Empirical Study in Negative First Language Transfer

邱達(dá)希

【Abstract】The circumstance of learnt bahaviour which is carried from one language to another is considered as language transfer（Richards & Schmidt，2002）.As Chinese and English are from different language families，their language structure and cultural values are distinguishable from each other（Wang，2001）.This paper will go into further detail in developing a reflection on empirical data regarding the negative effects of first language transfer from the aspects of syntax，lexicon and discourse.These are the areas considered to cause the problems experienced by Chinese learners' in their attempts at writing.Bilingual instances will also be provided as well to demonstrate the effect that first language transfer has on Chinese language learners accuracy and proficiency.

【Key words】language transfer；Syntactic transfer；Lexical transfor；Discourse transfer

1.Introduction

Learnt bahaviour which is carried from one language to another is considered as language transfer（Richards & Schmidt，2002）.As Chinese and English are from different language families，their language structure and cultural values are distinguishable from each other（Wang，2001）.In this case，the negative transfer from the first language is more significant than any positive transfer；negative transfer in this case can be a result of phonological，lexical，syntactical，and semantic factors coupled with that of concept and cultures（Wang，2010）.Su（1996，as cited in Li & Chen，2006）supports this claim as his research shows 51% of the errors that Chinese-speaking learners make during English learning are from the interference of their first language.This paper will focus on the analysis of empirical study on how the three aspects of writing in the learners first language，syntax，lexicon and discourse，transfer and interfere with their second language learning.

2.Syntactic transfer

The basic sentence structure of Chinese and English follows "subject + verb + object".However，Chinese secondary students may make some errors during writing as there are some main differences between Chinese and English in Syntax.

The difference in the subjects of Chinese and English can be one of the main cause negative transfer of the first language.According to Li & Thompson（1981），language can be divided into four categories in terms of the usage of subject and topic，subject-prominent，topic-prominent，neither subject-prominent nor topic-prominent and both subject-prominent and topic-prominent.English is a subject-prominent language，there should be a subject in each sentence；yet Chinese is a topic-prominent language，the subject can be omitted（Bai & Li，2008）.As Xu（2008）suggests，English focuses on subjects to emphasize the relationship between subjects and objects，however，topics are more important than subjects in Chinese as the contexts should be emphasized.

For example，

* If no money，he cannot do anything.

如果沒有錢，他沒法做任何事。

Rú guǒ méi yǒu qián，tā méi fǎ zuò rèn hé shì

Literal meaning：如果-if 沒有-no 錢-money，他-he 沒-no 沒way 做do 任何every 事thing.

This is a common error that Chinese secondary English learners may make because of their first language as a subject after ‘if is needed in this sentence.The correct sentence should be 'If he has no money，he cannot do anything'.

The disagreement of structures in Chinese is a cause for another negative instance of negative transfer during second language learning.The categories of 'number'，'person'，'tense'，and 'voice' need to follow the structure of agreement in English（Yule，2010）.Such as，Peter loves his two dogs.The verb 'loves' is in "agreement with" the person in this sentence，as 'peter' is a third person singular.The form of the noun 'dogs' has to be plural in terms of the agreement of the number 'two' in the sentence.Also，because it is present tense，the form of 'love' should be 'loves' instead of 'loved' or 'loving'.However，words do not need to be changed in terms of the different number，person，tense or voice in Chinese.Hence，the error that Chinese students may make is：

* Peter love his two dog.

皮特愛他的兩只狗。

Pí tè ài tā de liǎng zhī gǒu

Literal meaning：皮特-Peter 愛-love 他的-his 兩只-two 狗-dog.

The error is caused by the negative transfer of the learners first language，because there is no agreement between number，person，tense or voice with regards to the words in Chinese（Zhao，2008）.The correct sentence should be ‘Peter loves his two dogs.

Errors of tenses in English can also be seen as a result of the negative transfer of Chinese for students in secondary school（Hu & Wang，1996）.As Hu & Wang（1996）further states，in Chinese，to express different time periods，adverbs are used to indicate the tense in the sentences instead of changing the form of verbs.For example：

*Yesterday，I have been to school already.

我昨天已經(jīng)去了學(xué)校。

Wǒ zuótiān yǐjīng qù le xuéxiào

Literal meaning：我-I 昨天-yesterday 已經(jīng)-already 去了-go 學(xué)校-school.

已經(jīng)'（Yǐ jīng，already）is used as adverbial with '了'（le），a function word with no specific meaning to express something happen in the past.However，because of the negative transfer of Chinese，the learners may misuse the structures of past tense and perfect past tense.The correct answer should be 'I have been to school already' or 'I went to school yesterday' depends on the context.

