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Abstract: First language can affect second language learning in both positive and negative ways. Through adopting theories of language acquisition, comparing similarities and differences between first and second languages, and analyzing general problems Chinese non-English majors encounter in their second language acquisition, this article examines effective ways of College English Teaching.
Key words: first language acquisition; second language learning; College English Teaching
First language refers to the first language learned in childhood and still spoken, or the native language of the community in which a child has been brought up. The development of a first or native language is called first language acquisition. People usually develop their native language naturally and succesully. A person’s first language is not necessarily his/her dominant language. For some people, language acquisition does not stop at the stage of first language acquisition. They go on to learn a second or foreign language. This process is called second language learning. A second language is any language learned after one’s first language. According to researches, the defining difference between a first language and a second language is the age the person learned the language.
In the process of acquiring a second language, Hyltenstam found that around the age of six or seven it seemed to be a cut-off p摘自：毕业论文格式要求www.618jyw.com
oint for language learners to achieve native-like proficiency. To achieve the fluency, it is better to start a second language education in an early age. In China, more and more people, especially college students, are learning English as their second language. But most of them complain about the difficulties in acquiring a foreign language and the embarrasent when frequently speaking Chinese-English in communications. So it is necessary to probe into the process of the first and second language learning, and the distinctions of the first and second languages.
Success in language learning can be determined in two ways: likelihood and quality. The first language learners will usually learn their first language and be fully succesul. But for the second language learners, success is not guaranteed. They may be fossilized or stuck due to the influence of their succesul first language learning, so they can rarely become fully succesul in their second language learning.
There are definitely both negative and positive effects the learners’ first language brings to his/her second language learning. Let’s take a detective look into the negative effects first language brings to second language. The role of first language in second language learning is initially a negative one. “Taking a psychological point of view, we can say that there is never peaceful co-existence between two language systems in the learner, but rather constant warfare, and that warfare is not limited to the moment of cognition, but continues during the period of storing newly learnt ideas in memory.” To dig into this problem, first, we he to notice that the accents from one’s first language get in the way of our second language learning. It makes one’s pronunciation sound not so standard and natural, and finally become the first great obstacle in one’s future communication. Furthermore, the learners’ first language affects their acquisition of new vocabulary and grammar. The learners, especially the very beginners, usually memorize new foreign words and phrases through connecting them with Chinese images. But often the meanings of some English words and phrases are not identical with those Chinese images. In this case, unoidable mistakes occur. There are many grammatical differences between English and Chinese language. If the learners confuse them two, their formerly systematic study will consequently be in great chaos. And this does in turn produce some reluctance in their further second language study. Our cultural background has also greatly influenced our second language acquisition. Different cultures he different characteristics, of which sometimes are on the opposite. If a learner is short of knowledge about the culture of his/her target language, he/she is likely to be frequently disturbed because they can only understand the meaning of an expression literally. Or even they would find great embarrasent or confusion, especially in colloquial situations in communication. Second language teaching usually starts after the students he mastered the structural rules and codes of their first language. That is, under most circumstances, they he learnt to write and read with this first language, and the whole system of the communicative functions of the language, such as managing personal affairs, sending out commands, and conducting social communications. So when they start to learn the second language, they do not begin from the starting-line. They he known perfectly about one language, and are eager to apply what they he known to the study of a new language. There is no doubt that even tho源于：高中英语论文www.618jyw.com
ugh these two languages are different, all the languages share something in common to a certain degree. A learner will he no problem finding out that some parts of a second language are similar to those of their native language. This can partly explain why the students would find some parts of the second language acquisition are easily acquired, while the other parts are not. It can be concluded that the well-mastered first language can contribute to the master of a second language because students can find an easier access to it; but on the other hand, it can also stand in the way of developing second language proficiency. So, it is very important to make clear the effects of the first language on second language acquisition before conducting the second language teaching.
