Negative Impact of L1 on English Writing

This thesis, using quantitative approach, examined the negative impact of Chinese on university studentsoØ English writing in organization, grammar, expression as well as usage of words. The aim of this study was to make clear the variety of the negative transfer of Chinese in university studentsoØ English writing and give some suggestions so that both teachers and students could get inspiration or help from it in their teaching or learning of English writing. Sixty students participated in the study as subjects. They were asked to write a composition within 100-120 words on the topic of o± Creating a Green Campuso± which comes from 2009 Cet-4 Test Paper. In addition, a questionnaire was done and analyzed and discussed on the negative impact of Chinese on university studentsoØEnglish writing. Results showed that the main problems in Chinese university studentsoØ English writing include digression from the point, too many grammatical mistakes, unidiomatic expression, confuseing usage of words. These problems were mainly caused by the negative impact of Chinese which played a bigger part than its positive impact in Chinese university studentsoØ English writing. This paper makes a detailed comprehensive description of the main problems and the causes of the problems. Accordingly some suggestions were proposed to help both teachers and students have a better understanding of the negative impact of Chinese on university studentsoØ English writing in order to improve their teaching or learning of writing. 1. Introduction

According to some statistics, the average score in composition of 2003 Cet-4 for those key university students was only 5.8 against 15 as the full mark (Hu Meihua, 2004). It is pointed out that it is quite common for the university students to make many grammatical and spelling mistakes in their compositions. What is more serious£¨ their compositions often stray away from the point. From the above, it is quite clear that English learning and writing is becoming more and more important for university students. However, the situation facing is that Chinese university studentsoØ English writing is so poor. Hence this paper aims to find the main causes to Chinese university studentsoØ English writing. It will discuss the following problems: firstly, what were the main problems in university studentsoØ English writing? Seconly, of the problems, what were caused by the negative impact of the native language? Thirdly, how can we rise above the negative impact of Chinese in English writing? And it was hypothesized that of the studentsoØ problems in their English writing£¨most were caused by the negative influence of Chinese and that the negative impact of Chinese played a bigger part in university studentsoØ English writing than its positive impact. Sixty students were required to write a composition within 100-120 words on the topic of o∞ Creating a Green Campuso± from 2009 Cet-4 Test Paper.Then the results showed that the main problems in Chinese university studentsoØEnglish writing were:digression from the point,too many grammatical mistakes,unidiomatic expression,confusing usage of words.These problems were mainly caused by the negative influence of Chinese which played a bigger part than its positive impact in Chinese university students English writing. At last this thesis give some suggestions for teachers and students so as to improve teachers English writing teaching and Chinese university studentsoØ English writing.

5

1.1 Literature review

The review of the state of knowledge in composition was organized around such elements as factors that influenced writing, instructional approaches and their influence on writing ability, frequency of writing and class size, vocabulary and spelling.In emphasizing products, many of these research studies had ignored the writer himself.What are new about the recent studies on writing are the attempts by researchers to reread the neglect.Among the first to study the composing process was Emig(1971).The ways adopted in research are mainly as follows: (1) making observations of writing behavior(Perl,Pianko,Zamel); (2) videotaping of the writers

as they are engaged in the writing task (Pianko); (3) interviewing subjects before or after the writing task so as to obtain feedback concerning the subjectsoØ attitudes towards writing,their protocols in an effort to glean some insight into the writersoØ cognitive processes (Emig, Raimes); etc.As for the relationship between oneoØs native language and his writing ability in English.Many foreign researchers have also carded out researches in this field.But for some reasons,they do not quite agree with each other. In China,researchers of English writing cover mainly the following aspects: problems in college studentsoØEnglish writing (Chinglish, lack of meaningful content, etc.) (Zhang Zaixin,1995; Wang Yatong, 2000); the influence of Chinese on English writing (Ma Guanghui & Wen Qiufang,1999; Wen Qiufang,1998;Guo Chunjie £¶Liu Fang,1997); introduction of writing teaching approaches (Li Sen, 2000); With the development of the theory of language transfer, more importance is being attached to the influence of Chinese uinversity studentsoØEnglish writing.The study of language transfer will bring great,realistic significance to foreign language teaching in China.The influence of Chinese language is more obvious than some other languages due to three reasons:the great difference between the Eastern and Western culture and thoughts; the long language distance between Chinese and English resulting from quite different language families where they stay; the status of English as a foreign

6

rather than a second language in China.Foreign