Avoiding Negative Transfer from Grammar and Culture When Teaching Chinese to Japanese Students

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explain the negative language transfer from Japanese grammar and culture. It can help teachers who are Teaching Chinese as a Second Language (TCSL teachers) to give more targeted coping strategies in teaching. In the process of learning a second language, learners usually tend to rely on their mother tongue to understand the second language, which is recognized to create a certain negative transfer of the mother tongue. In the process of teaching Chinese to the Japanese students, the Japanese students often cannot overcome broke the rule of the original mother tongue. It affects the processes of Chinese language acquisition and the way of expression. China and Japan are the only two countries in the world that use characters. There are many common Chinese words in Chinese and Japanese, so it is relatively easy for Japanese to learn Chinese, but there are also some bottlenecks. The research object of this paper is Japanese adults who are learning Chinese, from basic to intermediate and advanced levels. By comparing Chinese and Japanese grammatical structures, expressions, and cultural factors to find out the difficulties of the Japanese students to learn Chinese, then, analyze the reasons and make suggestions. This paper systematically summarizes the problems that Japanese students encounter in terms of grammar, expression habits, and culture when they are learning Chinese, but does not conduct an in-depth analysis of each point, which is hoped to pave the way for future research. Of course, the factors that affect Japanese learning Chinese are pronunciation problems and other problems, which are not covered in this article.