Language Interference

(Paper presented in the 4th ELITE International Conference, UIN Jakarta, October 18-19, 2016)

By:

Aridem Vintoni

Institut Agama Islam Negeri (IAIN) Kerinci

(aridem.vintoni@gmail.com) 

Abstract:

Language interference is one of the major problems in ESL/EFL teaching and learning. The phenomenon sometimes makes the learners to find difficulties in having a “good” performance in the target language. For example, some of the learners are quite difficult to avoid the interference of their mother tongues habits when they are speaking the English. This sometimes leads them into the “foreign accent” and even “errors” when pronouncing certain English sounds. The interference does not only lead the learner into difficulties in pronouncing the segmental sounds of English (vowels and consonants), but also the supra-segmental ones as well. The interference is not only in term of the phonetic/phonological aspects of the language, but also lexical and grammatical aspects.In this short paper, the writer describes the language interferencein ESL/EFL learning. 

Key Terms: Language Interference, Contastive Analysis, Error Analysis

Introduction

Languages have different system (sounds, words, sentence, etc.). There is a set of systems for English, a set of those for Japanese, a set of those for Bahasa Indonesia, etc. Some systems found in one language might be similar to those in another language, but they are never quite the same; and languages have their own distinctive systems of pronunciation. The diversities are not only among languages themselves, but also among dialects (within a certain language).

Because languages have different system, in the acquisition of a second or foreign language, there is a tendency for most bi-/multi-lingual learners to use habit from their native languages or mother tongues for producing the linguistic aspects of the second or foreign language. For instance, many students have problems with pronunciation and sentence structure difficulties. They might sometimes substitute the familiar sounds from their native languages for the “new” or foreign language. Sometimes the substitution of the sounds might results in complete unintelligibility, but more often they can be understood by the native speakers of the second or foreign language. Most of these problems stem from interference from the native language when speaking and writing English. This is because it is a natural tendency to think that sounds and sentence structure in English are the same as those characteristics in one's own native language. This tendency is called as the “language interference” or “linguistic interference” (Arthur, 1992). This phenomenon may be viewed as the transference of elements of one language to another at a various levels including phonological, grammatical, lexical, and orthographical elements of language (Berthold, et. al. in Skiba: 1977). 

Scholars still argue language interference is beneficial for both teachers and learners or not. According to some scholars, the transfer can be positive when knowing one language can aid in developing skills for a second or foreign language. Alternatively, others claim that the transfer can be negative when understanding one language complicates the understanding of another language.

The Nature of Language Interference 

In order to understand the concept language or linguistic interference, we have to understand “transfer” first. Language or linguistic interference is considered as one of error sources (negative transfer), although where the relevant feature of both languages is the same it results in correct language production (positive transfer). Interference is either positive or negative transfer of the linguistic knowledge of a language into performance in the other. Negative transfer pertains to difficulties in using the target language which are mainly attributed to mother-tongue interference. Positive transfer however implies the ease or facilitation in learning the L2 resulting from similarities between the L1 and L2(Patrick, Didam, & Gyang, 2013). Thus, language interference or linguistic interference is the transfer, due to habit, of the first or native language onto the target language  (Dulay, Burt, & Krashen, 1982). 

Language interference has been defined from different perspectives. In its limited sense, language interference incorporates the tendency of transferring of the rules of the learner's native language to the foreign language –this could either be a second or a third language (Bada, 2001). In addition, from the point of view of psycholinguistics, language interference is defined as a negative transfer of language habits and skills from the mother tongue to another foreign language. It can effect on any aspects of language, it can be negative and positive depending on the features of both languages.The greater the difference between the two languages, the more negative effects of interference are expected to be. Moreover, from a linguistic point of view, interference is considered as an interaction or a change in linguistic structures and structural elements. It appears to be a deviation from linguistic norms in the spoken and written language (Lekova, 2010).

Language distance, transfer and learning 

Language distance clearly has some effect on the amount of transfer that can take place between languages, and therefore on the extent to which transfer can support or hinder learning. Related languages often share a great deal of cognate vocabulary, and even where vocabulary is not cognate, there tend to be close translation equivalents: this can give learners an enormous advantage. Where languages have less common ground, word forms will generally be quite different.

Language transfer seems to depend very much on relative language distance. Difference of phonological structure also has an effect on vocabulary learning. It has been shown that, as one might expect, those foreign words which conform more or less to the phonetic and orthographic patterns of the mother tongue are the easiest to assimilate. English has a large inventory of phonemes, permits quite elaborate consonant clusters, and reduces unstressed vowels. These features make many English words hard to handle for speakers of languages, like Spanish or Japanese, which have a different phonetic/phonological system. 

