Onthecausesandstrategiesofthemajortenseerrorsinvocationalschoolstudents’Englishwriting

王玲玲

【Abstract】English writing has been increasingly important nowadays.Cultivating students written skills has become one of the most important tasks in vocational school English teaching.But，because of the lack of linguistic competence，effective vocabulary，and basic writing skills as well as the negative effects from mother tongue and cultural differences between China and western world，numerous kinds of mistakes occur in English writing.In view of this，the author found the most frequently-made mistake in students English writing，based on personal teaching practice and research，is the improper employment of English tenses，and the main error converges at the present perfect tense.

This thesis mainly analyzes the reasons and the possible solutions from two aspects：mother tongue transfer and tense confusion and ends up with the strategies of improving the writing abilities of the concerned students.

【Key Words】vocational school； English writing； mother tongue transfer； tense confusion； strategies

Ⅰ.Introduction

The function of language consists in communication.There is no doubt that writing，as a means of communication，is one of the most important ways to facilitate the function.The exchange between foreign countries and ours has been becoming more frequent than ever before.So in China，an increasing number of students try their utmost to study English well.However，they find it difficult to improve their writing skills.Hence，cultivating students written abilities is one of the most important tasks in vocational school English teaching.English writing can not only present English learners expressive abilities and ideation，but also reflect peoples comprehensive skills in using English.However，the lack of linguistic competence，effective vocabulary，and basic writing skills as well as the negative effects from mother tongue and cultural factors between China and western world makes writing in English a challenging task for the students.

Opinions from some previous scholars and writers on the main problems in English writing are as follows：firstly，the problem is subject ambiguity and structure illogicality.Its obvious that every essay has a theme，around which we do creative work.While the different cultures between Chinese and foreigners make English writing distinguished from native language writing.In Chinese essays，authors always talk about subplot and beat around the bush in order to serve and highlight the core subject.This writing style requires people to think and read between lines，while the basic qualities of English compositions require students to go straightly to the point.Students need to enrich and illuminate the writings based on the theme and topic.Some students translate straightly the Chinese materials into English，which will lead to structure illogicality.Secondly，students do not command large enough vocabulary and know syntactic structure well.It is difficult for most students to express their ideas exactly and correctly.They are lacking in linguistic competence，effective vocabulary，and basic writing skills.Thirdly，vocational school students，with different English levels and skills，are weak in English grammar，solecism，and tense confusion.They even do not understand what the references of past tense，present tense and perfect tense are，and have no idea how and when to use them properly.Lastly，negative effects from mother tongue and cultural factors between China and western world have impact on students writing.Under this circumstance，a number of mistakes occur in English writing，ie.Chinglish expressions account for a large proportion of errors in the works.For example，A：“The price is not expensive”[wrong].B：“The price is not high./ It is not expensive”[correct].It is obvious sentence A is from Chinese thinking mode.

According to personal teaching experience and questionnaire，the author has found that the main problem students frequently encounter in writing is about verb tense，and that the present perfect tense is always the main and the most difficult point.Therefore present perfect tense has been the difficulty in vocational school English grammar teaching.In practice，students confuse present perfect tense with other verb tenses，such as past tense，present tense，and continuous tense involuntarily.This kind of error is not only caused by different choices of diction under different cultures，but also by students less understanding on sentence structures.This thesis is designed to analyze the causes and strategies of the present perfect tense errors in vocational school students English writing from two aspects：mother tongue transfer and tense confusion to reduce the students errors and improve English writing skills.

Ⅱ.The causes for the major tense errors in vocational school students English writing

1.Mother tongue transfer

Chinese school students learn English on the basis of their Chinese.Hence，they would be affected by their mother tongue and knowledge.Also，most students study in the primary stage and their ability of using languages is limited.Therefore，they are often influenced by the negative transfer of Chinese.The influence becomes the main obstacle in students language study，especially in their compositions.

1）The definition of language transfer

Language transfer，or crossed-linguistic influence，is one of the key factors contributing to learners interlanguage.The term “transfer” is first employed by psychologists to refer to the process of automatic，uncontrolled and subconscious use of previous learned behavior in the attempt to produce new responses.They hold that the main impediment to learning is interference from the previous knowledge.Later linguists use the term “transfer” to refer to the influence imposed by a learners possessed linguistic knowledge and skills upon the subsequent learning of new linguistic knowledge and skills.Transfer usually can be classified as positive transfer and negative transfer.Positive transfer helps language learning when both native language and target language have the same form.It helps the learner and promotes the language learning.Oppositely，negative transfer，which is the interference in the use of a target -language rule，leads to an error or inappropriate form in the target language and impedes language learning.