It can be easily noted that if a learner’s first language is similar to the second language, it is easier for them to master the newly-learnt form. For example, Chinese students often forget to put s or es after a plural noun when necessary, because they don’t he the corresponding singular-plural form in their native language, but it turns to be easily acquired by French students, because they he the similar form in their first language. For another example, a five-year-old Chinese child acquiring English as a second language, because there is no articles in his first language, would frequently use this as determiners, instead of using the. But a three-year-old German-speaking child, whose first language does he an article system, would use the English articles in correct forms. Take some more examples, a learner seems to be more likely to accept “He is crying now” as a present tense than accept “He is coming soon” as a sentence denoting a near future event. For another example, there are both /s/ and /z/ sounds in Chinese and English. So these sounds make no difficulty for Chinese students to pronounce. But there is neither /θ/ nor /?藜/ in Chinese pronunciation. So even after years of efforts, Chinese students still he great difficulty pronouncing them. In second language acquisition, cultural factors are also important to determine whether or not learners can actually master the target language. Learners who learn English as a second language tend to be more likely to accept idioms which seem semantically transparent to them, and to reject those which seem semantically unclear, language-specific, and unusual. For example, a Chinese would find it confusing why Europeans describe somebody or something standing in one’s way as a lion in one’s way, instead of a tiger in one’s way, if he does not know there is few tigers in European wild lands. Meanwhile, a westerner can never understands why Chinese describe losing glory as losing one’s face, if he does not understand how important the face is to a Chinese and hi摘自：毕业论文格式字体www.618jyw.com
s family. Take one more example, learners would expect blue to be more likely to signify “a color” in China. But in English, it means “depression”, “jazz”, “pornographic” or “noble”. For another example, English adds forms to produce more complex feminine forms, for example, host/hostess, tiger/tigress. But Chinese doesn’t he any distinctive marks of feminine forms.
There are many different methods of teaching English as a second-language, such as the grammar-translation method, the direct method, the audio-lingual method, community language learning and the communicative approach. Some of these approaches are perceives as very popular and effective by languages researchers and teachers. Most language teachers do not use only one singular method. They would combine several methods in their teaching. This can provide a more balanced approach to teaching in different specific situations, and thus help students acquire a second language more succesully and effectively.
Through adopting theories of second language acquisition, comparing the similarities and differences between first and second languages, and analyzing the general problems Chinese non-English majors encounter in their second language acquisition, college English teachers he the responsibility to help their students acquire English better. From the above analysis, college English teachers can apply the methods and experience from our first language acquisition to the college English learning and teaching. First, it is necessary for college English teachers to make clear that where their students come from, and the features of pronunciation in their dialects. Then teach pronunciation in accordance with their specific needs instead of adopting only one method to all the students. Second, teachers should focus more on the vocabulary and grammar different from our first language, because students make less progress if they can only remember words and grammar which are similar to their native language. Finally, teachers should focus on teaching students the reason why English is used in ways different from our language. That is because cultural differences lead to different syntactic logics and usages. “Foreign language differs from second language because of the socio-cultural environment of the acquisition process and the linguistic background of the learners. Second language acquisition is a kind of social activities rather than pure acquisition of knowledge and technology.” Therefore, teachers should put more practices in teaching to make students be more used to second language usages. First language can affect second language learning in both positive and negative ways. But because first language acquisition and second language learning is a pair of technical terms, we can adopt the useful factors in our first language acquisition and make it serve for our second language learning. College English teachers should furthermore adopt more modern effective ways into their English teaching a摘自：学年论文www.618jyw.com
nd testing. Teachers can first evaluate levels of students in order to cater to their different needs, then require students to practice based on their levels and needs, and at the same time combine cultural background of a targetlanguage into teaching. Understanding the effects of the first language on second language acquisition is very important in college English teaching. If the teachers know how students connect their native language with the second language, they can do better in helping students command a foreign language better, and stimulate students to acquire the language more succesully and effectively.
References:
Hyltenstam, K. Non-native features of near-native speakers: On the ultimate attainment of childhood L2 learners. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1992.
Rod, Ellis. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Shanghai Foreign language Education Press, 2004.
[3]Doggett, G. Eight Approaches to Language Teaching. Mosaic, 27 (2), 8-12, 1994.
