Language transfer is a common phenomenon in second language acquisition. When students communicate in the target language, they try to express their thoughts with the help of the pronunciation, structure, semantics and culture of their mother tongue, which will lead to language transfer. There are two kinds of language transfer: positive transfer and negative transfer. When some features of the mother tongue are similar or identical to the target language, positive transfer often occurs. For example, the basic word order of English and Chinese is S+V+O (subject+predicate+object). In the sentence "IspeakChinese", the word order of Chinese and English is exactly the same. In this case, China students use English words to form correct English sentences with the help of the word order of their mother tongue.
The Influence of Mother Tongue Transfer on English Learning of China Students (1)
Language transfer is a common phenomenon in second language acquisition. Language learners have been communicating in their mother tongue for a long time before learning a foreign language, so that they are already very familiar with the rules of their mother tongue. In addition, there are similarities in language learning. Therefore, when they learn a new language, they will unconsciously transfer those rules to a second language, and then migration will appear. However, there are similarities and differences in usage and rules between the two languages. Therefore, two kinds of transfer are formed. They are positive migration and negative migration. This paper first expounds the definition of transfer and the importance of mother tongue to second language acquisition. Then the causes of migration are discussed. Next, the expressions of language knowledge transfer and cultural transfer are elaborated respectively. In terms of language knowledge, transfer will appear in English letter learning, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and discourse. In terms of culture, transfer will appear in two aspects: lexical meaning and pragmatics. Finally, this paper will put forward some practical suggestions on how to treat mother tongue transfer correctly in language teaching.
[Keywords:] Mother tongue; Negative migration; Forward transfer; Language knowledge; English education
Language transfer is a common phenomenon in second language acquisition. Because before language learners learn a language, they always communicate with others in their mother tongue. Therefore, they are already very familiar with the rules of their mother tongue. Because of the * * * relationship between language learning, when learning a foreign language, learners will unconsciously transfer some habits of their mother tongue to the foreign language they have learned. Then, migration happened. However, there are similarities and differences between the two languages in many aspects, such as usage habits and rules. This leads to two changes in language transfer: positive transfer and negative transfer. Firstly, this paper expounds the definition of transfer and the importance of mother tongue in second language acquisition. Then the reasons for the migration are discussed. Next, two possible aspects of migration (language knowledge and culture) are described in detail. In terms of language knowledge, this paper describes the performance of mother tongue transfer from five aspects: English letter learning, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and discourse. In terms of culture, it is described from lexical culture and pragmatics. Finally, this paper puts forward some methods to treat mother tongue transfer correctly in teaching.
Based on long-term teaching and a lot of observation, this paper discusses and analyzes the influence of Fujian dialect on English pronunciation learning of college students in dialect areas from the perspective of transfer, and finds that there is a big difference between dialect pronunciation and English pronunciation, which constitutes a negative transfer factor in English pronunciation learning of college students in dialect areas. Strengthening the research on this issue will be beneficial to English teachers' teaching and college students' English learning in Fujian dialect areas.
Fujian dialect, English pronunciation, negative transfer, language learning anxiety
First, the migration theory.
In psychology, transfer refers to the psychological process in which the knowledge people have mastered plays a role in the new learning environment. [1] In the field of foreign language learning research, transfer refers to the influence of mother tongue knowledge on foreign language learning, which is one of the important issues discussed by many linguists and psycholinguists.
1957 American linguist Lado believes in Cross-Cultural Linguistics that in the foreign language learning environment, learners rely heavily on their mother tongue and tend to transfer the language forms, meanings and cultures related to their mother tongue to foreign language learning. Odlin [2] defines transfer as: transfer is an influence, which comes from the * * * nature and differences between the acquired language (which may be acquired by mistake) and the target language. Rod Ellis summarized mother tongue transfer in 1994 as follows: positive transfer, negative transfer, avoidance and overuse. Because this paper mainly discusses the phenomenon of negative migration, there are two aspects in this theory: positive migration and negative migration.
1, positive transfer: when the native language rules are the same as the foreign language rules, learners transfer the native language rules to the foreign language. At this time, mother tongue rules can reduce the burden of foreign language learning, reduce mistakes in foreign language learning and promote foreign language learning. At this time, the influence of mother tongue on foreign language learning is positive, which is called positive transfer.
2. Negative transfer: When there are differences between mother tongue rules and foreign language rules, learners will transfer mother tongue rules to foreign languages, and mother tongue will interfere with foreign language learning. At this time, the influence of mother tongue on foreign languages is negative. This effect is called negative migration.
Because English and Chinese belong to different language families, there are many differences in pronunciation. Therefore, there is a widespread phenomenon of negative transfer of Chinese pronunciation among learners in China. Due to regional differences, there is a negative transfer of dialect pronunciation to English pronunciation. According to the above transfer theory, this paper will specifically discuss the negative transfer phenomenon of Fujian dialect in English pronunciation learning of college students in dialect areas.
