Native Language Interference Research Articles

Code-switching and Language-mixing among the AFL students of Chennai: Influence of Mother Tongue on the Use of Arabic as the Second Language

Issues surrounding the use of foreign languages and mother tongues (code-switching) in language classrooms have garnered significant research interest. This study explores the factors driving code-switching among students and teachers during various phases of interaction in an Arabic as a Foreign Language (AFL) classroom. The investigation focuses on mother tongue interference and its impact on learning Arabic as a second language at The New College, Chennai, India. Identifying these challenges is essential to address the needs of students striving to master Arabic effectively. Using a quantitative survey method, the study analyses written examination scripts from high-performing, average, and low-performing students. The tests assess grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and punctuation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, with tools like Microsoft Excel and SPSS used to calculate the percentage and frequency of language errors. The findings revealed four major error types: grammar (49%), spelling (24.4%), sentence structure (22.2%), and punctuation (4.4%). These results underline how interference from the Tamil mother tongue influences students' Arabic learning. The study highlights the need for tailored instructional strategies to address language errors stemming from native-language interference. By understanding the specific areas where students struggle, educators can better facilitate their language acquisition. The research underscores the importance of considering the linguistic background of learners in second language instruction and offers recommendations to enhance teaching methodologies, ultimately improving students’ proficiency in Arabic.

일본인 한국어 학습자를 위한 피동표현 연구: 오류 말뭉치를 중심으로

Objectives The purpose of this study is to classify the passive voice errors of Japanese learners of Korean, as found in the error corpus, by their causes, to understand the current state of the errors, and analyze the funda mental reasons behind them to assist learners. Methods First, approximately 300,000 words of data related to Japanese learners were collected and analyzed from the error corpus provided by the National Institute of the Korean Language. Second, the passive voice errors of Japanese learners of Korean were categorized into five types. Third, based on the patterns and examples of passive voice errors, suggestions were made to reduce passive voice errors in Korean. Results Upon examining the passive voice errors of Japanese learners of Korean, it was found that among be ginner learners, 7 out of 20 errors were transformation errors, while among intermediate learners, 35 out of 92 er rors were intransitive/transitive verb errors. For advanced learners, 27 out of 99 errors were related to in transitive/transitive verbs and native language interference. In other words, as learners’ proficiency levels in creased, the occurrence of passive voice errors also increased. When averaged across all error types, in transitive/transitive verb errors had the highest frequency. Conclusions This study analyzed the passive voice expressions in the error corpus and specifically classified pas sive voice errors to investigate the usage patterns of Japanese learners of Korean. Through the analysis of these patterns, the causes of passive voice errors were classified in detail, and examples were provided, making this study a valuable foundational resource for Japanese learners of Korean.

TEMPORAL MISMATCHES: UNDERSTANDING TENSE ERRORS IN ALBANIAN L2 ENGLISH LEARNERS

This study explores the challenges Albanian learners in Kosovo face while acquiring the English tense system, focusing specifically on common difficulties with tense usage. The research gathered data from questionnaires and written texts, revealing a high incidence of errors in tenses such as the Past Simple, Present Simple, Present Perfect, Past Perfect, and Future Simple. Incorrect tense constructions emerged as the most frequent issue, with native language interference and rule overgeneralization contributing to the learners’ difficulties. Mistakes were particularly prominent in the Past and Present Simple tenses, suggesting that these areas require targeted attention in language instruction. The study emphasizes the need for more comprehensive research, especially through longitudinal and spoken data analysis, to improve teaching strategies for Albanian ESL learners in addressing tense-related errors.

