CHINESE LANGUAGE INTERFERENCE OF PRIMEONE SCHOOL STUDENTS IN WRITTEN ENGLISH.

CHINESE LANGUAGE INTERFERENCE
OF PRIMEONE SCHOOL STUDENTS
IN WRITTEN ENGLISH

A Thesis

Submitted to English Applied Linguistics Study Program
In Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of Magister Humaniora

By:
RIWANTO TAMBA
Registration Number: 8126112027

ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
MEDAN
2015

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Above all thanks are deserved to be praised to the Almighty God, Jesus
Christ, for the blessing, guidance, enlightenment, patience, and wisdom given to
the writer throughout the beginning to the end, the ease and difficulty of the
writing and for the whole completion of the study. For coping up the misery,
restlessness, egoism, arrogance, and weakness during the study and the process of
the writing, more than thanks are worth to His highest, and bringing the writer
about a light, inspiration, clear path up to the final phase of the study, it is second
to none but to praise God for the achievement. For all the process and completion
of the

writing entitled Chinese Language Interference of PrimeOne School

Students in Written English, he thanks God more and more.
Big thanks are dedicated to his first adviser, Prof. Dr. Berlin Sibarani,
M.Pd., and his second adviser, Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd., for all the
guidance, advice, knowledge, ideas, criticism, suggestion and comfort during the
these writing consultation. Massive lesson has been gained from both of them
either academic achievement or personality development, which are completely
needed to grow and explore the life path in the future. Moral lesson has been
grabbed during the process of consultation which is deserved to be thanked and

appreciated for their frankness and sincerity.
Another appreciation is given to Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd., and Dr.
Sri Minda Murni, MS., as the head and secretary of English Linguistics Study
Program, postgraduate school of State University of Medan. For their assistance
and responsiveness, the writer delivers his massive thanks.
Without any criticism, idea, suggestion, guidance and review, the would
never be better, the writer, therefore, thanks all the examiners and reviewers very
much, Prof. Dr. Sumarsih., M.Pd., Dr. Sri Minda Murni, MS., and Dr. Zainuddin,
M.Hum. For their welcome and comfort during the revision of the , the writer
expresses his best gratitude.
For his parents, Blintor Tamba and Resmi Marbun, the writer thanks them
for being a life inspiration, strength, role model, breath, motivation, happiness,
pride, and love to the writer. Above any other appreciation and thanks are
i

deserved for them. The writer thanks very much as well for the support and
motivation from his siters Heppy Tamba, ST., Anita Tamba, Amd, Melyana
Tamba, Amd., and from his brothers Alysastro Wijoyo Tamba and Isten Sweno
Tamba.
Special thanks are also given to the one and only Natalya Silaban, S.Kom,

for her love, patience, motivation, inspiration and support during the study and the
process of the thesis writing. The one who has been part of my life story to carry
out the ease and hardship for every phase and day, the writer thanks her very
much.
For the financial support and permission to continue his study, the
researcher expresses above of his best gratitude to the big family of PrimeOne
School – the Faunder (Mr. Amrin), the Director (Ms. Fauziah), the Principal
(Ms. Rika), the Vices Principal (Mr. Firli, Ms.Citra) and all PrimeOne staffs and
teachers, Ms. Madonna, Mr. Roy, Mr. Maryanto, Mr. Erik, Ms Dewi, Ms. Delmi,
and all other colleagues. He thanks them for being an inspiration, becoming the
right people to share his minds and thoughts and being part of his life path.
A lot of thanks are also dedicated to his classmates Mr. Pollung,
Mr. Deddy, Ms. Sarni, Mr. Bambang, Ms. Trisna, Ms Wina and so on, for the
togetherness, memory, happiness, and story they shared together throughout the
process of the study. In addition, the writer thanks all the lectures for the
knowledge and advice given to him during the study.
Finally, the writer thanks all people who care and support the study and
the writing process. May the thesis be useful for its readers. God Bless.
Medan,

February 2015

The Writer,

Riwanto Tamba
Reg.Num. 8126112027

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................................................................

i

ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS..........................................................................

iv

LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................

vii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ………………………………………

1

1.1 The Background of the Study ........................................

1

1.2. The statement of problem .............................................

5

1.3. The Objective of the Study ...........................................

5

1.4. The Scope of the Study.................................................

6

1.5 The Significance of the Study ......................................

6

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ………………………...

