Interlanguage in undergraduates’ academic English : preliminary results from written script analysis

The following article aims to revisit Selinker’s theory of Interlanguage by analysing a group of undergraduates’ written scripts in L2. The initial outcomes of the study establish a linguistic parallelism between students’ Interlingua and English as a lingua franca in the academic world. In the light of this comparison, certain theoretical standpoints can be determined for the analysis of students’ written production in English. Consequently, the practice of scaffolding by the teacher can be more productively directed towards their individual needs.Este artículo pretende retomar la teoría de la Interlengua de Selinker a través del análisis de exámenes escritos en lengua extranjera por un grupo de estudiantes de universidad. Los resultados iniciales del estudio establecen un paralelismo lingüístico entre la Interlengua de los estudiantes y una lengua franca en el ámbito académico. A la luz de esta comparación, determinados aspectos teóricos pueden ser esclarecedores para el análisis de la producción escrita en inglés. Como consecuencia, la práctica de apoyo pedagógico por el docente podrá ser más productiva si es dirigida en base a las necesidades individuales de los estudiantes

A longitudinal study of learners’ writing errors in French

Several scholars have carried out investigations on writing errors in second language learning. However, longitudinal studies that focus on the linguistic development in general and lexical competence of the anglophone learners of French, in particular, are still very scarce. An investigation of this sort will give a concise scope of the language development of the anglophone learners of French and some of the factors that are responsible for the errors found in their writing. This study investigates the writing errors of the Obafemi Awolowo University learners of French. The subjects who participated in the study were 14 beginner students. The learners were monitored from their first year of study at the University all through the end of their third year of study. An essay writing exercise was administered on the subjects at the end of their first academic year in 2015/2016. By the end of their second year at the university in 2016/2017 and the end of their third year in 2017/2018, the same essay writing exercise was administered to the same set of students. The study found out that Obafemi Awolowo University learners of French-made frequent errors in their writing. They made repeated errors ranging from wrong spellings, determinants, prepositions, choice of words, overgeneralization, and wrong analogy. The study thus suggested that the learning techniques, teaching methods, and teaching curriculum be regularly reviewed to reflect the language needs of the learners

Second Language Transfer During Third Language Acquisition

A recent focus in the study of cross-linguistic influence is the role of transfer during third language acquisition. How do the learner’s first and second languages influence the acquisition of a third language? Current research suggests that the multilingual dynamic differs from L1 effects during second language acquisition. This literature review will examine L2 transfer during third language acquisition within the general context of cross-linguistic influence. An overview of the study of language transfer will be presented, followed by a discussion of the variables that operate and interact when two or more languages come into contact. The variables are categorized as learner-based or language-based, and each is discussed in the contexts of L2 and L3 acquisition. A particular area of focus will be hybrid lexical forms and the unintentional intrusion of L2 items during L3 production

The linguistic repertoire and the learning of English as a foreign language : a case study of high school monolingual and bilingual students in Aleppo City, Syria.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D172310 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

The \u3ci\u3eman\u3csub\u3ei\u3c/sub\u3e said she\u3csub\u3ei\u3c/sub\u3e would return\u3c/i\u3e: English pronominal gender in native Mandarin speaking learners, examined within a comprehensive theory of language acquisition

The project that led to this honors thesis was begun in the Fall semester of 2010, in a graduate-level psycholinguistics course taught by Dr. T. Daniel Seely. At that time, I was intensively studying Mandarin and had been living with a native speaker who was also in the process of learning English. The types of speech errors in her English, particularly the ones that appeared to have resulted from influence from her native Mandarin, interested me greatly. One of the most striking errors that she tended to make, however, was mis-matching English gender-marked pronouns with the gender of the referent. That is, she would frequently say things like The man driving the bus said she could bring me to Ann Arbor, or I love Lady Gaga, his style is so interesting

THE CONSTRAINTS OF CROSS-LINGUISTIC TRANSFER ON BIPA LEARNING

One of the interesting issues regarding the BIPA learning process is how the similarities and differences of the source and target languages (Indonesian language) are related to students’ understanding of the Indonesian language. This study is related to what is known as a cross-linguistic transfer. This paper reviews theoretically cross-linguistic transfer in learning in BIPA (Indonesian Language for Foreign Speakers). This study employed the descriptive-qualitative method. A qualitative method was used to describe the patterns of similarity between Indonesian language as the target language and the learner’s native language in BIPA learning using a cross-linguistic transfer approach. The result of the study revealed that the discussion about cross-linguistic transfer in the process of learning the Indonesian language for Foreign Speakers (BIPA) was not a monolithic matter. The similarities and differences in word forms and word meanings were closely related to how quickly speakers of other languages learned the target language