On the Promotion of Positivetransfer in Second Language Acquisition
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DOI: 10.25236/icembe.2020.120
Corresponding Author
Zhou Yan
Abstract
In the process of second language acquisition, the mother tongue can produce both positive and negative transfer. From the perspective of educational psychology and linguistic commonality, this paper conducts an emprimical study with different compare groups (primary, intermediary, and advanced) so as to analyze and compare the positive and negative transfer of mother tongue in second language acquisition, taking pronouns and reflexive pronouns for example. Then, it further compares the similarities and differences between Chinese and English language in phonetics, vocabulary, syntax and pragmatics. The positive transfer of mother tongue is important to second language acquisition, while negative transfer is inevitable. It is proposed that bilingual contrastive teaching between mother tongue and foreign language be carried out actively. A teacher can combine language contrast and analysis to reduce negative transfer errors consciously in order to exert the greatest positive transfer of mother tongue and realize a kind of foreign language thinking.
Keywords
Mother tongue, Second language acquisition, Positive transfer, Negative transer