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Language is a tool for people to communicate, so there must be some connections among different languages, include similarities and differences. If we can use their similarities properly and pay attention on differences, different languages can be interlinked. Therefore, first language not only has a positive impact but also has a negative impact on second language acquisition. We call these effects ‘language transfer’. There are two kinds of language transfer, positive transfer and negative transfer. If first language has a good impact on second language acquisition and helps the learning of second language, we call it ‘positive transfer’. If first language has a bad impact on second language acquisition and hinders the learning of second language, we call it ‘negative transfer’. The researches of language learning show that during studying second language, if we make a comparison between first language and second language and find out their similar or same characters, first language can play a driving role to the learning of second language which means it produces positive transfer. More similarities, more positive transfer. So that students are easy to understand, memorize and use second language. Higher learning motivation and more learning interest will effectively promote the teaching of second language as well as improve learning efficiency. For example, there are some pronunciations between Chinese and English are similar or the same, like the pronunciation of ‘s, z, d’, ‘sofa’ (Shafa), ‘pingpong’(Pingpang), ‘yoga’(yujia), etc. I found a lot of English beginners in China will use Chinese to help recite vocabulary. Besides, most students will use Chinese thinking to translate some key words and then understand sentences when they read English articles. It is not a scientific way of learning but it does offer some help to learn English at the very beginning. The differences between first language and second language can stop and interfere with students’ understanding, memorizing and using second language which means it produces negative transfer. More differences, stronger interference, so that students can’t understand and use second language which causes them to lose interest and confidence of learning second language. First, about reciting English vocabulary, it’s very common to see in China. Although there are some similar pronunciations between Chinese and English, they have different phonetic and phonology. When students use similar pronunciation to recite words, it helps to some extent but it also make students ignore correct pronunciations like ignoring retroflex and nun-retroflex which indirectly influences English listening. Most of the time, students knows every single word, but when they hear these words in a sentence, they can’t get the meaning because they don’t know the rules of pronunciation like linking and stress. Secondly, there is a phenomenon called ‘Chinglish’ in China. The reason of which is that Chinese is used to applying Chinese thinking to English learning. For example, ‘Good good study, day day up’(study hard and make progress every day), ‘run car’(sports car), etc. Some of them are just for fun, but it shows how the way of thinking in first language influences the learning of second language. In a word, language transfer is a useful and effective way of learning a new language. It plays different roles in different stages of second language acquisition. Therefore, teachers should use different features at different stages to help learners to learn second language. For example, when teaching children second language, teachers should avoid negative transfer. Children are good at imitating, teachers should take full advantages of it. First language plays an essential part in second language acquisition, it impacts on second language acquisition a lot in both positive and negative aspects. As a result, taking good use of positive transfer and change negative transfer are necessary for second language acquisition.