[4]Kecskes, I, Papp, T. Foreign Language and Mother Tongue. London: Lawrence Erlbaum associates, Inc, 2000.
责任编辑：龙惠慧 [3]
Key words: first language acquisition; second language learning; College English Teaching
First language refers to the first language learned in childhood and still spoken, or the native language of the community in which a child has been brought up. The development of a first or native language is called first language acquisition. People usually develop their native language naturally and succesully. A person’s first language is not necessarily his/her dominant language. For some people, language acquisition does not stop at the stage of first language acquisition. They go on to learn a second or foreign language. This process is called second language learning. A second language is any language learned after one’s first language. According to researches, the defining difference between a first language and a second language is the age the person learned the language.
In the process of acquiring a second language, Hyltenstam found that around the age of six or seven it seemed to be a cut-off p摘自：毕业论文格式要求www.618jyw.com
oint for language learners to achieve native-like proficiency. To achieve the fluency, it is better to start a second language education in an early age. In China, more and more people, especially college students, are learning English as their second language. But most of them complain about the difficulties in acquiring a foreign language and the embarrasent when frequently speaking Chinese-English in communications. So it is necessary to probe into the process of the first and second language learning, and the distinctions of the first and second languages.
Success in language learning can be determined in two ways: likelihood and quality. The first language learners will usually learn their first language and be fully succesul. But for the second language learners, success is not guaranteed. They may be fossilized or stuck due to the influence of their succesul first language learning, so they can rarely become fully succesul in their second language learning.
There are definitely both negative and positive effects the learners’ first language brings to his/her second language learning. Let’s take a detective look into the negative effects first language brings to second language. The role of first language in second language learning is initially a negative one. “Taking a psychological point of view, we can say that there is never peaceful co-existence between two language systems in the learner, but rather constant warfare, and that warfare is not limited to the moment of cognition, but continues during the period of storing newly learnt ideas in memory.” To dig into this problem, first, we he to notice that the accents from one’s first language get in the way of our second language learning. It makes one’s pronunciation sound not so standard and natural, and finally become the first great obstacle in one’s future communication. Furthermore, the learners’ first language affects their acquisition of new vocabulary and grammar. The learners, especially the very beginners, usually memorize new foreign words and phrases through connecting them with Chinese images. But often the meanings of some English words and phrases are not identical with those Chinese images. In this case, unoidable mistakes occur. There are many grammatical differences between English and Chinese language. If the learners confuse them two, their formerly systematic study will consequently be in great chaos. And this does in turn produce some reluctance in their further second language study. Our cultural background has also greatly influenced our second language acquisition. Different cultures he different characteristics, of which sometimes are on the opposite. If a learner is short of knowledge about the culture of his/her target language, he/she is likely to be frequently disturbed because they can only understand the meaning of an expression literally. Or even they would find great embarrasent or confusion, especially in colloquial situations in communication. Second language teaching usually starts after the students he mastered the structural rules and codes of their first language. That is, under most circumstances, they he learnt to write and read with this first language, and the whole system of the communicative functions of the language, such as managing personal affairs, sending out commands, and conducting social communications. So when they start to learn the second language, they do not begin from the starting-line. They he known perfectly about one language, and are eager to apply what they he known to the study of a new language. There is no doubt that even tho源于：高中英语论文www.618jyw.com
ugh these two languages are different, all the languages share something in common to a certain degree. A learner will he no problem finding out that some parts of a second language are similar to those of their native language. This can partly explain why the students would find some parts of the second language acquisition are easily acquired, while the other parts are not. It can be concluded that the well-mastered first language can contribute to the master of a second language because students can find an easier access to it; but on the other hand, it can also stand in the way of developing second language proficiency. So, it is very important to make clear the effects of the first language on second language acquisition before conducting the second language teaching.
