Author : Gift Chidi-Onwuta (Ph.D) and Ndimele R. I. (P.hD)

This article invested the possible errors second language learners make in the target language with reference to Igbo learners of English. The research focused on different types of syntactic errors. It used 120 students of SS 11 who were given sets of multiple questions with options to choose the appropriate answers. Errors were examined with respect to differences between English and Igbo language in some syntactic areas through a contrastive analysis between both languages. The results reveal errors relative to transfer of learning, language transfer, over-generalization of rules of the second language, as well as strategies of second language communication, evidence that errors are inevitable in second language learning and can be minimized through effective teaching targeted on differences between the learner’s first language and the target language.

Affiliation :

Department of Linguistics & Communication Studies,Abia State University, Uturu.

Keywords : Error, Fossilization, Mistake, Second language learning, language transfer.
Date : Sunday ,01 ,March ,2015

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