, after graduation fromcolleges and universities, many of them cannot use English to communicate efficiently, not tomention spoken English influency. Even though in the last decade English language teachingin China has undergone continuous changes, there are still problems to be solved, amongwhich is failure of spoken English.In the last two decades, college English learning and teaching for non-English majors inChinese universities has made immense progress. Meanwhile, the students overall Englishproficiency has been greatly improved, especially in the learning and teaching of reading.Chinese students have improved their reading competence to a relatively high level. Whereas,the students spoken English still lags behind, which confuses and worries Chinese collegeEnglish teachers. Most of the non-English majors still remain at the starting point inexpressing themselves in the oral way, although, they have found their way into a great step1 河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文further in reading competence. Consequently, an increasing number of English teachers in thecolleges and universities put more emphasis on developing the skills of students spokenEnglish. However, there remain many factors for the ineffective learning and teaching ofspoken English it Chinese universities. And among those factors, the most distinguished onesare the negative transfer or interference of the first language (L1).Language transfer has been a key issue in applied linguistics. Research on the role of L1has had a long history in the process of second language acquisition (SLA) research. In thecourse of second language (L2) speaking, as to the influence of L1, there are few researches.Olshtain and Cohen found that learners usually returned to their L1 when expressingthemselves in spoken English. Generally speaking, there are three kinds of style of them: firstone is “L2 thinking and L2 talking”; the second one is “L1 thinking and L2 talking translatedfrom the L1 thinking”; and the last one is “L1 thinking and L2 talking”. In these three kindsof style, the latter two kinds, in which L1 are involved, are the most (about 60).Nevertheless, the questions such as the position of Chinese in the course of English speaking,and the effect brought by Chinese in English speaking course remain unanswered. Therefore,studies are needed to explore Chinese use in the English speaking course. We hope todescribe its occurrence, identify its effect and delimitate its negative transfer in Englishspeaking course.1.2 Significance and Purpose of the StudyThe present study investigates the use of our mother tongue in the process of Englishspeaking for the purposes of depicting the language errors arising in the English speakingprocess, examining the reasons for the occurrences of the errors in English speaking andexploring whether genders are related with the amount of L1 use in L2 speaking andunderstanding the effects of L1 in L2 speaking.For the above purposes, the study examines L1 use in the course of L2 speaking from adynamic perspective. In order to gain the general amount of L1 use and the occurrence of theerrors in the course of L2 speaking, the study records the whole processes in differentspeaking activities and counts up the statistical data. In order to find out how negative transfer2 Chapter 1Introductionaffects the non-English majors in their English speaking course, it specifies various functionsChinese performs in different speaking activities and determines the functions of L1 use onvarious aspects of speaking.Furthermore, the present study brings some strategies aiming to reduce the negativetransfer from our mother tongue, hoping that transfer errors can be diminished to some extentin English speaking and also has some implications for college spoken English teaching andlearning.1.3 Organization of the ThesisThis thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter 1 introduces to the whole thesis brieflydescribing the background significance and purpose of the study. Chapter 2 is a literaturereview on relevant theories and researches concerning negative transfer, laying a solidtheoretical foundation for the research. Chapter 3 is a research design concerning negativetransfer of native language, and the objectives, subjects, procedures and data collection arestated in this chapter. Chapter 4 reports the results gained from the study and analysis, theoccurrence of mother tongue, the influence of spoken English proficiency on Chinese and theeffects of Chinese use in spoken English. Then in Chapter 5 the author states the pedagogicalimplications of the research for spoken English learning and teaching. Finally, Chapter 6draws a conclusion of the whole thesis and points out the limitations.3 河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文Chapter 2Literature Review2.1 Definition of Language Transfer“Transfer” is derived from the Latin word “transferre”, which means “to carry”, “tobear” or “to print, impress or otherwise copy (as a drawing or engraved design) from onesurface to another”.1P1-29 “Technology transfer”, for instance, means the transfer orcarry-over of technology from one owner to another. Transfer Theory from psychologicalperspective lays the solid foundation for the study of language transfer. Psychologists makethe definition of “transfer” as a kind of learning activities by which learners previouscommand knowledge about the learning skills will affect the consequence of their learning ortraining behavior in the later time.A variety of researches have identified the significance of language transfer in theprocess of second language learning and the notion of language transfer has already wonuniversal acceptance in the field of second language acquisition study. “The origins of theterm go back to Behaviorism and its view that the first / native language habits influence theacquisition of the second / foreign language habits. Although it was later discredited, thenotion of transfer has been revived again and remains one of the most fundamental in L2acquisition research.” 