Abstract
This paper examined some common problems involving prepositions in learning a second language. Many students learning English as a foreign language commonly commit mistakes in prepositions. The aim of this paper is to survey the causes of errors in the use of prepositions that are frequently made by Iranian students. A diagnostic test (35 Multiple choice item) was constructed to test the students proficiency in using these prepositions. The prepositions selected for this purpose were; to, in, at, on, with, of, from, for, about, during, into under, over and by. This test was given to a group of 35 intermediate students. The results indicated that the errors committed by the students were due to both Inter-lingual and Intra-lingual interferences. It is hoped that this research will help teachers of English Language to be aware of these problems and re-evaluate their teaching approach.
Highlights
Contrastive analysis is the systematic study of a pair of languages with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities between the first language and the target language based on the assumptions that: the similarities facilitate learning while differences cause problems
The purpose of this study is to discover what types of errors in use of prepositions are more or less likely to be committed by Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners
Based on this research the prepositions “in”, “at” and “to” cause the most frequent errors.It was found that the errors made by the subjects were caused by two main factors: interference from Farsi and other learning problems
Summary
Contrastive analysis is the systematic study of a pair of languages with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities between the first language and the target language based on the assumptions that: the similarities facilitate learning while differences cause problems. Contrastive analysis theory pioneered by Fries assumed that these errors are caused by the different elements between the native language and the target language (Fisiak, 1981: 7). There are two main types of error analysis: interlingual and intralingual (Richards and Sampson1980). Interlingual errors are those which are due to first language interference. Intralingual errors, on the other hand, are those which reflect the operation of learning strategies that are universal (Ellis and Barkhuizen 2009)
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