8

2.1 Language Interference.................................................

8

2.2 Causes of Language Interference ................................

11

2.3 Types of L1 Interference……………………………..
i

14

2.3.1 L1 Syntactic Interference .................................

14

2.3.2 The Interference of Chinese language (L1)
on English (L2) ..............................................

18

2.4 Relevant studies ..................................................

19

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................

22

3.1 Research Design .....................................................

22

3.2 Subjects ...................................................................

22

3.3 The Data..................................................................

23

3.4 Source Of The Data ................................................

24

3.5 Technique of Data Collection .................................

24

3.6 Technique of Data Analysis....................................

24

3.7 Trustworthiness of the Study ..................................

28

3.7.1 Credibility .....................................................

29

3.7.2 Transferability ...............................................

29

3.7.3 Dependability and Confirmability ................

30

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDING, AND DISCUSSION .

31

4.1 The Data Analysis....................................................

31

ii

4.1.1 The Occurrence of Syntactic Interference
of Chinese Language (L1) in Written
English (L2) of Primeone School Students ....

31

4.1.2 The Description of Syntactic Interference
of Chinese Language in Written English
of Primeone School Students .........................

32

4.2. Findings ..................................................................

56

4.3 Discussion ...............................................................

58

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ...........................

61

5.1 Conclusion .............................................................

61

5.2 Suggestion ............................................................

62

REFERENCE ............................................................................................

64

APPENDICES ...........................................................................................

66

APPENDIX 1: Analysis of the Occurrence of Syntactic Interference

iii

of Chinese Language (L1) in Written English (L2)
of Primeone School Students ..................................

66

APPENDIX 2: The Grammatical Error Sentences Made
by Every Subject .....................................................

81

APPENDIX 3: The English Text Written
by the Chinese Students .......................................

iv

89

LIST OF TABLE

Page
Table 1: The research subjects of the present study ...................................

23

Table 2: Syntactic interference of Chinese language (L1)
in Written English (L2) of Primeone School Students .................

31

Table 3: The Description of Syntactic Interference of Chinese Language
in Written English of Primeone School Students .........................

32

Table 4: The Description of Syntactic Interference of Chinese
Language on Parts of Speech
(adjective, Noun, Verb, adverb) in Written English ....................

36

Table 5: The Description of Syntactic Interference of Chinese
Language on Tense and Its Aspect in Written English ................

41

Table 6: The Existence of Personal Pronoun in Chinese Standard
(Ching and Rimmington, 2004) ...................................................

42

Table 7: The Description of Syntactic Interference of Chinese Language
on the Use of Pronoun in Written English ....................................

45

Table 8: The Description of Syntactic Interference of Chinese Language
on the Use of Auxiliaries in Written English ...............................

49

Table 9: The Description of Syntactic Interference of Chinese Language
on the Use of Article (definite and indefinite)
in Written English .......................................................................

51

Table 10: The Description of Syntactic Interference of Chinese Language
on the Noun Indicating Possession in English .............................

i

53

Table 11: The Description of Syntactic Interference of Chinese Language
on Noun Plurality in Written English .........................................

54

Table 12. The Description of Syntactic Interference of Chinese Language
on the Use of Impersonal ‘There’ in Written English ...............

55

Table 13: The Occurrence of Syntactic Interference of Chinese Language
in Written English by the Subject 1 ...........................................

68

Table 14:The Occurrence of Syntactic interference of Chinese language
in Written English by the Subject 2 ..............................................

70

Table 15: The Occurrence of Syntactic interference of Chinese language
in Written English by the Subject 3 ...........................................