According to Fan（2007），one of the reasons that may cause first language negative transfer is the different word order in Chinese and English.Although declarative sentences in Chinese and English follows "SVO"（subject + verb + object）structure，the different word order in other categories of sentences may cause negative transfer（Fan，2007）.For example：

*You are reading now？

你在看書嗎？

Nǐ zài kàn shū ma？

Literal meaning：你-You 在-are 看書-reading？

It is a question sentence，so the verb "are" should be before the subject "you" to express the question.Hence，the correct word order must be "Are you reading now？".However，this is a common error for Chinese secondary students as in Chinese it is not necessary to change the word order.They only need to use a function word "嗎（ma）" at the end of the sentence then the sentence will become a question sentence（Gua，2005）.

3.2 Lexicon Transfer

Most English words can be found to have the same meanings in Chinese；however，the lexicon in Chinese and English cannot be matched one to one.Due to the different words meaning and usages in English，lexical transfer is one of the main reasons that Chinese English learners find English writing is difficult to be improved（Tang，2009）.

Mistaking the different categories of use of words can be viewed as a negative transfer during English learning.In Chinese，the same category of words can have different grammatical functions，as verbs can be used as nouns，and adjectives can be used as verbs without any changes（Halliday & Martin，1994）.However，there are eight common parts of speech in English，noun，pronoun，adjective，verb，adverb，preposition，conjunction and interjection，and they have different grammatical functions in English（Vogel & Comrie，2000）.However，due to there being no derivational morphemes，which can change the category of words in Chinese as English does，Chinese secondary learners may transfer this feature of Chinese into English writing and misusing the parts of speech.For example：

*Please careful when you are driving my car.

請小心開我的車。

Qǐng xiǎo xīn kāi wǒ de jū

Literal meaning：請-Please 小心-careful 開-drive 我的-my 車-car.

In Chinese，小心（xiǎo xīn）means 'careful'，and it can be used as an adjective and an adverb.However，'Careful' in English is an adjective，but it is used with a verb 'drive'，the correct category of it should be adverb，'carefully'.Hence，the correct sentence should be ‘Please be careful when you are driving my car.

According to Odlin（1989），one of the error categories with regards to negative transfer is lexical misinterpretation.Chinese secondary school learners may misinterpret the word usages by the word meanings of their first language.Both Chinese and English include synonym，antonym and polysemy which refers to one word having different meanings（Yule，2010）.Even though the translation of some words is the same both in Chinese and English，their usages are different.The example of an error caused by the negative transfer of first language can be：

*My sister is putting on a red coat today.

我姐姐今天穿著紅外套。

Wǒ jie jie jīn tiān chuān zhuó hóng wài tào

Literal meaning：我的-My 姐姐-sister 今天-today 穿-wear 紅色-red 外套-coat.

'Put on' in English indicates the action of clothing someone with something and 'wear' means the status that the person has on him or her as covering（Thefreedictionary，2011）.However，the meaning of 'put on' and 'wear' in Chinese is the same，it may cause negative transfer and Chinese English learners may make the error by misinterpreting them.The correct sentence should be ‘My sister is wearing a red coat today.

Due to lexical transfer of the first language，learners may make mistakes regarding collocations. According to Richards and Schmidt（2002，p.87），collocation refers to “the restrictions on how words can be used together”.The uses of collocation in Chinese is different from English，as Chen（2003）states，due to the influences of Chinese collocation，the study of collocation in English is one of the most difficult parts for Chinese secondary students.A common error in Chinese secondary learners' writing is about describing price（Dong & Han，2009）：

*The price of houses is very expensive in China.

在中國，房子的價(jià)格很貴。

Zài zhōngguó，fángzi de jiàgé hěn guì

Literal meaning：在-In 中國-China，房子的-house's 價(jià)格-price 非常-very 貴-expensive.

The reason why Chinese English learners make this error is due to negative transfer from Chinese，價(jià)格（Jià gé，price）can be described as 便宜（pián yi，cheap），貴（guì，expensive），高（gāo，high），低（dī，low）.However，in English，‘high and ‘low is used to describe price，but not ‘cheap and ‘expensive.The correct translation should be ‘The price of houses is very high in China or ‘The houses are very expensive in China.

Use of the article is one of common issues facing Chinese learners regards lexical transfer in English study，due to the fact that there is no same functional word existing in the Chinese language（Zhu，2007）.Although in Chinese，quantifiers may be used before nouns as definiteness and indefiniteness，similar to the performance of articles in English，those quantifiers are often omitted in conversation or writing（Lu，2001）.For example，

*She is reading magazine.

她在看（一本）雜志。

Tā zài kàn（yī běn）zá zhì.

