Mother Tongue Interference in English Language Writing at Derge Secondary School
The Case of Grade 9 Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4314/star.v4i4.25Keywords:
Contrastive Analysis, Mother Tongue, Interference, Foreign languageAbstract
The purpose of this study was to find out if there are any patterns of mother tongue interference in Derge Senior Secondary School grade 9 students’ written English. It explored EFL learners' writing difficulties by analyzing the nature and distribution of their writing errors. To this effect, the researcher examined students’ questionnaire, teachers’ interview and English writing samples of 30 grade 9 students and then categorized the errors according to spelling, grammar, word order types of errors and coordination of ideas. The data indicated that items such as spelling errors, grammar errors and word order were caused by negative interference of the L1 in students’ TL writing. The kind of transfer that dominated was spelling, structure, preposition, doubling of subjects, plural formation and synonyms. Most of the grammatical errors committed by the students were L1 interference in acquiring grammatical elements of L2 (English). Based on the findings, it was recommended that teachers should be aware of the effect of negative transfer of grammar to MT and know how to reduce this problem and implement more effective teaching and learning.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Abrego, M. (2013). The Level of Interference of English Learners’ Mother Tongue with their Learning of Prepositions: Case of English Composition II Students of Foreign Language Department at the University of El Salvador, (Thesis). University of El Salvador.
Gass, S. (2008). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course. 2nd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hassan, A. (2013). The effects of Arabic on English writing of Petra University Students. Journal of Modern Education Review 3(3): 256-263.
Kavaliauskiene, G. (2009). Role of the Mother Tongue in Learning English for Specific Purposes. ESP World 1 (22): 1-12.
Keshavarz, M. H. (2003). Error Analysis and Contrastive Analysis in Translation and Learner Translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Khan, A. (2014). Cross-linguistic Issues and Compatible Strategies for Teaching English. Journal of Foreign Languages, Cultures and Civilizations 2(1): 201-234.
Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. Pergamon: Pergamon University Press.
Mounya, A. (2010). Teaching Lexical Collocations to Raise Proficiency in Foreign Language Writing, (PhD Dissertation, Guelma University, Alge.
Nunan, D. (1992). Research methods in language learning.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ridha, N. (2012). The effect of EFL learners’ mother tongue on their writings in English: An error analysis study. Iraqi Journal of the College of Arts (University of Basrah) 60: 22-45.
Skoog, P. (2006). Native Language Interference: A Study of Interference Patterns in Swedish Students’ English Writing. Engelska: Karlstads University Press.
Soares., Silva and Noemi. (2008).The Impact of Mother Tongue on Teaching English as a Foreign Language at Beginner Levels’, (Thesis).Praia (Cabo Verde): Instituto Superior de swducaçao.
UNESCO (2008). Improving the Quality of Mother Tongue- Based Literacy and Learning Case Studies from Asia, Africa and South America. University of Victoria Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2015 Journal of Science, Technology and Arts Research
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
STAR © 2023 Copyright; All rights reserved
