汉语语言环境对英语学习的影响英语毕业论文.doc

汉语语言环境对英语学习的影响AbstractA good mastery of English has become a must for all the students in China because of frequent communication between countries. It is easy for the students to get access to English. And our country lays stress on fostering English talents. But the present situation of English learning is that many people have labored on it but only to find it is a waste of time and energy. This thesis analyzes the factors affecting the English learning which are social context, the distinction between these two languages and the students goals and motivations. With Bernard Spolskys theory, the author explains the most important conditions for second language learning: social context, cultural background, exposure condition and native pronunciation condition. He insists that learners should pay special attention to language transfer and intercultural communication. Besides, a good attitude is crucial. Available resources are also of great help to create good conditions for English learning in Chinese context.Key Words:Chinese context; conditions; second language learning; language transfer摘要由于国际间的交流日益频繁，中国学生必须很好地掌握英语这门语言。目前，学生们接触英语的机会很多，而且我们国家也花了大量的人力、物力，着重培养英语人才。然而，学生们英语学习的进展却不尽人意，许多人花了大力气学英语，最后却发现它既费时，又费力。本文主要分析了影响英语学习的重要因素：社会环境、两种语言间的差异，学生学习英语的目的与动机。根据斯波尔斯基的第二语言学习条件理论可知,中国学生在学习英语过程中受汉语环境的影响颇深，缺乏英语语言环境。要克服这种影响，学习者首先要注意语言的迁移作用和跨文化的交流，其次要端正学习的态度，树立可达到的目标，最后尽可能利用现有的的资源创造适合学习英语的条件。关键词: 汉语语境；第二语言学习;条件；语言迁移IntroductionEnglish plays a very important role in every area of the society. Whether you are a teacher or a student, a farmer or a worker, a leader or a member, you have relations with English. In the long history, English has developed its individual uniqueness and it is easy to be adopted in most nations. Naturally, English has become the global language gradually and has its irreplaceable function and position. In another word, owing to its broad influence, the earth is becoming smaller and smaller. English, as an important tool, has a special function in the communications of all nations. It is estimated about 700 million to 800 million people can speak English. Apart from 400 million native speakers, the others are using English in different ways to different extent. At present up to 300 million people are learning English in China, and there are still more and more people joining the group of English learning. And the number of English learners is increasing rapidly.However, among the English learners, not many have learned English well enough to communicate with English speakers. Both educators and linguistics are showing their concern about second language. Some are research into the English teaching methodology (the Grammar- translation Method,  the Direct Method, the Oral Approach, the Audio-lingual Method, the Cognitive Approach, the Natural Approach, the Communicative Approach, etc.); some are analyzing relationship between psychology and second language acquisition( Sandra Lee Mckay, Nancy H. Hornberger, etc.), still some others are studying the way to learn English or a second language ( Bernard Spolsky, Claire Kranmsh, Elli Hinkel, Rod Ellis, etc.). At home, Yu Liming is studying language transfer, and Sun Mianzhi is exploring Chinese context and English learning. Indeed, teaching methodology, psychology and contexts affect the learning process. Actuality of English Learning in ChinaWith the opening and reforming, English has been an important course in schools. More and more people realize the importance of English and became English learners to meet the challenges. In China, English is taught in most primary schools in the cities from Grade Three and in all the middle schools in the whole country. In a long term, English will be a major course from primary school to university learning. Even though one has graduated from university, he has to get in touch with English frequently. In China, CET-4 and CET-6 are set in most colleges and basically every one has to pass the CET-4, and every one is trying his best to pass them. To some learners, English is a new thing and due to curiosity, they may have enough warmness and confidence at the beginning of English learning. Later, when they meet various difficulties and blocks, they lost their confidence gradually even at last most of them have to give it up. To some students and some adults, the purpose to learn English is only to meet the demands of exams. According to some surveys we are seriously affected by the native language Chinese. A lot of people can not break away from the control of the native language, because the two languages are quite different in some aspects.II. Factors Affecting English LearningThe Chinese context has a great influence on English learning in China. Both English learners and English teachers always face this problem that how learners can master English language. Research shows that native language and native language context are the major blocks in the way