The Impact of Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue On College ESL Learners: Zhejiang Yuexiu University as a Case Study

Abstract

Negative transfer of mother tongue is a major difficulty that every second language learner has to overcome, especially for those students whose target language is quite different from their mother tongue. With the in-depth development of pluralism in the world, people pay more and more attention to the learning of various languages, especially English. In this situation, the concerns of language researchers on the negative transfer of mother tongue are inevitably boosting. Given this, based on the pertinent theories of the negative language transfer, this study aims to explore the impact of negative language transfer on Chinese college students’ English learning through a questionnaire poll with some students of Zhejiang Yuexiu University as the research objects. The results of the study are mainly shown in two aspects: the impact of the negative transfer of mother tongue on college students’ oral learning and college students’ writing learning. At the end of the article, the author puts forward the cultural differences between China and the Western countries that lead to the negative transfer of mother tongue, and some effective methods to help Chinese college English learners reduce the negative transfer of mother tongue in their process of English learning.