Negative Transfer of L1 on English Grammar Learning in SLA

馬秀琳

【Abstract】At present，many scholars pay more attention to the positive transfer of native language on the English learning，while ignoring the negative transfer of L1 on English grammar learning.Therefore native transfer of L1 often appears on English grammar learning.This paper aims to point out that the negative transfer of L1 has a profound and vast influence on the English grammar learning，to find out the countermeasures to reduce the influence of negative transfer of L1 and finally to bring the benefits to the following relative studies.

【Key Words】native language； English grammar learning； negative transfer； disparity

1.Introduction

Language transfer，which linguists have paid attention to，plays a significant role in theory and research of second language acquisition，and is closely linked with English learners English learning.Although language transfer has been studied for a long time，it is difficult to give its definition for the sake of controversy among linguists.Positive transfer，which plays a promoting role，appears when the rules of native language and the target language are the same or similar to each other.Negative transfer means that native language interference accounts for erroneous production of L2 because of cross-linguistic differences.

2.The Negative Transfer on Grammar Learning of English

Articles always occur in English，while in Chinese，there is no article system.So the number of errors accompanied with articles is not a surprise to us.Zero article usage or over-use of the definite article “the” co-exist in the compositions by learners of article-absent language.When mentioned single form of general countable nouns，a smaller number of students forgot to add “a” or “an”，e.g.“form （a） good habit”.

In English，the plural morpheme is often shown by adding –s or -es to the end of a word，for example，cat-cats.In fact，it is a little bit difficult for the Chinese students to tell out which noun belongs to countable one and which is uncountable.Besides，the verbs in English also have different forms in singular and plural by adding –s or -es in the third person singular.

3.The Countermeasures to Reduce Negative Transfer on English Grammar Learning

The theory or contrastive analysis shortened by CA is primarily elaborated in Linguistics Across Culture written by Robert Lado which includes its contents，theoretical basis and methods of analyzing.The true sense of CA contains： （1） To contrast native language with target language.（2） Based on the disparities of the two language，some difficulties and mistakes which will be made can be predicted.（3） Through making use of difficulties and mistakes that was predicted，teachers will know what should be specially handled during the course of teaching.（4）Students can take advantage of some methods including repeating and practice to reduce even overcome negative transfer.

As we know，many students often acquire English vocabulary and grammar in a wrong way so that they may feel hard or difficult to remember words even are not willing to study hard due to unproductively outcome.So students need to expand their vocabulary，examine what he or she did carefully to make sure the authentic words will be spoken or written.Meanwhile，students need to strengthen grammar practicing and get rid of limitation of native language.It is better for teachers to provide a situation and associate the new words and phrases with the context of the text or with the familiar context of the students life.This can help students build an integrated knowledge of English vocabulary and grammar instead of merely remembering the semantic equivalents and grammatical rules.

4.Conclusion

In the process of English grammar learning，students should overcome the thinking pattern of native language，actively grasp the opportunity of language communication，cultivate their consciousness of language and culture，master the rules of transfer consciously and try their best to avoid the impact of native language.

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