Therefore, types of error are likely to vary somewhat with language distance. Where the first and second/foreign language are closely related, there may be fewer errors resulting from the intrinsic difficulty of what has to be learnt, since the mother tongue will provide support in more areas. At the same time, since more can be transferred, there is more scope for the type of interference errors which arise when items in two languages are similar but not identical in form or use. Conversely, where languages are unrelated, more errors are likely to result from the intrinsic difficulty of second-language items, whereas the role of interference will be somewhat reduced.

Language interference in ESL/EFL Learning 

Language interference in ESL/EFL learning is a widespread phenomenon. The interference of mother tongue in learning English as a second language is generally a lifelong experience while speaking, reading and writing (Radhika & Kala, 2013). When learners fail to bridge the intercultural gap between the native language and the target language, they fall in interference. Due to this, they begin to face serious hindrances in using the target language (Litiem: 2012). 

Language interference or transfer is one of linguistic phenomena that commonly occurs in the context of ESL/EFL learning. It is considered as the result of the incorrect usage of the grammatical patterns of the target language (Zaim, 2002). It is characterized by the use of the old rules of the native language to account for the rules of the target language language; i.e., the learner uses the L1 rules while speaking and writing in target language (Yule, 2006 in Litiem, 2012). This phenomenon appears because of the influence of the mother tongue of native language on English. There is interference when a learner uses one of the linguistic elements of the native language to act in English. This might occurs largely if the learner has a limited knowledge in the English language.

This phenomenon may occur “consciously” or “unconsciously”. Consciously, the students may guess because they have not learned or have forgotten the correct usage of the target language. Unconsciously, the students may not consider that the features of the languages may differ, or they may know the correct rules but insufficiently skilled to put them into practice, and so fall back on the examples of their first or native languages. 

The interference might occurs in many levels of language components such as phonetic/phonological,  orthographic, lexical, and grammatical (Aissa, 2015). Phonetic interference in EFL classrooms occurs when the learners use one of the sounds of native language while speaking in English. The interference affects the improper pronunciation of phonetic sounds in the second language caused by the existence of different phonetic structures from the point of view of the mother tongue or the first foreign language. For example, students belong to the southern dialects of Kerinci language tend to speak English with long and tense vowels interfered by their mother tongue (Vintoni, 2002). Phonological interference is usually indicated by recourse to word stress, intonation and speech sounds (Aissa, 2015). It is manifested in speaking and reading. In foreign language learning, both the phonological structure and phonetic characteristics of a speaker's native language will influence his pronunciation of sounds in a foreign language learning (Flege & Robert, 1981). Orthographic interference occurs at the level of writing where words’ spelling are altered under the influence of native language (Aissa, 2015). For example, the addition of an extra “-e” at the end of words, e.g.: closenesse instead of closeness, groupe instead of group, seniore instead of senior, Greeke instead of Greek, etc. Lexical interference is manifested in speaking and writing and is represented by the borrowing of native language words which may or may not be converted to sound more natural in English. For example, francophone learners of English tend to use French words in order to fill in the existing gaps in their knowledge of English vocabulary, e.g.: langues instead of languages, fautes instead of mistakes, tache instead of task (Aissa, 2015). Grammatical interference is in terms of word order, use of pronouns and determiners, tense and mood (Skiba, 1997; Aissa, 2015; Nayak, N, B.P, & Chengappa, 2009). For example, a sentence in Bahasa Indonesia like “saya siswa” does not need any verb. Interference can happen in English learning process, the learner can say “I student”, it is a negative transfer from Indonesian grammar to English sentence. In that sentence, it needs an auxiliary verb “am” (Kusumastuti, 2014).

Contrastive analysis and Error Analysis 

Contrastive analysis 

In the 1950s, American linguist Robert Lado began to study errors systematically and developed theories about errors via contrastive analysis. Contrastive analysis is the careful study of two languages with the intention of identifying their structural dissimilarities and similarities (Abrego & Vides, 2013). It is used to predict the likely errors of a given group of learners and thereby to provide the linguistic input to language teaching materials. Contrastive analysis hypothesis stated that the principal barrier to second language acquisition is the interference of the first language system with the second language system and that a scientific, structural comparison of the two languages in question would enable people to predict and describe both of the problems and the supporting aspects of the second language learning. Such theories were deeply rooted in behaviorism and structuralism and, thus; they held that human language learning was to change old habits and to build new habits. Moreover, errors occur when learners could not respond correctly to a particular stimulus in the second language. Since an error may serve as a negative stimulus which reinforces “bad habits”, it should not be allowed to occur. So, in the classroom teaching, they placed more emphasis on mechanical pattern drills and attempted to correct any errors or mistakes wherever they occur.