to learning English. It is generally a bemusement: English learners in China have learned it for a long time, but English learners in China still can not see the progress. English speakers and Chinese speakers have different thoughts. English learners in China are always under the influence of Chinese context, so it is so difficult to have significant progress. In the last 20 years, the environment of English learning has changed a lot in China. We can see the rapid development in English learning. Otherwise, no matter how great the changes are, we are still in the Chinese context which is not changeable. So, the fact that we should not disengage the Chinese thought has an opposite effect on English learning everywhere and any time. In fact, how Chinese context affect the English learning.A. The Restriction of Social ContextChinese and English are two very different languages and belong to different linguistic systems. To Chinese people, English is a second language. On the other hand, most of the Chinese English learners only depend on the teaching in the classroom, so they have few opportunities to communicate with a native English speaker face to face. Most surveys show that the infant time is the golden time to learn languages. Here we can imagine that if a baby is taught in English, Japanese and Spanish since he was born, when he grows up he can speak three kinds of languages at the same time. Even though he does not know the grammar, he can speak every language very fluently. For most Chinese, they do not know the grammar at all, but all of them can speak Chinese fluently. There is another phenomenon: if there is one English speaker or English teacher in the family, their baby always has a good English achievement. All of these show that Chinese social context has a great influence in English learning. Professor Sun Mianzhi quoted Professor Xiong Denis speech, “ I always compare English Learning to a Besiegment. Your English is the Besieger and of course your mother tongue is the one besieged. You Command your army of English to break through the line of defense until you overtake the strongholdyour mother tongue.”（Translated）. But it is really a hard job because you are completely surrounded by the enemy troops and your enemy is so strong.B. Difference between the Two LanguagesTo learn English well, it is necessary to know the details of it. Firstly, when you are learning the pronunciation, you will be corrected for several times. Sometimes, you want to say go to somewhere by ship, but because you pronounce it too long, some others think that you “go somewhere by sheep”. When you can not separater and l, you will read rice(米饭) as lice(虱子). Secondly, in the grammar you always make mistakes like this: I am student, it raining hard, against this plan, etc. Thirdly, in the acceptation, once you have written “my English level low”. Sometimes even you want to “keep diary” but you use “keeping notes or writing everyday note”. Some sentences like “go buy thing and write with English” always appear in your articles. Fourthly, in pragmatics: you once called David Smith Teacher Smith or Mr. David. And we know Father, Mother, Sister in English is quite different from our Chinese. A teacher is very kind and easygoing. The students like her very much. They think she is just like their mother. But we can never call her Mother Teresa, because in English, Father, Mother or Sister has some religious connotations.C. The Goals and MotivationThe goals and motivations of English learner have a great influence in the course of English learning. Most of us know that at the beginning of our new country, Chinese people were trying to learn Russian. Only after the opening and the reforming, English became the most popular second language in China. Some people realize the importance of English and they think English is very useful. So they will try their best to learn it well. But others bigotry thinks that they do not go abroad and they should spend so much time and money on English tests. The former will spend much more time than the latter ones on English learning. In fact, the total time you spent on English learning is not exceeding one year at all. Nobody can learn a language well enough to use it freely. In China, people learn English for different purposes. With the influence of the text-oriented education, people learn it just because they want to earn a diploma or have a better job in the future. So they learn by rote a lot of grammar rules, read a lot, practice lots of vocabulary and structures. As for communication, they become dumb. Finally, they may realize how inefficient their way is.D. Phenomenon of Language Transfer Language transfer, according to Odlin (1989), is the influence resulting from the similarities and differences between the target language and the other languages that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired. This definition thus suggests that transfer