It can be easily noted that if a learner’s first language is similar to the second language, it is easier for them to master the newly-learnt form. For example, Chinese students often forget to put s or es after a plural noun when necessary, because they don’t he the corresponding singular-plural form in their native language, but it turns to be easily acquired by French students, because they he the similar form in their first language. For another example, a five-year-old Chinese child acquiring English as a second language, because there is no articles in his first language, would frequently use this as determiners, instead of using the. But a three-year-old German-speaking child, whose first language does he an article system, would use the English articles in correct forms. Take some more examples, a learner seems to be more likely to accept “He is crying now” as a present tense than accept “He is coming soon” as a sentence denoting a near future event. For another example, there are both /s/ and /z/ sounds in Chinese and English. So these sounds make no difficulty for Chinese students to pronounce. But there is neither /θ/ nor /?藜/ in Chinese pronunciation. So even after years of efforts, Chinese students still he great difficulty pronouncing them. In second language acquisition, cultural factors are also important to determine whether or not learners can actually master the target language. Learners who learn English as a second language tend to be more likely to accept idioms which seem semantically transparent to them, and to reject those which seem semantically unclear, language-specific, and unusual. For example, a Chinese would find it confusing why Europeans describe somebody or something standing in one’s way as a lion in one’s way, instead of a tiger in one’s way, if he does not know there is few tigers in European wild lands. Meanwhile, a westerner can never understands why Chinese describe losing glory as losing one’s face, if he does not understand how important the face is to a Chinese and hi摘自：毕业论文格式字体www.618jyw.com
s family. Take one more example, learners would expect blue to be more likely to signify “a color” in China. But in English, it means “depression”, “jazz”, “pornographic” or “noble”. For another example, English adds forms to produce more complex feminine forms, for example, host/hostess, tiger/tigress. But Chinese doesn’t he any distinctive marks of feminine forms.
There are many different methods of teaching English as a second-language, such as the grammar-translation method, the direct method, the audio-lingual method, community language learning and the communicative approach. Some of these approaches are perceives as very popular and effective by languages researchers and teachers. Most language teachers do not use only one singular method. They would combine several methods in their teaching. This can provide a more balanced approach to teaching in different specific situations, and thus help students acquire a second language more succesully and effectively.
Through adopting theories of second language acquisition, comparing the similarities and differences between first and second languages, and analyzing the general problems Chinese non-English majors encounter in their second language acquisition, college English teachers he the responsibility to help their students acquire English better. From the above analysis, college English teachers can apply the methods and experience from our first language acquisition to the college English learning and teaching. First, it is necessary for college English teachers to make clear that where their students come from, and the features of pronunciation in their dialects. Then teach pronunciation in accordance with their specific needs instead of adopting only one method to all the students. Second, teachers should focus more on the vocabulary and grammar different from our first language, because students make less progress if they can only remember words and grammar which are similar to their native language. Finally, teachers should focus on teaching students the reason why English is used in ways different from our language. That is because cultural differences lead to different syntactic logics and usages. “Foreign language differs from second language because of the socio-cultural environment of the acquisition process and the linguistic background of the learners. Second language acquisition is a kind of social activities rather than pure acquisition of knowledge and technology.” Therefore, teachers should put more practices in teaching to make students be more used to second language usages. First language can affect second language learning in both positive and negative ways. But because first language acquisition and second language learning is a pair of technical terms, we can adopt the useful factors in our first language acquisition and make it serve for our second language learning. College English teachers should furthermore adopt more modern effective ways into their English teaching a摘自：学年论文www.618jyw.com
nd testing. Teachers can first evaluate levels of students in order to cater to their different needs, then require students to practice based on their levels and needs, and at the same time combine cultural background of a targetlanguage into teaching. Understanding the effects of the first language on second language acquisition is very important in college English teaching. If the teachers know how students connect their native language with the second language, they can do better in helping students command a foreign language better, and stimulate students to acquire the language more succesully and effectively.
References:
Hyltenstam, K. Non-native features of near-native speakers: On the ultimate attainment of childhood L2 learners. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1992.
Rod, Ellis. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Shanghai Foreign language Education Press, 2004.
[3]Doggett, G. Eight Approaches to Language Teaching. Mosaic, 27 (2), 8-12, 1994.
[4]Kecskes, I, Papp, T. Foreign Language and Mother Tongue. London: Lawrence Erlbaum associates, Inc, 2000.
责任编辑：龙惠慧 [3]
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