Abstract
M.A.
This study wants to outline some of the errors made by the Motswana child when she/he
communicates in English. I also want to look at the origin of the errors and how the errors
affect cohesive writing and interpretation.
This research also aims at making second language teachers aware of the influence a first
language can have in the learning of a second language.
Note: At school level, the student/child learns the language and does not acquire it and thus
language learning skills or strategies should not be confused with language acquisition skills
or strategies.
Transfer has long been a controversial issue, bur recent studies support the view that crosslinguistic
influences can have an important impact on second language learning. To elaborate
on the above issue, the article, the pronoun and number will be looked at. I want to establish
how much influence a learner's native language can have in making the learning of a new
language easy or difficult.
I want us to look at the following questions of which some will lead or develop into our
hypotheses:-
Will knowledge of the origin of errors eliminate or reduce the errors?
Which errors will be eliminated and at what rate?
Will the remedial lessons have an effect on the elimination or reduction of errors?
Is the contrastive analysis method the best way to handle such a situation?
To what extent do errors affect interpretation and connectivity?
The study is conducted on the following language categories:-
The pronoun (English vs Tswana) ;
The article (English vs Tswana) ;
Number (English vs Tswana) ;
Cohesive writing (misconception/ambiguity)