can occur at any levels, strategic, linguistic, discoursal, and pragmatic. Inter-language, such as a semantic formulae, strategy, or linguistic form, occurs in the NL (native language), TL (target language) and IL (inter-language) data. Similar response frequencies in all the three data sets are classified as positive transfer, while different response frequencies between IL-TL and NL-TL combined with similar frequencies between IL-NL register as negative transfer (quoted, Liu Xiaozhong, 2001). We just take a pragmalinguistic failure for example.Chinese learners usually use the expression: “Never mind” in replying to “Thanks a lot. Thats a great help” (He Ziran, 1988). In Chinese, we use “没关系”(Mei guan xi) or “不用谢”(Bu yong xie) in reply to “Thank you”. However, their equivalents in English, “Never mind”, “Not at all” and “You are welcome” are slightly different in use from one another, though they all may be translated as “没关系”(Mei guan xi) in Chinese. The students often failed to see the discrepancy and, due to their mother-tongue influence, used these expressions interchangeably. If a student helped the professor clean the blackboard, he would normally say “thank you” to the student. But instead of saying “My pleasure”, as native speakers normally do in this situation, Chinese students would often say, “Its my duty”. This shows the students falling back on the Chinese situation where it is wholesomely all right for people to say “应该的”(Ying gai de). But he failed to realize that in English It is my duty” also implies an obligation instead of a volunteer help. Some other examples as “No smoking please” and “Our English teacher has peaches and plums everywhere in China” are also failures in use. Distinctions between English and ChineseChina also has its individual culture which is rooted deeply in its long history. Generally speaking, each nation has its unique culture and should be honored for it. Each nation always thinks of the culture of its own the best in the world. When Chinese developed into the native language in the eastern Asia where all the people think it was the most splendid language and knowledge in the world, so it is comparatively difficult to accept another new language. Chinese and English are both two widely used languages in the world. Totally, the numbers of the Chinese Speakers and English speakers take one fourth of the global population. Linguists classify languages using two main classification systems: typological and genetic. A typological classification system organizes languages according to the similarities and differences in their structures. Languages that share the same structure belong to the same type, while languages with different structures belong to different types. For example, despite the great differences between the two languages in other respects, Mandarin Chinese and English belong to the same type, grouped by word-order typology. Both languages have a basic word order of subject-verb-object.But, they are different. Chinese belongs to HanTibet language system, but English belongs to IndoEuro language system. In Chinese, the square hieroglyph is the tool to express ideas, but in English it is the 26 letters. There exists difference in sentence structure, pronunciation, vocabulary.A. Structure There are 7 basic types in English. 1.SVC 2.SV 3.SVA 4.SVO 5.SVOA 6.SvoO 7.SVOC(Note: S subject  V verb  C complement O object o object A adverbial). Some people think it should combine the second and the third one as well as the fifth one and the sixth one. So they think there are five basic types.) In Chinese, there are far more than five basic types.B. PronunciationIn Chinese, there are some similar pronunciations with English, like some consonants p b, t d, s z, m n, f g, k h, and some vowels a: i and u.  But individually, they have their own pronunciation and standard. Chinese has four tunes but English only depends on the different positions of the stress. In addition, in English there are some phonetics which are very difficult to pronounce liker v etc. In Chinese pinyin, each “zi” has a “yunmu”, which is like the vowel sound in English. An English consonant or several consonants are preceded by a vowel. C. VocabularyGenerally, English has a larger vocabulary. Nowadays, there are some ten thousands Characters in Chinese. It has accumulated to a large storeroom. All the factors considered, English has a quicker and more significant development than Chinese. Websters Third New International Dictionary, which was published in 1962, includes 480,000 million words. Chinese word has a surprising ability to combine another word and then form a new word. So Chinese has abundant phrases and the meanings of words vary in different phrases. Chinese words can express more clearly and make the descriptions more vivid. In some other part, Chinese is so brief that you use just one word to express a clear meaning. For example, 走means to go, 吃 means