Second, Fujian dialect and English pronunciation
"In essence, language is a' habitual sound symbol system' ... only meaningful and systematic sounds made by people are language" [3]. It can be seen that pronunciation plays an important role in language. "... it can be seen that pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar play an unequal role in distinguishing Chinese dialects. Relatively speaking, pronunciation should be the main criterion to distinguish Chinese dialects "[4]. It can be seen that dialects are divided according to pronunciation.
1, Fujian dialect
"Dialect is a local branch of Mandarin, which is used by people in some areas." [5] Dialect can be viewed from two different angles: one is from the structure, and the other is from the function. Sociolinguistics focuses on defining dialects from the perspective of function. "It is regarded as a language variety, and its communicative function is limited by the region, and its development has not yet reached standardization." [6] There are many reasons for the formation of dialects, including politics, economy, culture, nationality, religion, history and geography.
Fujian province is one of the most complicated provinces in Chinese dialect. Among the major dialect areas in China, Fujian accounts for 5 kinds. The most widely distributed dialect is Min dialect. Min dialect can be divided into seven sub-dialects: Minjiang, northern Fujian, central Fujian, eastern Fujian, Puxian, southern Fujian and Wen Qiong. They are not connected with each other, which may be the result of the interaction between Han people and different branches of local Min-Yue dialect when they invaded south in Qin and Han dynasties. In addition to the most widely distributed Min dialect, there are a large number of Hakka dialects in western Fujian, Gan dialects in northwest Fujian, Wu dialects in Pucheng County and Mandarin islands in some places. There are not only various dialects in Fujian province, but also great internal differences. Like Liancheng, Youxi, Shunchang and other places, it is impossible to communicate with a few or more words in a county. Students in Fujian dialect areas will encounter some special difficulties in English pronunciation because of the influence of Fujian dialect. They can also explore the reasons from their mother tongue and seek solutions.
Based on the phonetic features of Fujian college students' dialects, this paper makes a simple analysis and summary, and combined with the problems existing in college English teaching, discusses the influence of dialect pronunciation on college students' English learning, and puts forward some suggestions for improvement.
2. English pronunciation
Language is first composed of sounds, and the function of language is first communication. The primary form of communication is oral communication, which is inseparable from the pronunciation of the language. English pronunciation is an established thing that English users must abide by. Individual phonetic symbols can be changed, but the change cannot exceed the allowable range of phonetic changes, otherwise pronunciation errors will be caused. Due to the deep-rooted influence of dialects, most students in dialect areas have not received systematic phonetic training, so the phonetic errors caused by the transfer of dialects to English pronunciation are very prominent. The negative transfer of Fujian dialect to English pronunciation is discussed in detail below.
Thirdly, the negative transfer of Fujian dialect in college students' English pronunciation learning.
In English learning, the influence of mother tongue pronunciation on foreign language learning has long been discussed. "From the perspective of phonetics, generally speaking, everyone perceives strange sounds through the sounds in their own language" [7]. People who learn a foreign language, especially adults, are bound to be influenced by the pronunciation habits of their mother tongue to some extent, and often unconsciously transfer a set of pronunciation habits of their mother tongue to a foreign language.
This influence is very obvious for those students whose Mandarin is not standard. For example, /n/, /l/ and /r/ are basically indistinguishable in all parts of Fujian. In the first lesson of the first volume of College English Focus Listening, there are two parallel classes. First, tell one class the pronunciation characteristics and tongue position of these three sounds, and then do pronunciation discrimination exercises. The other class listens directly without distinction. Results We found that the effect of the first class was better than that of the second class. This fully shows that students who are less influenced by dialect pronunciation and have a good level of Putonghua have little influence on English pronunciation, while those who have a strong dialect and nonstandard Putonghua have a great influence on English pronunciation.
To sum up, language is ideographic, "the ideographic nature of language is a series of ideas expressed by the speaker through the phonetic transmission of lexical concepts". [8] When pronunciation can't convey the speaker's thoughts correctly, or the listener can't perceive the speaker's vocabulary concept with the existing phonetic knowledge, this pronunciation will definitely bring some influence to the speaker or the listener. From the long-term teaching practice, it is observed that students with strong dialects generally have English learning anxiety. According to the psychologist's explanation, "anxiety is an emotional state with fear, which is caused by the failure of individuals to achieve their goals or overcome the threat of obstacles, which frustrates their self-esteem or increases their sense of failure and guilt" [9]. This language learning anxiety has the following effects on English learning:
1, English learning anxiety
Because many students in Fujian have a heavy dialect, they can't spell words and read sentences and texts accurately, and they often face an embarrassing situation: the materials they read can't be understood by others, the things they read can't be understood by others, and the things they write can be understood by everyone. There are many reasons for this, but there is no doubt that it is pronunciation. For example, on a moonlit night, Fujian students are unlikely to understand its meaning because n and 1 are hard to distinguish. In the process of college English teaching, teachers use English as their working language and students use English as their learning target language. Many freshmen find it difficult to adapt to classroom activities and gradually develop anxiety, which in turn affects their learning motivation and interest and has a direct impact on their learning. This influence can be seen from their performance in class. Students with this kind of learning anxiety are often manifested as "tone sandhi, unable to pronounce the pronunciation and rhythm of the language normally, feeling stiff when standing up to answer questions, forgetting the vocabulary they have just learned, or even not talking at all, just keeping silent" [9] and so on. They have little awareness of answering questions and participating in classroom activities, tend to avoid more complicated sentences, or often complain that the course progress is too fast, learning is too difficult, and more time is needed to learn.
