Crosslinguistic influence on EFL students’ writing: A contrastive analysis study of interlanguage errors

Abstract

One of the basic tenets in language learning is native language interference. Every language has its unique structure; which is usually brought on while learning a new language. This notion has been unequivocally recognized and accepted, for example, individuals can easily distinguish a French speaker of English from a native speaker. However, it was not until the 1960s that this notion began to be driven towards a more scientific analysis. Corder was the pioneer in error analysis; he developed a new vision in dealing with errors. Corder (1982) ascribed most of the errors committed by non native learners of languages to language interference. He explained in detail how learners of other languages avoid language errors by conveying messages successfully. Learners tend to use two procedures; the first is message adjustment; where learners tailor their messages to fit the resources they already acquire. This procedure also entails “topic avoidance”; which is a refusal to deliver or convey any message due to linguistic inadequacy. Some learners may attempt to hover around the question and give a rather different but relevant response. Corder defines this procedure as “semantic avoidance”. The second type of strategy is resource expansion strategies; where learners attempt to increase their resources to deliver meaningful messages. This idea is supported by Kavaliauskiene (2009) who explained that lack of resources may lead to error transfer; in which a learner may resort to native language structure to keep a conversation going. There are two types of language transfer: positive (facilitation) and negative transfer (interference). The former occurs when the native language (NL) and the target language (TL) have parallel structures while the latter. negative transfer (interference), occurs when the NL and the TL have diverse structures (Wilkins, 1972). Selinker (1972) was the first to coin the term interlanguage. To Selinker, interlanguage refers to the language produced when the learner attempts to articulate sentences of a target language; this type of utterance is different from the target language structure; the variation of structure is attributed to the learners’ native language; hence, the language produced in this situation is called “interlanguage”; which serves as a mediator between the learner’s native language and the target language. The learner in the interlanguage mode tends to keep some of the native language rules and uses them in the target language. Selinker (1972) referred to this process as “fossilization”, which is not bound to a certain age or a specific linguistic competence. Interlanguage errors can be attributed to misconceptions or insufficient knowledge of the target language (Ridha, 2012). It occurs when the learner attempts to build up his/her understanding of the target language; due to their limited experience and lack of sufficient knowledge of the nature of the target language, learners tend to lean to their native language structure (Edrogan, 2005).