Exploring native language interference of Chinese learners in acquisition of English as a second language on cases in composition of college level students

Under the dominating phenomenon of mandatory English learning among most of Chinese university, students are commonly criticized unnatural Chinglish in their compositions. Thus, it has been a widely studied topics to discover the nature of first language influence on foreign or second language learning. This study investigates the impact of native language interference on the English writing proficiency of Chinese college students. By examining a large body of student papers collected at a corpus created and maintained by Beijing Foreign Studies University, the study aims to identify common grammatical errors and non-standard language that arise when Chinese students switch to English. Another element of the study that tries to identify and illustrate Chinese students' mental processes while they write in English is the semi-structured interview. Observation and analysis reveal that interference from the original tongue often manifests as errors in sentence construction, misuse of articles and agreements, and excessive use of personal pronouns as subjects. This leads to descriptive inappropriate language usage and prescriptive grammar errors in composition. The study emphasizes the necessity for focused pedagogical approaches to deal with these issues, with the ultimate goal of improving English as Second Language (ESL) instruction techniques and raising Chinese learners' confidence and language competency.

Challenges in Understanding Idiomatic Expressions

Idiomatic expressions are an integral yet challenging aspect of language learning, often presenting difficulties due to their figurative nature and cultural specificity. This study explores the internal and external challenges learners face in understanding and using idioms, including issues of semantic opacity, cultural dependencies, and native language interference. It also evaluates the limitations of traditional teaching methods and the need for innovative approaches. Proposed solutions emphasize contextual presentation, visualization techniques, interactive activities, and frequent usage to enhance idiomatic competence. By addressing these challenges through targeted strategies, the research aims to support learners and educators in integrating idioms effectively into language acquisition, fostering linguistic proficiency and cultural understanding.

A Case Study of a Chinese English Language Learner: Effective English Language Learning Through Interaction

Abstract: This article examines the English learning process of Mei, a 20-year-old Chinese university student, using both quantitative and qualitative analysis methods. Qualitatively, semi-structured interviews and natural observations explored Mei's learning experiences and social language use. Quantitatively, her English proficiency was assessed through CEFR-standard language assessment tests. The study found that: 1) Mei demonstrated high cultural and linguistic sensitivity in social English, effectively using slang and humor; 2) While her vocabulary and syntax skills were sufficient for daily and academic conversations, her vocabulary depth was lacking in complex contexts, potentially due to native language interference. These findings have significant implications for second language acquisition teaching, highlighting the importance of cultural knowledge and suggesting personalized teaching methods to enhance learners' language communication and cultural understanding.

Tense Errors in Albanian Speakers Learning English (L2)

Albanian students learning English as a Second Language (ESL) face considerable challenges with the English tense system due to significant grammatical differences between the two languages. This study examines the specific difficulties that Albanian ESL learners in Kosovo experience with tense usage, drawing on responses from both questionnaires and written compositions. The results reveal a high frequency of errors, particularly in the Past Simple, Present Simple, Present Perfect, Past Perfect, and Future Simple tenses. The most common errors were related to incorrect tense construction. The frequent mistakes in the Past and Present Simple tenses suggest that native language interference and the overgeneralization of English rules contribute significantly to the learners' struggles. The study calls for further research, especially longitudinal and oral-based studies, to better understand these issues and to develop more effective teaching strategies to help Albanian learners improve their command of English tenses.

CHALLENGES FOR INDONESIAN EFL STUDENTS IN ENGLISH ACADEMIC WRITING

This research aims to examine the challenges faced by Indonesian EFL students in academic writing, specifically the errors they made while writing scholarship application essays. The study focused on identifying syntactical and morphological errors and understanding their sources and reasons. The data consisted of 20 essays from third-semester students in an academic writing course at a private Indonesian university. Two English language lecturers reviewed the essays twice to identify the errors. The findings revealed that syntactic errors were the most common, with 132 instances (61.69%), followed by punctuation and capitalization errors with 50 instances (23.37%), and morphological errors were the least frequent with 32 instances (14.94%). Interlingual, or native language interference, was found to be the primary source of these errors. The main factor of making errors is the lack of previous experience and knowledge about the conventions of academic writing and the expectations of the institution they are studying at. This study offers teaching recommendations for EFL teachers, emphasizing the importance of considering the impact of learners' native language besides providing appropriate grammar instruction as the key to effective teaching for ESL teachers.

