Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue in Chinese College Students’ Use of Articles in English Writing_英语论文

摘要

语言迁移对二语习得既有消极作用，也有积极作用。在语言迁移的作用下，对母语中缺失冠词系统的中国学习者来说，冠词习得成为一道难题。我国近年来已开展英语冠词习得研究，但有关语言迁移对冠词使用造成的影响的研究仍比较少见。本研究旨在利用中国大学生英语书面语语料库，随机挑选48篇英语专业和非英语专业学生的作文，对中国大学生英语写作中冠词使用的情况进行分析，并探讨母语负迁移对冠词误用的影响。

研究结果表明冠词误用分为三类，分别是冠词缺失、冠词冗余和冠词混用。作者通过进一步分析发现，这三类冠词误用都可能受到母语负迁移的影响。通过总结研究结果，本文提出相关的教学建议，以提高学生冠词使用的正确率。

关键词：冠词习得  中国大学生  英语写作  负迁移

Abstract

Language transfer has both negative and positive impacts on second language acquisition. Influenced by language transfer, the acquisition of articles becomes a daunting challenge for Chinese learners due to the lack of the article system in their mother tongue. In recent years, researches on the acquisition of English articles have been carried out in China, but there are few studies on the influence of language transfer on the use of articles. This study aims to analyze Chinese college students’ use of articles in English writing and probe into negative transfer of mother tongue on the misuse of articles by randomly selecting 48 compositions from English majors and non-English majors in Spoken and Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners 2.0 (SWECCL 2.0).

The results of the study indicate that the misuse of articles can be divided into three types: omission of articles, oversuppliance of articles and article confusion. After further analysis, it may be concluded that these three types of article misuse are affected by the negative transfer of mother tongue. By summing up the research results, the author puts forward some relevant suggestions for teaching to improve students’ accuracy rate of article use.

Key words: article acquisition  Chinese college students  English writing  negative transfer

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1  Definitions of Article 1

1.2  Research Purpose 1

1.3  Research Methodology 2

1.4  Thesis Organization 2

Chapter Two  Literature Review 4  

2.1  Foreign Studies on Negative Transfer in English Writing 4

2.2  Domestic Studies on Negative Transfer in English Writing 5

2.3  Foreign Studies on the Learning of English Articles 6

2.4  Domestic Studies on the Learning of English Articles 7

Chapter Three  Theoretical Framework 9

3.1  Definitions of Language Transfer 9

3.2  Types of Language Transfer 9

Chapter Four  Research Design 11

4.1  Research Questions 11

4.2  Instruments 11

4.3  Procedures 12

Chapter Five  Results and Discussion 13

5.1  Introduction 13

5.2  Chinese College Students’ Use of Articles in English Writing 14

5.2.1 Omission of Articles 14

5.2.2 Oversuppliance of Articles 15

5.2.3 Article Confusion 15

5.3  Discussion 16

5.3.1 Omission of Articles 16

5.3.2 Oversuppliance of Articles 17

5.3.3 Article Confusion 18

Chapter Six  Conclusion 20

6.1  Findings 20

6.2  Implications 20

6.3  Limitations 21

Bibliography

Acknowledgements