72

Table 16: The Occurrence of Syntactic interference of Chinese language
in Written English by the Subject 4 ...........................................

73

Table 17: The Occurrence of Syntactic Interference of Chinese language
in Written English by the Subject 5 ...........................................

74

Table 18: The Occurrence of Syntactic Interference of Chinese language
in Written English by the Subject 6 ............................................

76

Table 19: The Occurrence of Syntactic Interference of Chinese Language
in Written English by the Subject 7 ...........................................

77

Table 20: The Occurrence of Syntactic Interference of Chinese Language
in Written English by the Subject 8 ...........................................

78

Table 21: The Occurrence of Syntactic Interference of Chinese Language
in Written English by the Subject 9 ............................................

78

Table 22: The Occurrence of Syntactic Interference of Chinese Language
in Written English by the Subject 10 ..........................................

ii

80

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Background of the Study
Many studies have been conducted in order to succeed the learning of
English as second language. Teaching strategies have been modified so well by
the purpose of improving the students’ quality in acquiring the four skill of
language – listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Nevertheless, the issues of
second language learning never remain the satisfactory of learners’ competency.
The learners still find difficulties in expressing their ideas in English and even
produce errors. When writing or speaking the second language (L2), second
language learners tend to depend on their first language (L1) structures. If the
structures of the L1 and L2 are the same, problems will be overcome. Yet, if the
structures of the two languages are distinctly different, then one could expect a
relatively high frequency of errors to occur in L2, thus indicating an interference
of L1 on L2 (Dechert, 1983 and Ellis, 1997).
Ackrapong 2005, found out that the Thai students produce incorrect
sentences when they are expressing their ideas in English. The Thai student writes
“I closed (opened) the radio” instead of “I turned off (on) the radio”. This error
occurs as the students transfer the properties of their first language in the second
language. The meaning of “close or open” in Thai language is equivalent to the
word “turn off (on)”. In addition, in Thai language, the proper noun “hair” and
“furniture” are countable while in English they are not (Nattama, 2002). Thus,
the

students

often

make

mistakes
1

when

they

are

2

expressing these words in English. For instance, the Thai students tend to write
“she has black hairs” instead of “she has black hair”, and to write “The room was
full of furnitures” instead of “The room was full of furniture” (Nattama, 2002).
Still in the context of Thai language, the influence of Thai (L1) in English (L2) is
also found by Wannakarn (2001) when the students use phrase in English such as
“Chicken fried” instead of the correct one “fried chicken”. The students literally
transfer the structure of the L1 in L2. The students produce error as well when
they are writing English sentence such as “I want to buy car” instead of “I want to
buy a car”. The absence of article ‘a’ in the sentence is due to the non-existent of
article (definite or indefinite article) in Thai language (wannakarn, 2001).
The transferring of L1 structure in L2, when the learners are expressing
their ideas, is one of their strategies as an individual process in learning (Dulay,
1982). This strategy can be clearly seen when Chinese students in Hongkong
Babtist University write in English and produce errors. The Chinese students tend
to write “His father took bath” instead of the correct one “His father took a bath”.
This grammatical incorrectness occurs as the absence of article (definite and
indefinite) in Chinese language (Hung, 2000). Thus, in every time the students
modify noun, the students tend to produce grammatical errors. Another case of the
influence Chinese language in to English by Baptist University students is the use
of verb and adjective. In Chinese, both verb and adjective can be used as
predicator in creating sentence. The students tend to transfer this rule when they
are writing in English, therefore produce grammatical errors. For example, the
students tend to write “Kavin afraid to say” instead of the correct one Kavin is
afraid to say” (Hung, 2000).

