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Abstract: In SLA transfer of mother tongue can not be overlooked. And we group it into positive transfer and negative transfer, which are reflected on different levels including pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax and culture.
Key words:positive transfer;negative transfer;mother tongue
We are all very familiar with the phenomenon that an Indian speaks English quite fluently but inevitably with an Indian accent. In China we can often hear such kind of sentence as “I am student”. Both the two examples are the results of mother tongue transfer.
Transfer is a general term describing the carryover of previous performance or knowledge to subsequent learning. Positive transfer occurs when the prior knowledge benefits the learning task, that is, when a previous item is correctly applied to present subject matter. Negative transfer occurs when the previous performance disrupts the performance on a second task. The latter can be referred to as interference, in that previously learned material interferes with subsequent material, that is, a previous item is incorrectly transferred or associated with an item to be learned.
These two kinds of transfer can be seen in many aspects of SLA and appear on different levels of language, such as pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax and culture.
1.Pronunciation transfer
Looking at language transfer at phonological level is no longer fresh to us. As pronunciation transfer is quite a common phenomenon in language transfer, and we have learned about it during our graduate linguistics class. It seems a little exaggerative that an English native professor teaching SLA can tell where his students come from as soon as he listens to their speaking English, but it indeed reflects a widely-accepted phenomenon: The greater the distinction of pronunciation between two languages, the larger the degree of mother tongue transfer. English and Chinese have a great distinction in phonology, because they belong to different language families. A main distinction is that there is no consonant cluster in Chinese like that in English. So Chinese students, while speaking English, are likely to add a vowel in the consonant cluster. For example, blue—blu:— is usually pronounced as ︳b?lu:︳. However, the congruity or similarity between two languages can benefit to students’ correct pronunciation. As in Chinese there are such phonemes as ︳p︳,︳b︳and︳d︳, it is very easy for Chinese students to learn to pronounce them in English.While the teacher should emphasize that these phonemes are not completely identical in English and Chinese.
2.Vocabulary transfer
Because of different social and cultural contexts, meanings of vocabulary in two languages are not the same. Some beginning learners think that so long a word represent a certain concept, meanings of the words in two languages which represent the same concept should correspond to each other. In fact, it is not so simple. Both Chinese and English have a rich vocabulary, but words which have absolutely identical meaning, except for some technical terms, are quite rare. Vocabulary transfer or rather, vocabulary interference can be mainly seen as follows: 1) Negative transfer caused by different connotations or associations of Chinese and English vocabulary. As to the same thing, vocabulary meanings are formed by concepts on different levels in Chinese and English. For example, “牛” in Chinese has at least 3 counterparts in English: bull（公牛）, cow（母牛）, and calf(小牛). When some beginning learners want to express the concept of “小牛”, they are likely to use “ little cow” or “small cow”, which is obviously wrong. 2) Negative transfer caused by the fact that some words in Chinese and English seem to have similar meaning but different in nature. For example, “爱人” in Chinese is not identical with “lover” in English, it refers to the spouse in Chinese, while “情人” in English.
3.Syntax transfer
People’s dispute on syntax transfer has existed for a long time, but a great number of syntax transfer (including positive and negative transfer) is discovered in sentence order, relative clause and negative sentence. Both Chinese and English have the following 5 sentence structures:
Subject + link verb + predicative: “We are students.” （我们是学生。）
Subject + predicate :“I got up very early.” （我起床很早。）
Subject + predicate + object: “I ate an apple.” （我吃了一个苹果。）
Subject + predicate +indirect object + direct object :“I gave him a book.” （我给了他一本书。）
Subject +predicate + object + object complement: “We elected him president.” （我们选他为总统。）
Due to this similarity, it is quite easy for Chinese students to learn these basic sentence structures in English, which is positive transfer. But there is also some negative transfer. Attributive clause, which is frequently used in English, is just a great obstacle for Chinese students to learn.
4.Culture transfer
Every culture is unique in the world and cultural differences can be a stumbling block on the road to learn a foreign language. However, cultural differences are often overlooked and neglected in cross-cultural communication, in which the cultural background of the participants’ mother tongue inevitably influences their use of the target language, leading to misunderstanding or even hatred. Put differently, in such situations, culture transfer occurs.
