Abstract

In the process of second language acquisition, language transfer is a general phenomenon. When people learn a second language, language acquisition is directly affected by the usage pattern of mother tongue which plays positive or negative roles in the acquisition process. According to this situation, language transfer is segmented into positive transfer and negative transfer. This paper will construe and compare the influence of positive and negative transfer in second language acquisition from the perspectives of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, trying to fully improvise the positive transfer in English teaching and surmount the interference created by the negative transfer.       

Key words: language transfer, second language acquisition, positive transfer, negative transfer

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要

Ⅰ. Introduction-1

Ⅱ. The theories of transfer of mother tongue-1

2.1 Contrastive analysis hypothesis-2

2.2 Mentalistic minimalist theory-2

2.3 Universal grammar theory-3

2.4 Interlanguage theory-3

Ⅲ. The influence of transfer over mother tongue-4

3.1 Positive transfer-4

3.1.1 Pronunciation-4

3.1.2 Vocabulary-5

3.1.3 Grammar-6

3.2 Negative Transfer-7

3.2.1 Pronunciation-7

3.2.2 Vocabulary-7

3.2.3 Grammar-8

3.2.4 Translation-8

Ⅳ. Enlightenment of positive transfer in second language acquisition-10

4.1 To treat transfer appropriately-10

4.2 To understand the relativity between the proficiency of Chinese and English-10

4.3 To foster teachers’ cultural quality-11

4.4 To reduce the negative transfer-11

Ⅵ. Conclusion-11

References-13