摘要：第二语言即除母语外的第二种语言；第二语言习得即学习除母语之外的第二种语言的过程。在第二语言习得过程中，人的母语对二语习得有着各种各样的影响。在传统语言学看来，母语的迁移对二语习得只有起到干扰的“负面”影响，即我们所说的负迁移，或者干扰作用远远多于正面影响；但是随着语言学者的不断探究和学习，发现这种说法是片面的，没有说服力的，因为语言测相似性，母语同样对二语习得有着举足轻重的正面促进作用。本文从母语对二语习得的迁移作用的角度，分别从发音，词汇，句法及语言方面探讨母语对二语习得的负迁移及正迁移作用，以更加全面的角度来探讨母语在二语习得中的影响，强调母语在二语习得中不可替代的重要作用。
关键词：母语；二语习得；负迁移；正迁移
introduction
recently，scholars from all over the world have done a lot of researches on the formation and development of language acquisition，especially on the children’s language competence.and they have also spent much of the time on the study of the second language acquisition，which is a new subject.before 1970，some of the empiricists held the idea that the second language acquisition could be explained by the extension of the general learning theories.but from the 1970s，scholars have put forward many theories of the second language acquisition（zhang，2008）.therefore，people are getting more and more interested in the study of the second language acquisition and they would like to find the essence of it.these people and studies have contributed a lot to the development of second language acquisition.
the second language acquisition is the process of learning another language besides the first language.and the first language or the native language is referred to the national language which is used by the people of a country.generally，one’s first language is his native language.people learn their first language without any difficulty，while the study of a second language is not that easy for a learner，because the study or acquisition of a second language is influenced by many factors which can be objective and subjective.for example，the objective factors can be the influences of the speaking environment，the teachers’ knowledge and teaching ability and the support of a country； and the subjective factors can be the students’ interest in the second language，the students’ learning ability and their first language’s interference.among these factors，the influence of the first language is the most attractive topic and has been studied by the scholars for a long time.
the role of the first language
it is undoubtedly a fact that the first language influences the acquisition of the second language in some way.people’s first language competent is developed with the thinking competent.the native language is the first language system of human beings.it is developed without any interference of other language systems.as the second language system，the second language is formed under the condition that the first language has existed in human minds and human have had a language thinking pattern.there is a phenomenon that people tend to learn new knowledge skills under the help of what they have learnt before and from their formed cognition.therefore，the second language acquisition learners will consider，analyze and compare the target language with the information which they have learnt consciously and unconsciously.additionally，people prefer to learn the target language with the method that they used when they leant their first language.lado（1957）in his book said that individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings，and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture—both productively when attempting to speak the language and to act in the culture，and receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and the culture as practiced by natives.as a result，to learn the relationship between the first language and the second language acquisition is of importance.
a brief view of transfer
the early study of this influence was mainly focused on the transfer of the native language on the basis of the output of the target language.the study of the roles that the native language plays is known as the research of language transfer，by which is meant the psychological process whereby prior learning is carried over into a new learning situation（gass and selinker，2001： 66），or it refers to the learner’s use of patterns of the first language in second language sentences.there are mainly three periods of transfer： the early study is connected with behaviorism and becomes the basis of contrastive analysis hypothesis； then the study is related to the mentalist and is neglected； and the recent study focuses on the language itself，society and psychological conditions to have a knowledge of transfer and people begin to study when，how and why the transfer becomes a phenomenon in the second language learning.there are positive and negative transfer of the first language actually.when the first language principle is similar with the target language principle，the transfer is always the positive transfer，but when the first language principle is different from the target language principle，the transfer is negative.the negative transfer always results in the errors and difficulties in learning a second language.therefore，lado（1957）put forward the contrastive analysis hypothesis “by the contrast between the native language and culture and the target language and culture，we can predict and describe the mode which can/cannot cause difficulties in learning.”
