ENGLISH FOR COMMUNICATION 2

NOR ATIAH BINTI MOHD ALID20101038009

SEMESTER 3AT 41 MORAL EDUCATION

TITLE : INTERFERENCE IN LEARNING ENGLISH : GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN ENGLISH ESSAY WRITING AMONG RURAL MALAY SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN MALAYSIA.BY : MARLYNA MAROS, TAN KIM HUA & KHAZRIYATI SALEHUDDIN

INTRODUCTION

Contrastive Analysis (CA) claims that the difference between first language (L1) and second language (L2) structure will result in negative transfer due to the transfer of old habits into new one.

Errors made by learners give better insights into the process of language learning.

INTERFERENCE IN LEARNING ENGLISH: THE ERRORS1) Determiner

Determiner as a special words that limit the nouns that follow them. These words could be :1. in the form of article2. demostratives3. possessive4. quantifierA determiner comes before an adjectives in the noun phrase. If no adjectives are present, they comes directly in front of a noun.In Malay, words ‘itu’ and ‘ini’ as demonstrative determiner and definite articles. ( Nik Safiah Karim, 1995)

Incorrect usage of determiner1. Omission of determiner

In Malay grammar, the name of specific place or location no need to followed by determiner unless those place have been mentioned before.

In English language, determiner must follow in any cases. So, the student will not fail to use word ‘the’.

Erroneous form Correct form

She likes to play ___ netball

She likes to play the netballSometimes I bring it to

___ class to readSometimes I bring it to the class to read

Ahmad go to ___ library Ahmad go to the library

2. Wrong form of determiner

The noun must comes after the determiner.for example :

The Malay possessive determiners are similar to the noun in question.The form of English possessive determiner are dissimilar to the noun in question.

Erroneous form Correct form

All this students have a good manners

All these students have a good manners

Erroneous form Correct form

During I leisure hours, I read books

During my leisure hours, I read books

My mother_ name is Sakirah bt Noh

My mother’s name is Sakirah bt Noh

She’s hobby is cooking Her hobby is cooking

2. SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT Problems occur in the present tense

because one must add an-s or –es at the end of the verb when the subjects or the entity performing the action is a singular third person :

he, she, it for example :Person Singular Plural

1st I like ice cream We like ice cream

2nd You like ice cream You like ice cream

3rd He / She / It / The rabbit / My mother likes ice cream

They like ice cream

Agreement in Malay

omission of the third person singular-sThe rule of a third person singular inflection in English causes confusion among Malay learners.The third person singular marker in English is often omitted by learners.

Structure Subject Predicte

1 Saya / Ahmad / Dia / Emak saya(I / Ahmad / He / She / My mother)

Guru

2 Saya / Ahmad / Dia / Emak saya(I / Ahmad / He / She / My mother)

Makan nasi

3 Saya / Ahmad / Dia / Emak saya(I / Ahmad / He / She / My mother)

Sangat rajin

4 Saya / Ahmad / Dia / Mereka / Emak saya(My / Ahmad / His / Her / Their / My mother’s house)

Di Kampung Baru

For example :

wrong from of subject-verb agreementThe third person singular inflection is used in verbs that occur with other subjects especially with the first pronoun 1.For example :

Erronous form Correct form

My brother like playing football

My brother likes playing football

Siti go to school early morning

Siti goes to school early morning

Erronous form Correct form

I lives in Kelantan I live in Kelantan

I lives with my family I live with my family

I likes reading novel I like reading novel

3. COPULA ‘BE’The word ‘copula’ is used to connect two different

things. In linguistics, a copula is a word used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate.

The copula ‘be’ is most problematic to a Malay learner of English because its multiplicity of forms and non-existence in the Malay language.

The words describe the relationship between the subject and the predicate are ‘ialah’ and ‘adalah’. They are called as kata pemeri.

Words ‘ialah’ is used in equative sentence when both subject and predicate have same meaning

Words ‘adalah’ is used when the predicates describe or qualify the subjects.

Omission of copula ‘be’Many learner tend to leave out altogether the copula ‘be’ in their writing. For example :

Erronous form Correct form

Reading story books ___ my favourite hobby

Reading story books is my favorite hobby

My mother’s hobbies ___ cooking and reading

My mother’s hobbies are cooking and reading

Wrong form of copula ‘be’Use present tense form of ‘be’ for the past tense form and vice versa :

Use the plural form for the singular form and vice versa :

Erronous form Correct form

My mother are kind and gentle

My mother was kind and gentle

It’s time to blow the candle and cut the cake

It was time to blow out the candles and cut the cake

Erronous form Correct form

My mother hobbies is cooking, read and anything

My mother’s hobbies are cooking, reading and others

My family and I was very sad, poor the driver family

My family and I were very sad, and took pity over the driver’s family

CONCLUSION

Although not the errors are due to mother tongue interference, a large of errors identified in the use of determiner, subject-verb agreement, and copula ‘be’ ferlected the interference of the Malay grammar.Thus, the problems of acquiring EFL in rural areas in Malaysia can still be largely due to mother tongue interference.Therefore remedial measures should be taken to implement approaches that could best assist students in these problematic areas.It is imperative then to implement measures to minimize the chances of occurrence of these errors by looking into the development of teaching materials and that of teaching practices within and outside the classrooms.

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