3 P26-28 Although a number of scholars have been conducting theresearch of language transfer for a long period of time, it remains so controversial a definitionthat different schools of linguists hold different opinions on it. Kellerman holds that languagetransfer means “those processes that lead to the implication to the incorporation of elementsfrom one language into another”.4 P26-28 While Yip considers that “transfer is a process wherethe learner directly translates the first language structure into the second language context”.5While as far as Odlin is concerned, language transfer referring to “the influence resulting fromsimilarities and differences between the target and any other language that has beenpreviously (and perhaps perfectly) acquired”.6 That is to say, language transfer is a sort ofcross-linguistic influence, which is a more brief and precise definition, that has gained4 Chapter 2 Literature Reviewpopularity among linguists widely.In general, we can divide the development of our attitude to language transfer into threestages: approval and application; criticism and negligence; and rediscovery andreevaluation.7 “Language transfer was often considered the most crucial element” in thestudy of second language acquisition and language teaching in the 1950s and 1960s.Linguists hold the opinion that the similarities between the native language and the targetlanguage can facilitate the second language learning while the differences will hinder theprocess. By contrast of first and second language, the learners errors and difficulties could bepredicted.8In late 1960s and 1970s, language transfer got through the criticism and even neglect.Lados hypothesis was subject to much controversy in that later research findings proved it tobe imperfect. It was found that only some of the errors made by the second language learnerswere caused by language transfer and that not all the errors predicted in the learnerslanguage output through the contrast between the first language and the second language.Some scholars attempt to “deny the existence of language transfer in their enthusiasm forUG-oriented explanations”.9However, linguists have presented a revived interest in the study of language transfersince the 1980s. And accordingly, a variety of research thesis and dissertation-based workshave poured out to analyze the impact of native language on the second language acquisition,among which the most influential ones are “Second Language Learning, Contrastive Analysis,Error Analysis and Related Aspects” edited by Robinett and Schachter, “Cross-linguisticInfluence in Second Language Acquisition” edited by Kellerman and Smith, “LanguageTransfer” by Odlin, “Rediscovering Interlanguage” by Selinker, “Interlanguage and Learnability from Chinese to English” by Yip, to name only a little. These works present fromdifferent aspects the effect of first language on second language acquisition, including boththe positive and the negative effects. No matter what attitudes they hold, however, linguistshave reached an agreement that it is no denying that language transfer occupies an importantplace in SLA.5 河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文2.2 Manifestations of Language TransferLanguage transfer manifests itself in the learners language, which can be lexical,semantic, syntactic, or instances of framing transfer in which both the meaning and thestructure of an utterance exhibit cross-linguistic influence. Traditionally, the research oflanguage transfer focused on the errors that learners produce. Errors can be regarded as one ofthe manifestations of language transfer in one aspect, but in effect, it is possible to identifymany other forms of manifestations of language transfer, of which the following forms ofmanifestation are to be introduced respectively: interference, facilitation, avoidance, andover-use.InterferenceBased on a rigorous step-by-step comparison of the first and second language, linguistsfind the errors in the learners language which cover the area of phonology, grammar, writingsystem, and culture. Early linguists held that the differences existing between the nativelanguage and the target language contribute to the negative influence, that is, the interferencein second language acquisition. The differences between L1 and L2, according to the linguistsin favor of interference, will cause the difficulties and hinder the progress of the L2 learners,while the key to degrees of difficulty lies in the comparison between the native and theforeign language.FacilitationSome linguists such as Hodes and Hudelson supported the universality of literacydevelopment in different languages. They hold that when there exist more similarities thandifferences between the native language and the target, the learners L1 can facilitate L2learning. Over the past 30 years, there have been consistent researches which point out theimportance of native language literacy in the development of second language literacy. Thetransfer of literacy skills from one language to another is made possible due to the universalaspects of literacy. Concepts and skills in literacy in one language can only transfer toanother when they have been completely learned. Cummins calls this “the thresholdhypothesis” and asserts that native language literacy can only transfer to a second language6 Chapter 2 Literature Reviewwhen students have reached a critical threshold in their native language.AvoidanceThe differences between their native language and the target language can frequentlyinduce errors; learners therefore avoid using some linguistic structures they feel difficult. Insuch cases, the effects of the native language lies not in what learners do, that is the errorsthat they make, but in what they not do, namely, the avoidance of the difficult ones. A goodresearch of avoidance was conducted by Schachter, who, through a study on the relativeclause produced by the EFL learners from some different countries, investigated theavoidance in English from Japanese learners and Chinese learners. 10P205-214 The figures inthe following chart present the results of her research. (Table 1)Error0Correct17459Total17464Percentage of ErrorsAmericanJapaneseChineseArab058968771220253144124132155176PersianTable 1: Relative clause production in five languagesThe figures in the table show that the speakers of Arab and Persian did not use relativeclauses as precise as Japanese and Chinese speakers did. On closer inspection, however, wecan notice that the frequency of relative clauses used by Chinese and Japan learners wasmuch less than Persian and Arab learners. Schachter attributes the sources