Prevention of cross-language interference in the context of trilingual education (Russian, Kazakh, and English languages)

Relevance. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that in the modern world, trilingual education is becoming increasingly common, necessitating the exploration of methods, exercises, and approaches to reduce interference phenomena in language learning. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to identify factors contributing to cross-language interference in trilingual education and to develop strategies and methods for its prevention and minimisation. Methodology. To achieve the purpose, the following methods were used: hypothetical-deductive, questionnaire, correlation analysis, and comparative. Results. Results revealed key factors influencing cross-language interference across Russian, Kazakh, and English languages. They cover various language levels such as vocabulary, grammar, phonetics, as well as sociocultural aspects. The study highlights various methodological strategies and approaches that can be successfully applied to prevent cross-language interference, emphasising the active role of both learners and educators in the prevention process. Comparative analysis of English language instruction within trilingual education revealed that the majority of errors in oral and written language usage were linked to native language interference. It was also established that the degree of development of the relevant skills of students in both groups increased. However, in the first group, the growth rate reached an average of about 50%, while in the second group, the shift ranged from 25% to 38%. Conclusions. The study concludes that preventing cross-language interference in trilingual education (Russian, Kazakh, and English) requires targeted strategies and methods. Key factors influencing interference include vocabulary, grammar, phonetics, and sociocultural aspects. Effective prevention involves active participation from both learners and educators, with a focus on methodological strategies tailored to the specifics of trilingual education. Keywords: lexical skills; linguistic system; instructional materials; exercises; speech interaction

Untangling the Tongues: Exploring Pronunciation Development Strategies for Learners of English at High Schools in Oromia Region of Ethiopia

One of the most important aspects of learning a new language is mastering the pronunciation of that language. It is crucial in helping second language learners improve their communication skills and overall performance. Mastering proper pronunciation is a difficult and subtle part of teaching English as a foreign or second language. The focus of this study is to assess the contributing factors affecting ESL students' pronunciation. The study used a quantitative research approach. A total of 189 students from Burayu High School were chosen at random sampling technique for this study. The researchers collected data through a questionnaire. SPSS version 26 was used to analyze the data obtained from the respondents of the survey. Factors influencing pronunciation that were identified in this study include poor motivation, lack of confidence, exposure, practice, interest, an unfriendly atmosphere, one's native language interference, age, personal traits of the learners, instructional approach, and feedback deficiency. The findings also provide valuable insights into preferred pronunciation learning strategies among students of English in the Oromia region of Ethiopia and explore the impact of individual and environmental factors, including first language influence, strengths, and weaknesses of current teaching methodologies in fostering pronunciation development in this specific context. This study will contribute to the development of more effective and learner-centered pedagogical approaches for pronunciation instructions in English language programs designed for English learners in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.

Navigating fear: Exploring speaking problems among students at junior high school level

This study delves into the intricacies of speaking problems encountered by junior high school students while learning English. Employing a descriptive qualitative approach, six participants representing both high and low proficiency levels were selected from a private junior high school in Sidoarjo, Indonesia. Data collection involved observation and interviews based on Ur’s (1991) framework of speaking problems, encompassing inhibition, lack of content, uneven participation, and native language interference. The research findings revealed that students across proficiency levels faced speaking problems. Interestingly, junior high-level students also have difficulty speaking in English class. While observation data suggested a discrepancy in speaking problems between high and low students, in-depth interviews uncovered shared challenges. Notably, inhibition, lack of content, and native language interference were prevalent among participants. These findings underscore the imperative for students to bolster confidence in speaking English through consistent practice inside and outside the classroom. Furthermore, educators must enhance their pedagogical strategies, particularly in cultivating diverse speaking skills to facilitate students’ English language acquisition.