Strictly speaking, any particular language is a form of learned behavior and therefore part of the culture. “Language is just as culture-bound as are the traditional habits and value orientations characteristic of the society whose members use it” (Zdenek Salzmann, 1993:156). Thus, as Liu Runqing and Deng Yanchang put in Language and Culture (1989:3):
Language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. Some social scientists consider it the keystone of culture. Without language, they maintain, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture; it reflects culture.
Therefore, since language is so closely integrated with culture, when transfer is mentioned, culture transfer, not only language transfer, should be taken into consideration as well. This part will focus on the concept of culture, the definition of culture transfer and its classification.
4.1The concept of culture
The term culture, which consists of all the shared products of human society, is all-inclusive. To be specific, culture refers to “the total pattern of human learned behavior transmitted from generation to generation” (Zdenek Salzmann, 1993:156). Based on this definition, culture can be subdivided into three levels: the first level is material culture, that is, the material products of behavior (for example, a pull-open beer can or a radio telescope); the second level is institution culture (for example, political and economic institutions, law, art, interpersonal relationship and habits); the third level is mental culture (for example, worldview, value orientations, way of thinking, moral values and religious consciousness) (Hu Wenzhong, 1999:29).
4.2The concept of culture transfer
Based on different understandings of the concept of culture, culture transfer has been given various definitions. According to Dai Weidong and Zhang Hongling (2000:38), culture transfer refers to “a kind of interference caused by cultural differences, especially in cross-cultural communication.” Put differently, when people from different languages and cultures communicate, they may think and behave in accordance with the norms and standards of their own culture respectively, regardless of the cultural differences between them, which inevitably leads to misunderstanding, even hatred.
4.3The classification of culture transfer
If culture, as suggested in the previous section, can be subdivided into three levels, culture transfer can be classified into surface-structure transfer and deep-structure transfer accordingly.
Generally speaking, surface-structure transfer refers to the transfer of culture in the first and second levels, that is, the transfer of material culture and institution culture, in which cultural differences are obvious and evident, so these differences can be easily discovered with little investigation. However, this definition of surface-structure transfer is so abstract that only its reflection in cross-cultural communication can help to explain it clearly and fully. The following example is cited for demonstration. In Chinese we have a phrase “拖后腿”, which, if translated into English, should be to hinder somebody or to hold somebody back. However, some English learners translate it literally as to pull somebody’s leg, which puzzles most English-speaking people, because to pull somebody’s leg means to make a fool of somebody. Therefore, in this example, surface-structure transfer occurs, leading to misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication.
Secondly, deep-structure transfer is the transfer of culture in the third level, that is, the transfer of mental culture, including worldview, value orientations, and way of thinking, moral values and religious consciousness. Obviously, the aspects of mental culture are deeply hidden beneath the surface, concerning ideology, thus much more difficult to be sensed and perceived. Similarly, the following example can help us to understand this definition. In English, replies to Thank you are Not at all, Don’t mention it or You are welcome; while in Chinese, the most common ones are “没什么”or“不用谢”, sometimes “这是我应该做的”. But, what reply should be given by guides and service people when a foreign person says Thank you for a job well done? To translate the Chinese expression“这是我应该做的”as It’s my duty conveys the idea that the Chinese attendant or guide did not really want to do it, that he/she did it only because it was his/her duty. Therefore, it conveys a totally different message to the foreign person because of deep-structure transfer. A proper reply might be I’m glad to be of help or It’s a pleasure.
5.Conclusion
It has become a hot topic in theoretical and educational fields that how to help students overcome the negative transfer of mother tongue. However, traditional approaches in Foreign Language Teaching in China put most emphasis on the mastery of grammar, that is, how to speak and write expressions and sentences in English which are grammatically correct, regardless of different cultural backgrounds. Consequently, a great number of English learners in China, who have possessed a proficient knowledge of language skills, often make “mistakes” concerning cultural differences in cross-cultural communication. Therefore, not only language skills, but also the knowledge of transfer, especially culture transfer should be emphasized in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Put differently, cultural backgrounds should be introduced into Second Language Teaching in order to equip the students with a thorough knowledge of culture, which can avoid cultural transfer, or rather, culture interference.
In a word, while teaching and learning English, we should further study how to correctly apply our mother tongue to SLA and reduce the influence of negative transfer of mother tongue.