Literal meaning：她-She 在-at 看-read 一本-（one book）雜志-magazine

The words in brackets are quantifiers in Chinese，but they are normally omitted.Hence，when Chinese English learners want to express the same meaning in English，they may be influenced by their first language and miss or misuse the articles.The correct sentence must be ‘She is reading a magazine or ‘She is reading the magazine.

3.Discourse transfer

Writing should be organized by cohesion and coherence to be presented to others，and this process refers to discourse（Zhang，2005）.According to Odlin（1989），discourse transfer of first language can be reflected in second language acquisition as well.As Lin（2009）notes，some expressions in Chinese secondary school learners' discourse in writing are especially noted to be influenced by their first language.

First of all，there are a number of shared devices for cohesion in both Chinese and English，such as parallelism，ellipsis and repetition；however，their different usage is the main reason causing discourse transfer（Halliday & Hasan，1976）.Due to the negative first language effects，Chinese secondary students' writing is based on the discourse pattern in Chinese which can make their writing unacceptable to native English speakers.Parallelism is very common in Chinese writing，which is a good way to emphasize the arguments central to the writing；for example，a paragraph is written by a Chinese secondary student who argues the importance of money：

With money you can buy a cold and luxurious house but you cant buy a cozy yet simple home；with money you can have many beautiful girlfriends but you cant get your loved wife；with money you can be wealthy but you cant be healthy（Zhang，2005，p 37）.

To some，this would appear to be a suitable paragraph as the arguments are convincing by repetition of the same construct at the beginning of each phrase，however，it may be considered as redundant to native speakers of English as the important principle of English writing is that it should be brief and succinct（Zhang，2005）.

Secondly，another discourse transfer is caused by different cultural beliefs in Chinese and English. Chinese writing is "reader-responsible"，as opposed to English writing which has a "writer-responsible" ethos（Hinds，1987，as cited in Zhang，2005）.Chinese writing requires the readers to explore what the writer tries to emphasized，whereas English writers provide the information in writing，for example：

I love fishing in my free time.It can make me close to the nature.What a wonderful thing to sit on the grass under cloudless sky！ Sometimes I will go by boat to the deep water.I like the moment when the fish bites the hook and I use my tricks to catch them.That is a moment of achievement.It is an exercise of patience.The fish does not always bite the hook.Sometimes I have to wait a long time until it is finally trapped.（Zhang，2005，p 38）.

As Zhang（2005）further states，although Chinese readers may think this paragraph makes sense and express what the write wants to emphasize，Native speakers of English may consider it is mixed and disorderly as the Chinese writer acquires the reader to explore the points that the writer wants to make.

Thirdly，the discourse pattern that Chinese writing addresses is “rhetorical convention”；however，the model that English writing focuses is "problem-solution"（Chen，2007）.According to Hoey（1994，as cited in Yang & Yang，2010），the typical four steps of writing in English are：situation，providing a topic sentence about the situation；problem，responding to the situation that was raised；solutions，for the situation or problem；and finally，the evaluation of the solution.On the contrary，according to Chen（2007），in Chinese writing，"Qi-cheng-zhuan-he" is a typical discourse pattern，"Qi"（Qǐ，literal meaning：beginning；start）is the introduction of the topic；"Cheng"（chéng，literal meaning：carry）refers to the explanation of the topic；"Zhuan"（zhuǎn，literal meaning：turn）indicates changing to another viewpoints；"he"（hé，literal meaning：whole）is the conclusion where the writer presents opinions.The following is an example of "Qi-cheng-zhuan-he"：

（Qi）We are dependent，for understanding and for consolation and hope，upon what we learn of ourselves from songs and stories.（Cheng）From this statement，we can know that through songs and stories，people realized themselves，humanity and their societies.The literacy—mastery of language and knowledge of books—is the essential factor that enlarges peoples knowledge，and improves mutual realization of people，and then creates the smooth society.（Zhuan）From kindergartens to colleges，from homes to offices，we learn how to interact with someone and how to realize ourselves and our societies.The literacy helps us to accustom and realize them.（He）Hence，literacy is not an ornament，but a necessity.（Cai，as cited in Yang & Yang，2010，p73）

Due to the negative discourse transfer of the students first language，Native speakers of English may think this paragraph lacks of coherence，that the writer cannot get to and focus on the important point，which in turn may confuse the readers（Zhang，2005）.

4.Conclusion

In the case of a Chinese-speaking students English writing，as the differences of Chinese and English are far more than similarities in syntax，lexicon and discourse，negative transfer of first language is more notable than the positive transfer.As Dong & Han（2009）states “the study of negative transfer should not be the sole concern of one approach，and the seeming boundaries of the three methods should be ice-broken”.This may facilitate the process of second language learning for the learners by providing them more opportunities to become exposed to the similarities and differences among first language，second language and their Interlanguage，during their study.

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