3

According to Newmark hypothesis (1966), performers who are asked to
produce before they are “ready” will fall back on first language rules (L1), that is,
they will use syntactic rules of their first language while speaking or writing the
second language (L2). When the L1 and L2 rules are different, the resulting error
is referred to“interference” (Khrashen, 1982). Ellis (1997) refers interference as
‘transfer’, which he says is ‘the influence that the learner’s L1 exerts over the
acquisition of an L2’. He argues that transfer is governed by learner’s perception
about what is transferable and by their stage of development in L2 learning. In
learning a target language, learners construct their own interim rules (Selinker,
1971, Seligar, 1988 and Ellis, 1997) with the use of their L1 knowledge.
The interference of L1 in L2 is also found by the researcher in Primeone
School, the place where the present research is going to take place. Primeone
School has 90 percent Chinese students. The researcher is one of the English
teachers in the school and found out some preliminary data about the L1
interference. This happens when Chinese students tend to write “have three book”
instead of the correct one “There are three books”. The grammatical error in
produced by the Chinese students as the result of the interference of their L1. In
Chinese, there is no impersonal “there” Chinese, and there is no different form
between singular and plural noun (Claudia, 2004). Another example is when the
students write a sentence contained a grammatical error such as sentence “A best
friend is someone who always remember you even you’re far away with she/he”.
Ross, Sheng Ma (2006) state that in Chinese the 3rd person singular does not affect
the verb form. Therefore, the incorrect verb “remember” in the sentence above is
affected by transfer of Chinese (L1) structure. The pronoun “she/he” is incorrect

4

as the students transfer the structure of Chinese language (L1). In Chinese, the
form of pronoun as a subject and an object is the same (e.g He as subject ta and as
object ta) (Ching and Rimmington, 2004).
Beardsmore (1982) states that many the difficulties of the second language
learner in phonology, vocabulary and grammar of L2 are due to the interference of
habits from L1. The formal elements of L1 are used in the context of L2 and result
error especially when the structures of the languages are different.
The present study focuses on investigating the interference of Chinese
language (L1) in written English (L2). The researcher focuses on the written
English (L2) that the students produced. On the other hand, the interference may
affect the speaking or pronunciation, reading and so on. Yet, the researcher, in this
occasion, merely focuses on the interference which occurs in written English (L2).
The main reason is that the interference must be more obvious seen in written
English rather than spoken one. In addition, in written English (L2) the learners
must have more time to think the structures and words before they began to write.
The question is why the interference still exists? Another reason is also due to the
authenticity and easiness in analyzing the data compared to the transcription of the
pronunciation. Nevertheless, other researchers are suggested to accomplish the
investigation on how the Chinese language (L1) influences the speaking or
reading the English (L2). In conclusion, the present study particularly investigates
the Chinese language (L1) interference in written English (L2) by the Primeone
Schooll students. The researcher specifies to investigate the syntactic interference.
Lexical interference will not be investigated here. The syntactic interference
means the interference of Chinese language rules, structure or grammar in written

5

English. Obviously, the syntactic interference occurs when the learners use the L1
structures or rules in L2. The syntactic interference may occur in the use of noun,
adjective, correlative conjunction, impersonal there, preposition, auxiliary, verbtense, pronoun and so forth. The researcher has chosen to conduct the study in the
Primeone School since 90 % of the students are Chinese and the school uses
English as language delivery in teaching and communication among students or
teachers. In addition, the researcher is teaching there which could be beneficial to
the collection of the data, determination of the subjects and the application of the
findings later on.

1.2 The statement of problem
Coherently to the background of the study above, the statement of the
problem can be formulated as follows:
1. What syntactic interference of Chinese language (L1) occurs in written
English (L2) of Primeone School students?
2. How does syntactic interference of Chinese language (L1) occur in written
English (L2) of Primeone School students?

1.3 The Objective of the Study
This study is mainly expected to reveal the native Language (L1)
interference in learning foreign language or second language. Therefore, the
objectives can be written as follows:
1. To find out what syntactic interference of Chinese language (L1)
occurs in written English (L2) of Primeone School students.

6

2. To describe how syntactic interference of Chinese language (L1)
occurs in written English (L2) of Primeone School students.