作者简介：米海燕（1977-），女，瑶族，湖南辰溪人，硕士，河池学院外语系讲师。主要研究方向：英美文学、英语教学论。
Key words:positive transfer;negative transfer;mother tongue
We are all very familiar with the phenomenon that an Indian speaks English quite fluently but inevitably with an Indian accent. In China we can often hear such kind of sentence as “I am student”. Both the two examples are the results of mother tongue transfer.
Transfer is a general term describing the carryover of previous performance or knowledge to subsequent learning. Positive transfer occurs when the prior knowledge benefits the learning task, that is, when a previous item is correctly applied to present subject matter. Negative transfer occurs when the previous performance disrupts the performance on a second task. The latter can be referred to as interference, in that previously learned material interferes with subsequent material, that is, a previous item is incorrectly transferred or associated with an item to be learned.
These two kinds of transfer can be seen in many aspects of SLA and appear on different levels of language, such as pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax and culture.
1.Pronunciation transfer
Looking at language transfer at phonological level is no longer fresh to us. As pronunciation transfer is quite a common phenomenon in language transfer, and we have learned about it during our graduate linguistics class. It seems a little exaggerative that an English native professor teaching SLA can tell where his students come from as soon as he listens to their speaking English, but it indeed reflects a widely-accepted phenomenon: The greater the distinction of pronunciation between two languages, the larger the degree of mother tongue transfer. English and Chinese have a great distinction in phonology, because they belong to different language families. A main distinction is that there is no consonant cluster in Chinese like that in English. So Chinese students, while speaking English, are likely to add a vowel in the consonant cluster. For example, blue—blu:— is usually pronounced as ︳b?lu:︳. However, the congruity or similarity between two languages can benefit to students’ correct pronunciation. As in Chinese there are such phonemes as ︳p︳,︳b︳and︳d︳, it is very easy for Chinese students to learn to pronounce them in English.While the teacher should emphasize that these phonemes are not completely identical in English and Chinese.
2.Vocabulary transfer
Because of different social and cultural contexts, meanings of vocabulary in two languages are not the same. Some beginning learners think that so long a word represent a certain concept, meanings of the words in two languages which represent the same concept should correspond to each other. In fact, it is not so simple. Both Chinese and English have a rich vocabulary, but words which have absolutely identical meaning, except for some technical terms, are quite rare. Vocabulary transfer or rather, vocabulary interference can be mainly seen as follows: 1) Negative transfer caused by different connotations or associations of Chinese and English vocabulary. As to the same thing, vocabulary meanings are formed by concepts on different levels in Chinese and English. For example, “牛” in Chinese has at least 3 counterparts in English: bull（公牛）, cow（母牛）, and calf(小牛). When some beginning learners want to express the concept of “小牛”, they are likely to use “ little cow” or “small cow”, which is obviously wrong. 2) Negative transfer caused by the fact that some words in Chinese and English seem to have similar meaning but different in nature. For example, “爱人” in Chinese is not identical with “lover” in English, it refers to the spouse in Chinese, while “情人” in English.
3.Syntax transfer
People’s dispute on syntax transfer has existed for a long time, but a great number of syntax transfer (including positive and negative transfer) is discovered in sentence order, relative clause and negative sentence. Both Chinese and English have the following 5 sentence structures:
Subject + link verb + predicative: “We are students.” （我们是学生。）
Subject + predicate :“I got up very early.” （我起床很早。）
Subject + predicate + object: “I ate an apple.” （我吃了一个苹果。）
Subject + predicate +indirect object + direct object :“I gave him a book.” （我给了他一本书。）
Subject +predicate + object + object complement: “We elected him president.” （我们选他为总统。）
Due to this similarity, it is quite easy for Chinese students to learn these basic sentence structures in English, which is positive transfer. But there is also some negative transfer. Attributive clause, which is frequently used in English, is just a great obstacle for Chinese students to learn.
4.Culture transfer
Every culture is unique in the world and cultural differences can be a stumbling block on the road to learn a foreign language. However, cultural differences are often overlooked and neglected in cross-cultural communication, in which the cultural background of the participants’ mother tongue inevitably influences their use of the target language, leading to misunderstanding or even hatred. Put differently, in such situations, culture transfer occurs.
