ANALYZING THE PROBLEMS FACED BY MONOLINGUALS AND BILINGUALS DEVELOPING “GENITIVE CASE” IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Resum

The objective of the present study was to find out whether the monolinguals and bilinguals learning English as a foreign language in Iran commit similar or different errors in learning the different types of the genitive case. A total number of 120 male and female English learners at three levels of English proficiency took part in the study. Out of these participants, 60 were monolinguals whose native language was Persian and 60 were bilinguals who spoke Turkish as the first language and Persian as the second one. They were selected randomly from different Iranian EFL learning institutes. To collect the learners’ errors, a genitive test based on possible errors due to interference from Turkish and Persian language was designed and administered. To ensure the reliability of the test, the internal consistency of ‘Chronbach’s Alpha’ was employed. The errors of the two groups (Monolinguals & Bilinguals) were identified and classified according to the different types of genitive case. Then, the sources of the errors were established by the principles of ‘error analysis’. The results indicated that both groups committed similar errors, though to a varying degree. The sources of errors seem to be attributed to transfer from both Turkish and Persian language. Another finding is that, the similarities between languages, either between Persian and English or between Turkish and English did not prevent their speakers from committing errors; in conclusion, the idea of positive transfer due to similarities between native and target language needs to be treated cautiously. This study confirms the effect of the negative transfer from both the mother tongue and the second language on the target language

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