1. Ling 466Pedagogical Grammar Native Language Influence On learning English For Arabic learners Mushtaq Al Rashidany

2. Arabic and English: A general comparison There are many differences between Arabic and English in terms of grammar since Arabic is a Semitic language whereas English is from the Indo-European language family. Arabic is written from right to left and in a very different script and it’s a Pro-drop language. It is gender-based, meaning the gender is usually marked on the subject, verb, object, adjective, relative pronouns,…etc. The verb in Arabic is attached to affixes that mark the subject, gender, number and tense. So considering the differences above, it might seem normal for Arabic learners of English to find a lot of difficulties in learning this language.

3. Native language influence or transfer Many errors in second language learning are attributed to native language transfer especially if it differs a lot from the target language. “Many teachers of English simply correct individual grammatical errors as they occur, giving little concern to identifying patterns of errors or to uncovering causes other than learner’s ignorance.” (Al-Quran 2010) In fact most of these errors are systematic, so it’s good to state the errors that are related to the native language influence as this can help in adopting the appropriate strategies to get the best possible results. Following are the most important grammatical differences between Arabic and English that have a clear effect in the language learning process.

4. 1. Word Order In Arabic the word order is usually Verb + Subject + Object. In English it’s Subject + Verb + Object. So learners would usually start the sentence with the verb. a. *Came John to school today. Also in Arabic the noun precedes the attributive adjective and there is an agreement between them which is not the case in English. That makes learners usually write the noun before the adjective. b. *The student smart wrote a sentence. There are some instances, though, of nouns preceding their attributive adjective in English but that’s very rare. For example: Lake placid.

5. 2. The use of articles In Arabic only the definite article is used, and for indefinite nouns zero article is used whereas in English there are both definite and indefinite articles. Plus, in Arabic the definite article is used with nouns more often than in English. This prompts students to use the definite article more frequently and not use the indefinite article at all. a. *Ryan went to the school. b. *Sam’s father is teacher. This is one of the very common mistakes Arabic learners of English make and even the advanced learners seem not to master the use of articles in English.

6. 3. Agreement markers on the verb There are multiple agreement markers between the verb and its subject in Arabic in all tenses as there are agreement markers on the verb for the singular male, singular female, dual male, dual female, plural male and plural female subject. In English the agreement markers are fewer and only in the present tense with the use of the third person singular -s. This is supposed to make it easier for Arabic learners to master this feature but they often keep making mistakes by using the third person singular -s when the subject is plural, not when it’s singular. a. *The students dos their homework everyday.

7. 4. The use of the verb be Unlike in English, in Arabic there is no use of the verb be between the noun or pronoun subject and the adjective modifying it in the present tense. In English the purpose of the verb be here is to link the subject with its modifier and it agrees with it in number. In Arabic, with the non existence of the linker or copula, the agreement marker with the subject noun or pronoun here is indicated on the adjective following it. For this reason, learners usually forget linking the subject and the adjective using the verb be. a. *Adam drives slowly and yet he late. Learners also drop the verb be in the progressive aspect where such a verb does not exist in Arabic. b. *He going to school now.

8. 5. Repetition of the object In Arabic when the object of the verb is moved to sentence-initial position, its original position after the verb gets occupied by an object pronoun otherwise the sentence will be awkward. This, however, is not the case in English where the object is NOT stated twice in the sentence and when it gets moved to the beginning of the clause or anywhere else before the verb, its original position after the verb stays grammatically empty. As a result, Arabic learners usually keep using a pronoun for the object in its original position when it’s moved to sentence-initial position.

9. Repetition of the object (cont’d) a. *This is the guy whom I talked to him yesterday. b. *The house that I live in it has a nice view. We can also notice that the relative pronoun in both of the examples above is written by Arabic learners because that’s mandatory in Arabic, whereas it does not seem necessary in English.

10. 6. Question formation In English, when forming yes/no questions and Wh-questions, do-support is used if the sentence only contains a main verb, if there’s an auxiliary verb, it’s used instead of inserting the do-support. For example: a. He goes to school every day. ⇒ Does he go to school every day? ⇒ When does he go to school? However, in Arabic, the use of the do-support does not exist, and in forming yes/no questions or Wh-questions, questions devices are used instead. This feature often prompts Arabic learners to form questions in English by using question devices or treating the main verb just like an auxiliary.

11. Question formation (cont’d) b. He went to school yesterday. ⇒ *Went he to school yesterday? ⇒ *How he went to school yesterday? And because of this feature, when learners use the negation morpheme, they usually use no or not before the main verb. c. *He no went to school yesterday. d. *She not wrote her homework last night.

12. Summary These errors are not consistent for all Arabic learners of English, but they are the most common ones. Arabic learners usually make these errors in the early stage of their learning when the effect of the native language is very strong. However, more kinds of errors are discovered in later stages of the learning process. The effect of native language in second language performance does not seem to completely disappear for all learners. For advanced learners, it usually serves as a backup source. The other thing that makes learning English more complicated for Arabic learners is the huge difference between standard Arabic and its spoken dialects since it’s always better to understand the grammar of your own language before learning other languages’.

13. References Al-Quran, Majed. 2010. Concept-Based Grammatical Errors of Arab EFL Learners. Journal of Instructional Psychology. Oman. Former 4 year-long experience of teaching English to Arabic learners in high schools in Iraq. 2006-2010. 7th, 8th, 9thand 12th grades.