Анализ влияния просодических единиц и интонационных моделей персидского языка у иранских студентов на выражение ИК-7 в русском языке

Iranian students of Russian often experience problems with phonetics and pronunciation that hinder their listening comprehension. Pronunciation mistakes and native-language interference are the main problems Iranian students have to face while studying Russian. No textbooks in Iran introduce a comparative analysis of Russian and Persian phonetic systems. This research was an attempt to compare the intonation systems of both languages in order to help Iranian students to master Intonation Pattern No.7 and develop their communication skills in the Russian language. Oral speech of 17 Iranian students was processed phonetically and acoustically using PRAAT 6.2.10. This program used pitch and intensity filters to analyze Russian Intonation Pattern No. 7 and visualize speech sounds as graphs. Intonation is a set of prosodic means that segments and structures speech flow in accordance with the message intended. In both languages, intonation patterns convey meaning and express emotions. In this study, native intonation pool prevented the Iranian students from imitating Russian Intonation Pattern No. 7. This comparative acoustic analysis of Russian and Persian intonation systems will help Iranian students to prevent phonetic, rhythmic, and intonation errors in Russian. The results can be used by students, second-language teachers, speech therapists, and communication specialists.

EXPLORING PRONUNCIATION CHALLENGES: INDONESIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH FRICATIVE SOUNDS

Abstract: This study investigated the production of English alveolar and post-alveolar fricatives by 40 Indonesian university students who are not majoring in English study. The research instruments were a questionnaire, which was used to obtain information about the participants, and a word list, which was comprised of 16 English words with alveolar and post-alveolar fricatives and 9 tricky words. The results revealed two main findings. The first was that most Indonesian non-English major university students who participated in this research were not proficient in producing voiced post-alveolar fricative /ʒ/ which resulted in the substitution of the sound with /z/, /s/, and /ʃ/. The participants, however, were quite great at producing the voiceless post-alveolar fricative /ʃ/ and had no difficulty in producing alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/. The second was that the results indicated that the participants’ problems in pronouncing English fricatives were mainly attributed to native language interference, the absence of the target sound in the sound system of their native language, and limited knowledge of English phonetics. This research recommends that EFL teachers give a special portion of time to train their students to pronounce fricative sounds in English that do not exist in the students' native language and provide them with English sound phonetic knowledge. Both of these things are strongly believed to improve the students’ proficiency in English pronunciation.

The Interference of Native Language on English Writing Syntax Errors of High School Students

This paper discusses the common syntactic errors in Chinese senior high school English writing, explores the causes of their English expression errors, and proposes a writing enhancement plan for senior high school students. Based on the theory of error analysis and the analysis of writing materials, this paper collects relevant data, analyzes the types of transfer errors and interference patterns in writing, and tries to explain the causes of interference syntactic errors in students’ English writing. Although the reasons for the negative transfer of senior high school students are complex and diverse, the efforts of teachers and students can still effectively avoid the formation of negative transfer of English thinking reduction. In English teaching, teachers should strengthen students’ syntactic discrimination ability and syntactic structure through comparative analysis, encourage students to overcome the interference of mother tongue thinking, and cultivate students’ English thinking ability.

Native Language Interference in Writing: A Case Study of Albanian High School EFL Learners in the Republic of North Macedonia

Native Language Interference in Writing: A Case Study of Albanian High School EFL Learners in the Republic of North Macedonia

Native Language Interference in Writing: A Case Study of Albanian High School EFL Learners in the Republic of North Macedonia

Native Language Interference in Writing: A Case Study of Albanian High School EFL Learners in the Republic of North Macedonia

The Quest for Fluency: English Language Challenges for Non-Native Learners

English language acquisition presents challenges for non-native speakers worldwide. Despite its global significance, many encounter difficulties in mastering it. The colonial legacy has entrenched English as an international language, leading to its widespread use across various domains. However, in nations with diverse linguistic landscapes, attempts to promote English learning face hurdles. In the Indian education system, for instance, reforms aiming to enhance English proficiency have yielded limited success due to multifaceted reasons, including societal attitudes and educational priorities. The prevailing mindset often prioritizes core subjects over language learning, hindering students' progress. Moreover, learners grapple with fear, lack of confidence, grammatical complexities, pronunciation issues, and native language interference. Environmental factors, peer pressure, and inadequate teaching further exacerbate these challenges. Overcoming these obstacles requires a shift in attitudes, with recognition of the value of language subjects and concerted efforts to provide supportive learning environments. Emphasizing foundational grammar concepts and fostering holistic language skills development through listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities are crucial. Addressing these issues can enhance the efficacy of English language education and empower non-native speakers to navigate the linguistic demands of the modern world effectively.