Throughout the twenty years of its influence on the field of applied linguistics, contrastive analysis has proved to be one of the most important studies ever made in describing systems of languages. Contrastive analysis proponents believe that through description of both systems of the languages (L1 and L2), the areas that might ease learning and/or cause difficulty to the learner would be revealed, and a schedule prepared accordingly would provide the classroom teacher with ready material to make use of in the classroom (Bada, 2001).

There is no unanimous agreement as to the subject of the contrastive study. In some theoretical conceptions the subject description are contrastive phenomena; in others, the set of distinctions between the grammars of the two languages. More scientifically sound is the statement that similarities, as well as differences between languages should be considered because only the reciprocal complement of the two provides an opportunity for complete language characterization. The juxtaposition of language systems occurs on the levels of system, norm and usage.

Error Analysis 

The English teacher should realize that error analysis is important. In the process of constructing a new grammatical system, a learner usually makes errors. This tendency should be carefully analyzed to provide an improvement of arranging the teaching learning strategy effectively. Simply, Error analysis is defined as the examination of those errors committed by students in both the spoken and written medium (Ridha, 2012). It is an activity to reveal errors found in writing and speaking. Error analysis is the study of errors made by the second and foreign language learners  (Richard, 1973). It is the process to observe, analyze, and classify the deviations of the rules of the second language and then to reveal the systems operated by learner (Brown, 1980). It is also defined as a technique for identifying, classifying and systematically interpreting the unacceptable forms produced by someone learning a foreign language, using any of the principles and procedures provided by linguistics (Crystal, 1987). All of the definitions clarify that error analysis is an activity to identify, classify and interpreted or describe the errors made by someone in speaking or in writing and it is carried out to obtain information on common difficulties faced by someone in speaking or in writing English sentences.

Error analysis may be carried out in order to (a) find out how well someone knows a language, (b) find out how a person learns a language, and (c) obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an aid in teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials. The process is followed by the error description process; learners’ errors are usually classified in different categories (Fang & Xue-mei, 2007). 

The English teacher should realize that error analysis is important. In order to improve teaching, the teachers need to explore the learners’ psychological process in language learning so that they can enhance their understanding of learners’ errors. Based on the analysis of the causes of their errors, the teachers provide their timely guide and help. In addition, while placing an emphasis on error correction in the classroom, language teachers should take the teaching objectives, students’ linguistic competence, their affective factors and the effectiveness of the error correction into consideration. Consequently, we can employ more flexible strategies in error correction and make more contributions to the ESL/EFL classroom teaching and learning.

Although errors are bad things in learning English as a foreign language, error analysis is advantageous for both learners and teachers. For learners, error analysis is needed to show them in what aspect in grammar which is difficult for them, and it also seems to be important in providing insight into how far a learner has progressed in acquiring a language, and showing how much more the learner needs to learn. For teachers, it is required to evaluate themselves whether they are successful or not in teaching English (Hasyim, 2002). Fang & Xue-mei (2007) state that by error analysis, teachers will get an overall knowledge about the students’ errors. Foreign language learning is a process of hypothesis and trial and error occurrence is inevitable. So the teacher should learn to tolerate some errors, especially some local errors. Errors can also tell the teacher how far towards the goal the learner has progressed and consequently, what remains for him or her to learn. The students’ errors provide valuable information/ feedbacks; they tell the teacher something about the succes of his/her teaching materials and techniques, and they show the teacher what  parts of the course of study s/he has been following have been badly learned or taught or need further attention (Corder, 1975). So, the teacher can do some remedial teaching based on their errors.

Conclusion 

When two languages belong to different linguistic systems, there will a tendency of the transference of the elements from one language to another. This tendency is defined as the language “interference”. In ESL/EFL context, this phenomenon will lead the learners’ into difficulties or problems (and even errors) in learning the target language.

An awareness of the types of learners’ errors caused by the interference of their native language is necessary for language teachers so that they are able to properly and timely correct inappropriate and unacceptable utterances. It is useful to language teachers as a means of enhancing teaching methodology, provided that both teachers and linguists refrain from learners’ errors. The English teachers should make effort in designing friendly activities for the learners in the class as regards to remedial drills in correcting errors transferred from their mother-tongue. Vigorous and regular practice should be given to the learners. It may help the learners familiarize with English.Besides, Error Analysis (EA) and Contrastive Analysis (CA) is one way that can be used by the teacher to understand and analyze the learners’ errors. Through this analysis, the teacher can find out how far the interference affects the learners’ performance in the target language they are learning.

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