When Chinese senior high school students learn English as a second language, they are influenced by dialects. In Guangdong, especially senior high students who speak Cantonese dialects are impacted by mother tongue transfer in both positive and negative ways. Existing research has studied the impact of mother tongue transfer on pronunciation, writing, grammar, and vocabulary. However, most studies focus on the negative aspects of mother tongue transfer.  There is limited research on the transfer of mother tongue among high school students who speak Cantonese dialect. This study employs questionnaires, interviews, participatory observation and literature review to investigate the impact and forms of mother tongue transfer on English oral learning among high school students. In this study, a theoretical framework for promoting the acquisition of second languages is constructed by applying the bias analysis theory derived from the contrastive analysis hypothesis of language transfer. Furthermore, it examines how mother tongue transfer affects the oral acquisition of English by Cantonese senior high school students. The similarity in pronunciation between Cantonese and English assists students in mastering English pronunciation; however, due to the absence of certain phonemes, the accuracy of English pronunciation may be compromised. In terms of grammar, Cantonese and English share similarities in aspects such as the use of adverbials and attribute post positions, which will facilitate the learning of English grammar. However, due to the differences in thinking between English and Chinese, negative transfer effects are generated in psychological vocabulary, subjunctive mood, and other aspects.

Qianlin Yang, Xukun Zhang. Examining the Impact of Transfer of Mother Tongue on Oral English Learning: A Case Study of Cantonese Dialect High School Students. International Journal of New Developments in Education (2024), Vol. 6, Issue 8: 1-8. https://doi.org/10.25236/IJNDE.2024.060801.

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