the negative transfer effect of the first language
the very point of one language is that it has the unique properties which can not be replaced by other languages.the two different cultures can be complementary and exchanged，but they can not be replaced.this is the root of the negative transfer of native language upon the second language acquisition.it is mainly showed its difference effect，which leads to difficulties and errors in learning a second language.these errors can be found in pronunciation，lexicon and syntax.here we take english and chinese for example to analyze.
the negative transfer effect on pronunciation
english and chinese belong to different language systems.in english，[θ]and[δ]which are interdental are two difficult ones to pronounce，because in chinese there is no interdental pronunciation.it is easy to pronounce[s]and[ts]for chinese students，since there is a[s]in chinese.therefore，some students in china cannot distinguish[s]with[θ]and[δ]，which leads to the wrong pronunciation of english words.another example is that the way to pronounce english bilingual is to pronounce from the first vowel to the second vowel naturally and the second vowel is short and vague.therefore，the pronunciation of a bilingual is the combination of two pronunciations of the single vowels.for example，[ai]is a bilingual but some people can only pronounce it as the chinese single character “艾” and the bilingual[au]，some chinese students pronounce it as “欧”.the stress in english and chinese are different as well.in chinese，the stress is always located at the last syllable，but in english，it is not always the situation.there is almost not a rule of english to get the stress syllable.for example，in english the stress of basketball is at the beginning： ’basket-ball.some chinese people may pronounce like “basket-’ball”.
the negative transfer effect on lexicon
because of the distinct geography，customs，religions and values，people different nations must express words with different associative meanings beyond the literal meanings.students always express themselves in another language in the wrong way which of full of the native ways of thinking since they are short of the knowledge of english and chinese languages，cultures and the associative meanings marked by them.what is of derogatory sense in chinese may be of complimentary sense.for example，the word “landlord” in chinese is referred to exploiters which is of cultural and historical reasons.however，in english culture，it means people who own land or houses which is without derogatory meaning.and the word “ambition” in chinese only has the meaning of a strong desire to achieve something which can be really difficult for someone，but in english，it can also means that one works very hard to make progress.additionally，there are hardly equal words in english and chinese according to the meanings.however，there are words which are looked with the same meaning，but actually，are of different meanings and have different collocations.for example，there is no equal phase for the english phrase “american dream” because this phrase was created by the americans under certain circumstances in history.similarly，the english speakers can not understand zodiac which is of typical chinese custom.what’s more，although two words have the same meaning literally，they have different extended meanings.for example，in the western weddings，brides would wear white wedding dress，which means “purity”； whereas in chinese culture，“white” is always connected with funeral arrangements.when there was somebody dead in a family，people would put up white satin and wear white shroud.
the negative transfer effect on syntax
because english and chinese belong to different language systems，there are great differences in syntax between them.for example，there is no “tense” in chinese，but in english speakers need to change the form of words to show the concept of “tense”.therefore，many chinese students may make errors in tense.for example，chinese students may write like “i wake up early this morning.” however，the right form is “i woke up early this morning.” what’s more，in chinese，there is no qualifier.therefore，many chinese students may have a lot of trouble in qualifier and even may omit qualifier.for example，the expression “i have car”（the right form is “i have a car.”）is not in the right form in english，but it is still used by some students.
the positive transfer effect of the first language
traditional linguists thought the first language only had negative effect on the second language learning or it only interfered the learning of a foreign language.they strongly believed that the first language of learners would influence the second language acquisition（ellis，2004）.their evidence was the accent of pronunciation.for example，they thought a french man who learnt english would still have his french accent.however，at the beginning of 1970s，people had a new understanding of “transfer”.dulay & burt（1974）held the opinion that the influence of transfer upon the second language acquisition was limited.and kleinmann（1977）pinpointed his idea.he put forward a new thought “novelty effect” which said that the significant difference might arise learners’ attention to learn the new language.linguists，represented by selinker（1972），thought that people should not regard the influence of the first language as “interference” but a kind of “cognitive process”，a “strategy” or a “intercession”.for the learners，the most important thing is not to overcome the “interference” or “negative transfer” of the first language，but to adopt effective “strategy” or “intercession” to understand language knowledge and skill of the target language.although there are various languages throughout the world and these languages belong to different language systems，language is owned by human being essentially.there is something in common in human minds，so in the languages used for expressing human mind there is something in common.according to chomsky’s “universal grammar” theory，there is common character of languages in the world.the positive effect can also be found in pronunciation，lexicon and grammar.with the help of chinese and english we can analyze clearly.
