First Language Influence in Learning English - Essay Example

First Language Influence in Learning English due First Language Influence in Learning English Languages, just like cultures, have been rarely sufficient to themselves. The importance of the intercourse has led to direct or indirect contact between speakers of one language with those of culturally dominant or neighboring languages. The type of influence may be hostile or in most cases as is the case friendly. This may lead to improved trade and business relations or on the other hand result to interchange or borrowing of spiritual goods that may include science, art and religion. The easiest way for a language to influence another language will be through the borrowing of certain words. When there is this cultural borrowing, definitely there will be the likelihood of those words being borrowed(Sapir, 1978). The Chinese language and the English language have since time memorial influenced each other in one way or the other be it through the structures, vocabulary or modern slang each possesses. The Chinese influence on the English learning has had a great impact on the language teaching expertise in the whole Chinese country. Researchers have shown that Chinese language has a great impact on learners of English language (Gu, 2011).generalizes that the development on the transfer of language on the basis of universal grammar, behaviorism and cognitivist, is the one that makes the analysis of the characterization and transferability of language. Chinese influence has played a more notable role in English production than what many researchers had thought about before. This influence has been largely been covert, in which it lies mostly on the cognitive operations in the production of language. It therefore, follows that the influence the Chinese has on the English learners primarily manifests mostly on the lexical and syntax usage. Different patterns of thought of the Chinese and English cause the peculiarity of their discourse constructions. However, this is unknown by most Chinese students. Therefore, having less knowledge on the English language general organizational outline, most students find themselves putting the wrong pattern of an English language because of the influence of the native language pattern. However, this has made them to be able to communicate well and understand each other despite the use of a foreign language. The Chinese influence on syntax of the English language has been phenomenal over the years. Syntax being the rules of grammar, can be used to connect and order words in a sentence. Analysis by researchers revealed that a Chinese sentence is composed of two parts that is rhyme and theme which mean comment and topic respectively, (Xiao, 2010). The English language is more subject prominent while Chinese is topic prominent. In English, it is only noun phrase, noun and pronoun that can stand as subject, while in Chinese, every part of a speech can qualify to be used as subject, that may include, verb, adverb, noun, adjective and phrase. This difference in syntax has made many Chinese and English learners to make errors in sentence constructions. The errors emanate from substitutions to calques of structures. Learners in most cases tend to avoid using structures that they feel are very different from those in their native language like what most Chinese students do when learning the English language (Schachter and Odlin, 1991). Furthermore, the English language involves orthographic spelling while the Chinese language is a master of ideographic character. The two languages have differences in morphology, word formation and lexical usage. The English language is full of inflectional change unlike Chinese. For example the use of affix and prefix can bring out many different forms of a word that may lead to it taking the form of a noun, verb and adjective. The word “sign” which means a mark can change when you add an affix to signify, adding another affix you can get significant from the same word, adding a prefix you can get insignificant which brings the different forms of the same word. This difference in lexicons makes students making a lot of mistakes in translating.It is therefore, evident that Chinese has an inevitable influence on English. This has mainly brought about by many Chinese students not knowing the similarities and differences of the Chinese and English language. Therefore, there is a significant influence that Chinese has on English especially to foreigners who visit China. For example, many foreigners in order to remember the Chinese word “nihao” which means hello will attach two English words, “knee” and “how”in order to remember the word(Xu, 2009). On the other hand English has had a great impact on the Chinese language. The English language first arrived in China in the late 1637 mainly when British traders arrived at Guangzhou and Macao. This trade led to the emergence of a Chinese Pidgin English to aid in the communication of terms of trade. This language was as a result of mispronunciation of English words by the Chinese. English has increasingly become a language of the youth in china. Its effect is transitioning beyond normal communication. It is also influence the culture, way of thinking and acting among young Chinese people(Luan and Wang, 2009). The young people in China feel proud speaking English. While some countries view English as being anti-nationalistic, the Chinese young view it as a leap far beyond the constrictions of their nation’s life and towards an open space of the international community. This gives them a new sense of a feeling of modernity, enhanced sense of status, internationalism and independence. This will eventually help china transform in the 21st century. Comparing Chinese and English intonation, when one speaks in English, the subjects mostly emphasizes a word simply by making it longer. This is a typical manner of stressing when you go to China. For some English words, the Chinese have only translated the literal meaning and used it thinking it means the same as the English word. For example; “hot dog” would be translated as “re gou” where by the first word means hot and the second dog in Chinese. For other characters, the Chinese have preferred to use words that sound English in origin. For instance, “maikefeng” that stems from microphone by the way the English word is pronounced. Other words come from a mix in both slang and formal Chinese. For example, “yin tewang” which stem from internet has mix transliteration with ‘wang’ word that means network or network. Among the slang terms, compounds are mixed with one letter short forms with Chinese words. For instance; “niu B” which means see above, and “zhuangbility’ in which zhuang bi can be mean to act tough or cool but adding “bility” it will be a noun and “sha B” means dumbass(Mixed Blood in China, 2010) Conclusion From the above evidences it can be said that the English and Chinese languages have so many things in common and have an inevitable influence on each other. Bibliography Gu, S. (2011). A cultural history of the Chinese language. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. Luan, L. and Wang, H. (2009). The Impact of Second Language Proficiency on Chinese ESL Learners’ English Word Recognition. ASS, 5(1). Mixed Blood in China, (2010). The Influence of English on Chinese. [online] Available at: http://mixedbloodinchina.typepad.com/blog/2010/03/the-influence-of-english-on-chinese.html [Accessed 8 Mar. 2015]. Sapir, E. (1978). Language, an introduction to the study of speech. London: Hart-Davis, MacGibbon. Schachter, J. and Odlin, T. (1991). Language Transfer: Cross-Linguistic Influence in Language Learning. Language, 67(1), p.155. Xiao, L. (2010). Ying Han bi jiaoyanjiuyu fan yi =. Shanghai: Shanghai waiyujiaoyuchu ban she. Xu, X. (2009). The Influence on Chinese Language from Postcolonial English. IES, 2(2). Read More