Positive And Negative Transfer In Learning Japanese

1. Introduction

The language transfer exists in the process of the foreign language acquisition. This transfer can be positive or negative. There is not a linear relationship between transfer and similarity of the native language and the foreign language which learners are learning. Even two languages belongs to the same language family and have the same structure, the native language would also have a negative transfer in the foreign language learning. Thus, the similarities between the two languages cannot be the factor to decide whether the positive transfer exists only or not. Both positive transfer and negative transfer exist in the process of foreign language learning. Nowadays, more and more Chinese people choose Japanese as their second language or the third language because both Chinese and Japanese share the similar

However, it does not mean that Chinese can learn Japanese much quicker than people of other countries. For example, there is a phenomenon that most Korean learners of Japanese can speak Japanese more frequently than Chinese learners of Japanese when they start learning at the same time. As mentioned below, although Japanese and Chinese have many similarities in phonetics, lexicology, syntax, and other areas, the negative transfer of Chinese in learning Japanese is obvious. This article focuses on the negative transfer of Chinese in learning Japanese caused by the differences of these two languages in four aspects, which are phonetics, syntax, lexicology, and culture, and explains the reasons why these negative transfer happened. Then, according to these negative transfer, this article would find a measure to reduce these negative influence while the Chinese native speakers learn Japanese as their