This paper is composed of five chapters. Chapter One is to the introduction part. Chapter Two focuses on the nature and types of language transfer, and reviews the historical research on the negative transfer of mother tongue in writing. Chapter Three is the main part of the research, in which it states the types of negative transfer errors. Meanwhile, the author analyzes the written errors in junior students’ English writings, explains in detail how negative transfer of mother tongue leads to those written errors. Some strategies or suggestions for avoiding negative transfer in English writing are presented in chapter Four. In the Chapter Five, the author sums up the paper and the limitations of the present study.源/自:751:;论-文'网www.751com.cn

2. Literature Review

2.1 Language Transfer

According to Miao and Ni (2007:21-25), transfer is a psychological term, which refers to the phenomenon of “previous knowledge being extended to the area of new knowledge, i.e. the influence which the learning or remembering of one thing has on the learning and remembering of another thing. In foreign language learning, mother tongue plays an important role in second language acquisition. “Inpiduals tend to transfer the forms, semantic meanings as well as the distribution of them from their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture when attempting to grasp and understand the language and culture as practiced by natives” (Freeman and Long, 2000: 52). Therefore, language transfer is a common phenomenon in the process of language learning, which is “the effect that learners’ first language has on the acquisition of a second language” (Ellis, 2000: 51). 

There are mainly two kinds of transfer: positive transfer and negative transfer. When the features in mother tongue and target language are the same, the mother tongue facilitates the learning of second language. Negative transfer, results from different features between target language and mother tongue. When the differences exist between them, the language learners still use the language rules of their mother tongue, thus the negative transfer occurs. 

In 1957, American linguist Lado first put forward “language transfer”. He considered that in second language acquisition, learners widely relied on the first language.  Schachter’s(1974:205) view of language transfer was perhaps the most distinguished from the traditional view of transfer. She claimed that transfer is not a process at all, but is a constraint on the acquisition process. Kranshen (1981:148) thought that transfer referred to “those processes that lead to the incorporation of elements from target language into mother tongue”. However, the widely accepted theory of language transfer is put forward by Odlin. “Transfer is the influence resulting from similarities and differences between the target language and other language that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired” (Odlin, 2001:  27).

Although language transfer is the main barrier in language learning, some other factors cannot be neglected, such as sex, age, the ability of learning and so on. The thesis’ research subject is junior high school students, who are studying English based on the learning of mother tongue, so they are also affected by the environment. On the contrary, the positive transfer of mother tongue cannot be denied.