Native language (uzbek) interference in learning english

This article deals with the description of interference and emphasizes grammatical influence of first language (Uzbek) on the second language (English).We analyze grammatical interference made by Uzbek learners in mastering second language

Neural Representations of Non-native Speech Reflect Proficiency and Interference from Native Language Knowledge.

Learning to process speech in a foreign language involves learning new representations for mapping the auditory signal to linguistic structure. Behavioral experiments suggest that even listeners that are highly proficient in a non-native language experience interference from representations of their native language. However, much of the evidence for such interference comes from tasks that may inadvertently increase the salience of native language competitors. Here we tested for neural evidence of proficiency and native language interference in a naturalistic story listening task. We studied electroencephalography responses of 39 native speakers of Dutch (14 male) to an English short story, spoken by a native speaker of either American English or Dutch. We modeled brain responses with multivariate temporal response functions, using acoustic and language models. We found evidence for activation of Dutch language statistics when listening to English, but only when it was spoken with a Dutch accent. This suggests that a naturalistic, monolingual setting decreases the interference from native language representations, whereas an accent in the listener's own native language may increase native language interference, by increasing the salience of the native language and activating native language phonetic and lexical representations. Brain responses suggest that such interference stems from words from the native language competing with the foreign language in a single word recognition system, rather than being activated in a parallel lexicon. We further found that secondary acoustic representations of speech (after 200 ms latency) decreased with increasing proficiency. This may reflect improved acoustic-phonetic models in more proficient listeners.Significance Statement Behavioral experiments suggest that native language knowledge interferes with foreign language listening, but such effects may be sensitive to task manipulations, as tasks that increase metalinguistic awareness may also increase native language interference. This highlights the need for studying non-native speech processing using naturalistic tasks. We measured neural responses unobtrusively while participants listened for comprehension and characterized the influence of proficiency at multiple levels of representation. We found that salience of the native language, as manipulated through speaker accent, affected activation of native language representations: significant evidence for activation of native language (Dutch) categories was only obtained when the speaker had a Dutch accent, whereas no significant interference was found to a speaker with a native (American) accent.

Анализ интонационных особенностей и коммуникативных стратегий вежливости в речи учителя на уроках английского языка

The paper presents the results of the phonopragmatic analysis of the communicative styles of BA students in teaching and CELTA candidates. The focus is made on classroom management and prosodic characteristics used in the speech of two groups of non-native informants. We aim to find the connection of speakers’ national identity and language teaching. Regarding pronunciation as part of a person’s identity, the authors carry out a comparative analysis of English and Russian cultures and examine linguistic and paralinguistic expression of national indexical features in communication. Singling out the strategies that allow teachers to carry out classroom interactions with their students, identifying the correlation of classroom interaction language and speech prosody with politeness strategies provide the novelty of the research. We clearly stated that conventionality of classroom language discourse varied at the level of prosody and reflected national specific characteristics in the speech of a foreign language teacher. Due to perceptive and analytical methods of analysis, we recognized that CELTA candidates follow standardized teaching framework requirements, whilst future language teachers demonstrate the influence of native language interference to a greater degree. The findings show that the tendencies that reveal the status inequality in classroom interactions between teachers and students are in the choice of prosodic features and language construction. University students in teaching realize strategies of positive politeness culture typical of their own Russian culture; in the group of CELTA candidates the level of phonetic competence and personal experience is higher thus they choose phonetic features characteristic of negative politeness culture.