2. Fear of communication
According to McCrosky (1978), communication fear refers to the degree of personal fear or anxiety about real or expected communication with others. Students with poor pronunciation and intonation are often reluctant to communicate with teachers and classmates in class, because they are worried that they can't perceive other people's words or that others can't understand their own information. They often have stress and anxiety in class, and don't want to sit in the front row, bow their heads in class and avoid the teacher's eyes. Even if forced communication, it is only a few words, unwilling to go into depth, or say "I'm sorry" and it's over. These are typical communication fear behaviors. Their communication is often forced and reluctant. They have a low self-evaluation of their English ability. Some students don't even think English learning is valuable and meaningful, and they don't want to spend more time and energy on it, so the learning effect is poor and the efficiency is not high.
3. Negative evaluation of fear
Practice has proved that students who are greatly influenced by dialects and have poor pronunciation are often very concerned about the evaluation of their language proficiency by teachers and classmates, too concerned about others' opinions of themselves, and tend to minimize possible unfavorable evaluation factors, and often consciously avoid or end communication as soon as possible. I don't have high expectations for my future English performance, and I often feel inferior to others in the process of learning and communication. This constant reminder will threaten the satisfaction of students' self-esteem needs, dampen their self-esteem and self-confidence, and then enhance their anxiety tendency.
Fourthly, the enlightenment to English teaching.
The above discussion proves that many students in Fujian, influenced by dialects, have poor mastery of English phonetics, and there are certain obstacles in English learning, resulting in language anxiety. According to some scholars' research, language anxiety may have two completely opposite effects on behavior: one is to "encourage anxiety"; The second is "depression and anxiety". [10] The former is beneficial to foreign language learning, while the latter is the opposite, while neither complete anxiety nor excessive anxiety is conducive to the improvement of students' learning motivation. Therefore, in English teaching, some measures can be taken to effectively control the language anxiety caused by dialect influence.
1, Comparison of English and Chinese Phonetic Analysis
The psychological basis of adults learning English and children learning idioms is different. Under the influence of objective environment, children acquire language through assimilation and adaptation, and the process of language acquisition is consistent with the process of intellectual growth. When adults learn a foreign language, their intelligence is mature, so starting from the known facts, they should adopt corresponding methods to learn. The best way to overcome the interference of their mother tongue is to make a comparative analysis of the two languages, which proves that there has been obvious progress in pronunciation. [1 1] Therefore, for newly enrolled college students, in terms of pronunciation, teachers can refer to the phonetic characteristics of Putonghua in teaching, point out phonetic errors in students' dialects and compare them with English pronunciation, strengthen training purposefully and consciously, gradually reduce the interference of their dialects, and improve their language ability of correct pronunciation and spelling.
2. Create a relaxed and comfortable classroom language learning environment.
Students in Fujian generally have poor phonetic foundation and have language anxiety in their study. How to control this anxiety in an appropriate range, a relaxed and comfortable classroom language learning environment is very important. In the process of English learning. Students' emotional factors are as important as cognitive factors. A relaxed and comfortable classroom atmosphere can narrow the distance between teachers and students, improve students' self-confidence and self-esteem, make them have a positive attitude towards English learning, thus promoting students' learning motivation and encouraging them to actively participate in classroom activities, thus improving learning efficiency, improving teaching quality, enhancing classroom information feedback and better serving teaching.
3. Encourage students to read and recite English materials.
Language learning is inseparable from the accumulation of language materials. On the one hand, reading and reciting English materials can help students remember words and understand content, on the other hand, they can fully perceive phonetic features. Improving the sensitivity to language forms can help students pay attention to the characteristics of input language and the gap between input language and output language, so as to better grasp the phonetic knowledge. Correct pronunciation will not only help students improve their listening and speaking, but also help them spell words correctly, which will benefit them for life.
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The negative transfer of Fujian dialect to college students' English pronunciation and its enlightenment to English teachers' teaching
cutie
(Graduate student of 2004, School of Education Science and Technology, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350007)
abstract
This paper discusses the influence of Fujian dialect on college students' English pronunciation from the perspective of transfer. According to a lot of observation and years of teaching experience, the author thinks that there is a great difference between Fujian dialect and English pronunciation, which forms the negative transfer factor of Fujian dialect-speaking college students in English pronunciation. Exploring the problems existing in English teaching in Fujian is of great value not only to English teachers' teaching methods, but also to English learners' learning methods.
Keywords: Fujian dialect, English pronunciation, negative transfer, language learning anxiety