2）The effect of negative transfer

Negative transfer，which imposes a negative influence on the use of a target-language rule，leads to an error or inappropriate form in the target language and impedes language learning in many fields，such as in phonetic，phonological，morphological，syntactic，semantic，and pragmatic aspects.Here，the author would illuminate the effects of negative transfer on foreign language study from two typical aspects：phonetic and phonological transfer and syntactic transfer.

a.Phonetic and phonological transfer

Phonetic transfer occurs when the learner tends to transfer similar sounds of the native language to those of the second language.Its known that English and Chinese belong to different phonetic systems，and there is no sound like[?]，[e]，[i]，[u]，[?]in Chinese sounds.Students pronounce[i]as “一”，and[u]as “烏”； duck[d?k]as dark[da：k]，much[m?t?]as march[ma：t?].When it comes to tone，cat，for example，refers to a kind of animal，no matter which tone it possesses，while in Chinese，the sound “mao” can denote many different meanings.

b.Syntactic transfer

Syntactic transfer involves the transference of syntactic structures，such as articles，word order，relative clauses，negation and so on.

Firstly：misuse of countable nouns and uncountable nouns occurs in students writings.Students often judge whether the word is a countable noun by Chinese thinking mode.For example，expressions such as a news，a chalk，a furniture，a information，a meat happen.

Secondly：misuse of the capital and lowercase occurs.In English，the initial，denoting countries，nations，weeks，months，proper nouns，and the word at the beginning of a sentence，should be capitalized，which is usually neglected by beginners and thus cause misunderstanding and ambiguity.In that March，John，though indisposed，visited mysterious China，busy Japan and age-old Turkey.（那年三月，約翰雖然身體不太好，還是訪問了神秘的中國，繁忙的日本和古老的土耳其）.If the sentence is changed into “In that march，john，though indisposed，visited mysterious china，busy japan and age-old turkey.” （在那次遠(yuǎn)征中，廁所雖然身體欠佳，還是拜訪了神秘的瓷器，忙碌的日本漆和古老的火雞）.

Thirdly，students dont know when articles，definite articles and indefinite articles should be used.For example，He told story.（drop the indefinite “a”）.You have to learn to help people.（drop the definite “the”）.

Lastly，word order in Chinese is distinguished from that in English.A topic in Chinese starts at the beginning of a sentence，but it can be or cannot be the subject in an English sentence.For example，the English equivalent for“夏天很難保存食物”，is “Its difficult to preserve food in summer”.“夏天”in Chinese is the topic.Another example is “He every day on foot go to school[wrong].” “He goes to school on foot every day[correct].”

2.Analysis of the main error types of present perfect tense

Tense confusion accounts for a larger proportion of students errors，which also shows the urgent need for students to have a good master of the structure of present perfect tense.The only difficulty lies in distinction of the context.To make it plain，students dont know when to use present perfect tense.In Chinese，there is no change on verb itself.Tense is reflected by time adverbs.For example，“曾經(jīng)”、“正在”、“已經(jīng)”、“將要”、“了”、“過”and so on are used to express time state.

In terms of present perfect tense，it has no corresponding syntactic structure in Chinese.Equivalent phenomenon between English and Chinese in syntactic inevitably impedes language acquisition and use.Affirmative form of present perfect tense means what you have done has an effect on the present； while the negative form indicates what you havent done or you havent accomplished has an effect on the present.Chinese students usually adopt Chinese thinking mode and partially think that affirmative form means “have done something”； while negative form means “havent done something”.For example，“But I havent been to Beijing.I hope I could travel to Beijing one day.” is replaced by “But I didnt go to Beijing.I hope I could travel to Beijing one day”.

Ⅲ.Strategies analysis

Firstly，Language is closely related to culture.During the process of language acquisition，teachers and students shouldnt ignore the foreign culture input and information output.In terms of mother tongue transfer，students have to learn to overcome the negative effects of negative transfer by reading more original books and watching original movies and programs so as to cultivate language sense.At the same time，more attention should be paid to the influence of positive transfer to accelerate English study.

Secondly，western thinking mode should be adopted in English study.As we all know，Chinese language emphasizes parataxis while English language lays more emphasis on hypotaxis.So Chinese sentences tend to seem loose，but they actually focus on one central idea.English sentences，on the contrary，should be linked together by conjunctions or transitional words.In Chinese essays，authors always talk about subplot to serve and highlight the core subject.This paper style requires people to think and read between the lines.While English compositions ask students to go straightly to the point.Students need to enrich and illuminate the writings based on the theme and topic.Therefore，English thinking mode can help students create effective works.

Thirdly，it is important to study hard and improve language competence.In usual study time，students have to enrich English vocabulary and reduce mistakes on words spellings，part of speech，verb tense and so on.In middle school students English writing，students should attach more importance to distinction of the usage of verb tense in proper contexts so as to cut down errors.

Lastly，teachers should help students to create foreign language study atmosphere.English learners should seize every opportunity to practice English by making the most use of classroom study，video tape and multimedia teaching facility as well as attending English speeches，English parties，special reports，English corner as more as you can.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

This paper first states the possible causes of the major tense errors in vocational school students English writing from the four aspects of language acquisition，mother tongue transfer，different cultural factors and tense confusion.Then it analyzes the two main categories of and reasons for present perfect tense errors in vocational students English writing.Finally，suggestions about error correction and English teaching are put forward.In English study，teachers and students shouldnt ignore the importance of foreign culture input and improvement of language competence.Teachers should help students to cultivate western thinking mode and create foreign language study atmosphere to facilitate students English study.

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