Abstract

Although Chinese college students have studied English for many years, they still have much difficulty in writing a good paper. There are many factors resulting in their inability to write well, such as students’ lack of vocabulary, having a poor knowledge of grammar, language transfer, and so on. But, of these factors, the negative transfer of Chinese is a main factor that cannot be neglected. It influences their writing in diction, building of sentence and discourse structure, and as a result impedes improving their English writing ability. So this thesis will, based on the review of some theories related to the negative transfer of a native language and on a detailed analysis of the negative transfer of Chinese on college students’ English writing, such as its negative transfer in lexicon, in sentence structure and in discourse structure, put forward some practical effective strategies for decreasing the negative transfer of Chinese so as to improve college students’ English writing, like raising students’ awareness of the negative transfer of Chinese, increasing comparative analysis in classroom teaching, and introducing the cultures of the English-speaking countries.

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