Abstract

Negative transfer of Chinese has always been one of the major obstacles for middle school students to learn English. What’s more, middle school students are in the initial stage of learning English. English writing reflects the ability to use English during the process of language output. As a fact, it is still a chief problem to be solved to help students overcome the negative transfer of Chinese. Based on the relevant theories and research findings at home and abroad, the thesis firstly investigates the contradiction between the requirements of English Curriculum and the current situation of students’ writing, pointing out the importance of studying Chinese transfer on English writing. Secondly, a detailed analysis is performed of the typical errors on different levels: lexical, grammatical and discourse. Thirdly, some implications and strategies are proposed to overcome the influence of negative transfer on English writing.

Key words: negative transfer; Chinese; English writing; middle school

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-2

3. Significance of the Study-3

4. Analysis of the Negative Transfer in English Writing-4

4.1 Lexical level-4

4.1.1 Synonyms-4

4.1.2 Part of speech-5

4.1.3 Word collocation-6

4.2 Grammatical level-7

4.2.1 The tense-7

4.2.2 The voice-8

4.2.3 Word order-8

4.3 Discourse level-9

5. Implications and Suggestions-10

5.1 Facing up to the transfer scientifically-10

5.2 Strengthening the basic practice of language knowledge-11

5.3 Strengthening the training of western thinking modes and expression-11

6. Conclusion-12

Works Cited-13