1.4 The Scope of the Study
The present study only focuses on the investigation of syntactic
interference of Chinese language (L1) in written English (L2). The researcher did
not investigate the lexical interference or interference in the other two skills,
speaking and listening. The syntactic interference of Chinese language is the main
focus of the present study.

1.5 The Significance of the Study
Theoretically, the results of the present study are expected to enrich the
discussion and contribute knowledge to other researchers who concern to the
language interference investigation of L1 in L2.
Practically, the findings of the present study are useful for the following
person:
-

Teachers
The findings are expected to be useful for English teachers as the reference

in their teaching. With this knowledge, they could zoom out the students’
difficulties in writing English text especially the ones related to syntax. In
addition, the results of this investigation, syntactic interference of Chinese
language in written English, will be very helpful for teachers in improving the
teaching strategies to enhance students’ English skill.

7

-

Students
The Chinese students will be more aware of the errors produced by the

interference of their native Language (L1) in English. This awareness will give
more possibilities for the students to do self-correction.

-

Other researchers
The findings of the present study are expected to give more reference to

other researchers in investigating the interference of Chinese language and also
other languages in English proficiency such as speaking and writing.

-

Schools or institutions
Schools or institutions play the important role in improving the students’

English proficiency. Therefore, the findings could be used as the reference in
deciding the further policy of more effective teaching and learning process.

CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5.1 Conclusions
Having analysed the syntactic interference of Chinese language in the
English text written by the Chinese students, here are the conclusions:
1. The syntactic interferences found in the English text written by ten
Chinese students are the syntactic interference on parts of speech (noun,
adjective, verb), syntactic interference on tense, syntactic interference on
pronoun, syntactic interference on auxiliary, syntactic interference on
article (definite and indefinite), syntactic interference on noun indicating
possession, syntactic interference on noun plurality, and syntactic
interference on impersonal ‘there’ as sentence subject.
2. The syntactic interferences above occur as Chinese students applied the
properties and features belonged to Chinese (L1) when they are writing in
English (L2) or they produced error English sentences when the same rules
are not found in Chinese language (L1). The interference on parts of
speech occurs as the student does not change the part of speech to
correspond to its position as adjective, verb, and noun. In addition the part
of speech does not correspond to the subject (3rd person singular) or after
preposition. The interference on tenses occurs as the student maintains
infinitive form to express past or perfect. The interference on pronoun
occurs as the student does not correspond to its position as subject, object,
possessive, and the subject ‘I’ is placed before other subjects, which is not
61

62

usual in English. The interference on auxiliary occurs as the student
creates question without auxiliary, and To Be is omitted in passive. In
addition, no bare verb used after modal, which is incorrect in English. The
interference on article occurs as the student uses ‘that’ instead of ‘the’ and
omits using indefinite article ‘a/an’. Interference on noun indicating
possession occurs as the student omits using apostrophe ‘s. Interference on
noun plurality occurs as the student maintains in the form of singular noun,
though it supposed to be plural. Last but not least, the interference on
impersonal ‘there’ as subject occurs as the student uses ‘have’ instead of
‘there’.

5.2 Suggestions
Concerning to the findings of the present study, therefore the researcher
suggests as follows:
1. The teachers who teach Chinese students may emphasize and zoom out the
syntactic interference of Chinese language (L1) as what are found in
chapter IV. The teacher may inform the findings to the students in order to
increase their awareness about the errors they make as the result of the L1
interference. The teacher focuses on this problem and finds the teaching
strategies to avoid the errors in English sentence they produced as the
result of L1 syntactic interference.
2. Other researchers may use the findings in order to investigate the L1
interference in L2. Others possibly investigate the lexical interference,

63

discourse interference of the L1 (Bataknese, Malay, Karonese, and so on)
in English.
3. Students are expected to recognize and understand the syntactic
interference of L1 in L2 in order to possibly improve their self-awareness
and self-correction.
4. Schools, especially those who have Chinese students mostly, are suggested
to socialize the findings and create the policy and strategy of teaching and
learning in order to overcome the L1 interference problems.

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