Strictly speaking, any particular language is a form of learned behavior and therefore part of the culture. “Language is just as culture-bound as are the traditional habits and value orientations characteristic of the society whose members use it” (Zdenek Salzmann, 1993:156). Thus, as Liu Runqing and Deng Yanchang put in Language and Culture (1989:3):
Language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. Some social scientists consider it the keystone of culture. Without language, they maintain, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture; it reflects culture.
Therefore, since language is so closely integrated with culture, when transfer is mentioned, culture transfer, not only language transfer, should be taken into consideration as well. This part will focus on the concept of culture, the definition of culture transfer and its classification.
4.1The concept of culture
The term culture, which consists of all the shared products of human society, is all-inclusive. To be specific, culture refers to “the total pattern of human learned behavior transmitted from generation to generation” (Zdenek Salzmann, 1993:156). Based on this definition, culture can be subdivided into three levels: the first level is material culture, that is, the material products of behavior (for example, a pull-open beer can or a radio telescope); the second level is institution culture (for example, political and economic institutions, law, art, interpersonal relationship and habits); the third level is mental culture (for example, worldview, value orientations, way of thinking, moral values and religious consciousness) (Hu Wenzhong, 1999:29).
4.2The concept of culture transfer
Based on different understandings of the concept of culture, culture transfer has been given various definitions. According to Dai Weidong and Zhang Hongling (2000:38), culture transfer refers to “a kind of interference caused by cultural differences, especially in cross-cultural communication.” Put differently, when people from different languages and cultures communicate, they may think and behave in accordance with the norms and standards of their own culture respectively, regardless of the cultural differences between them, which inevitably leads to misunderstanding, even hatred.
4.3The classification of culture transfer
If culture, as suggested in the previous section, can be subdivided into three levels, culture transfer can be classified into surface-structure transfer and deep-structure transfer accordingly.
Generally speaking, surface-structure transfer refers to the transfer of culture in the first and second levels, that is, the transfer of material culture and institution culture, in which cultural differences are obvious and evident, so these differences can be easily discovered with little investigation. However, this definition of surface-structure transfer is so abstract that only its reflection in cross-cultural communication can help to explain it clearly and fully. The following example is cited for demonstration. In Chinese we have a phrase “拖后腿”, which, if translated into English, should be to hinder somebody or to hold somebody back. However, some English learners translate it literally as to pull somebody’s leg, which puzzles most English-speaking people, because to pull somebody’s leg means to make a fool of somebody. Therefore, in this example, surface-structure transfer occurs, leading to misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication.
Secondly, deep-structure transfer is the transfer of culture in the third level, that is, the transfer of mental culture, including worldview, value orientations, and way of thinking, moral values and religious consciousness. Obviously, the aspects of mental culture are deeply hidden beneath the surface, concerning ideology, thus much more difficult to be sensed and perceived. Similarly, the following example can help us to understand this definition. In English, replies to Thank you are Not at all, Don’t mention it or You are welcome; while in Chinese, the most common ones are “没什么”or“不用谢”, sometimes “这是我应该做的”. But, what reply should be given by guides and service people when a foreign person says Thank you for a job well done? To translate the Chinese expression“这是我应该做的”as It’s my duty conveys the idea that the Chinese attendant or guide did not really want to do it, that he/she did it only because it was his/her duty. Therefore, it conveys a totally different message to the foreign person because of deep-structure transfer. A proper reply might be I’m glad to be of help or It’s a pleasure.
5.Conclusion
It has become a hot topic in theoretical and educational fields that how to help students overcome the negative transfer of mother tongue. However, traditional approaches in Foreign Language Teaching in China put most emphasis on the mastery of grammar, that is, how to speak and write expressions and sentences in English which are grammatically correct, regardless of different cultural backgrounds. Consequently, a great number of English learners in China, who have possessed a proficient knowledge of language skills, often make “mistakes” concerning cultural differences in cross-cultural communication. Therefore, not only language skills, but also the knowledge of transfer, especially culture transfer should be emphasized in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Put differently, cultural backgrounds should be introduced into Second Language Teaching in order to equip the students with a thorough knowledge of culture, which can avoid cultural transfer, or rather, culture interference.
In a word, while teaching and learning English, we should further study how to correctly apply our mother tongue to SLA and reduce the influence of negative transfer of mother tongue.
作者简介：米海燕（1977-），女，瑶族，湖南辰溪人，硕士，河池学院外语系讲师。主要研究方向：英美文学、英语教学论。