the positive transfer effect on pronunciation
the pronunciation of chinese and english consists of syllables.there are consonants and vowels in english and there are initials and finals in chinese.the initials in chinese are similar with the beginning consonants of a syllable.the finals are similar with vowels in english.
there are many similarities in the place and ways of pronunciation between english phonemes and chinese alphabets.for example，[p]，[b]，[t]，[d]，[d]，[g]and[f]can correspond to chinese alphabets p，b，t，d，k，g and f.the vowels of[i：]，[u：]and[a：]can correspond to chinese i，u，and a.therefore，students can learn the right pronunciation through the similarities.
the positive transfer effect on lexicon
we can use the first language to explain a target language.when a chinese student learns a second language，one has already had the competence and learning ability.he can explain and understand the abstract words with the help of chinese.for example，the words like revolution，friendship and economics can be learnt well with the help of chinese explanation.with the help of chinese，the student can learn the words more quickly and easier.and the words which refer to the concepts of time，place and space，such as station，year，sun，dog etc.can be taught directly with chinese because people have had the image and concept of them.what need to do is to give the students some new symbols and expressive forms.additionally，there are a lot characters in chinese related to something，such as 坑 and 垦 are related to solid，so there is a “土” in these two characters.this is similar with english prefixes and suffixes.with the help of this method，students can remember a lot of words which can be remembered by the affixes.
the positive transfer effect on grammar
although english and chinese belong to different language systems，they have many similarities in sentence pattern.for example，（1）s+v eg.tome is coming.汤姆来了；（2）s+v+o eg.tom likes football.汤姆喜欢足球；（3）s+v+p eg.tom is a teacher.汤姆是一名老师.these sentence patterns are all similar.students can learn some sentence patterns very quickly if they know the first very well.besides，some complex sentences are similar with english sentences.for example，“since you are tired，you had better have a rest.” means 既然你累了，就好好休息吧 in chinese； “this is the reason why he did not come” means 这就是他为什么没有来的原因in chinese.some english phrases and sentences are similar with chinese in meaning.for example，“seeing is believing”，眼见为实and “strike while the iron is hot”，趁热打铁.through the examples，we can see that the english learners of chinese can learn with ease because the similarities help them to understand and use the target language.
conclusion
in conclusion，there are negative and positive transfers of first language upon the second language acquisition.the role of the first language cannot be neglected by anyone.at the same time，the first language can turn to be a source of learning.learners can not consider the first language only as the interference but the learners cannot regard the first language as the omnipotent helper，either.learners should learn the target language with the proper method and ask for the first language’s help appropriately in case make the first language only in interference.therefore，the first language can accelerate the second language acquisition and can be an obstacle in the learning process.the process of second language acquisition is complex.it depends on the target language features and to which stage a learner has arrived to decide how to use the help of the first language.（作者单位：吉林大学）
references
[1]chomsky，n.（1976）.reflections on language.london： fontana.
[2]dulay，h.& burt，m.（1974）.you can’t learn without goofing.in j.rechards（ed），error analysis： perspectives on second language acquisition.london： longman.
[3]ellis，r.（2004）.understanding second language acquisition.shanghai： shanghai foreign language education press.
[4]gass，s & selinker，l.（2001）.second language acquisition： an introductory course.（second edition）.lawrence erlbaum.
[5]kleinmann，h.（1977）.avoidance behavior in adult second language acquisition.language learning，27.
[6]lado，r.（1957）.linguistics across cultures.ann arbor： university of michigan press.
[7]selinker，l.（1972）.interlanguage.international review of applied linguistics，10.
[8]zhang，h.y.（2008）.thinking of native language and transfer in second language acquisition.journal of shanxi finance and economics university（higher education edition），11（1），51-54.下载本文
