LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 4 April 2011
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.


HOME PAGE


AN APPEAL FOR SUPPORT

  • We seek your support to meet the expenses relating to the formatting of articles and books, maintaining and running the journal through hosting, correspondences, etc. Please write to the Editor in his e-mail address languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com to find out how you can support this journal. Thank you. Thirumalai, Editor.


BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!


REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES


  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Contributors from South Asia may e-mail their articles to
    B. Mallikarjun,
    Central Institute of Indian Languages,
    Manasagangotri,
    Mysore 570006, India
    mallikarjun@ciil.stpmy.soft.net.
  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.
  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.
  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2010
M. S. Thirumalai


Custom Search

A Study of Arabic Interference in
Yemeni University Students' English Writing

Yahia Ahmed Qaid, M.Ed. in ELT, Ph.D. Candidate
L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.


Abstract

This study aimed to analyse and describe features of Arabic interference in paragraph writing by Yemeni university English students in the academic year 2009/2010 semester 1 at Amran and Hodeidah Universities.

Four levels of Arabic interference, namely, the missing Verb to be, the missing indefinite articles (a/an), word-order and subject-verb agreement were analyzed from samples of the students' paragraph writing.

It was found that the absence of 'be' and indefinite articles 'a/an' in the Arabic language led the Yemeni students to make errors in using them. The difference between Arabic and English word order leads the learners to make errors and, because of literal translation of Arabic words into English mainly represented features of L1 lexical interference in the students' written English.

Keywords: Arabic interference, interlingual errors, language transfer

Introduction

Arabic is the official language in many countries, including Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Morocco. Arabic is also the language of the Qur'ran, so Muslims of all nationalities, such as Indian, are familiar with it.

There are many Arabic dialects, but there is one version that is taught in schools and used by the media across the Arab world.

Within each country, often in quite small areas, a wide variety of colloquial dialects have developed, differing from one another, not only in pronunciation, but also in common lexical items and, to some extent, in structure . The differences from one country to another are more marked than differences between UK, US and Australian English.

As it is a Semitic language, its grammatical structure is very different from that of Indo-European languages. There are far fewer areas of facilitation, and far greater areas of interference. This must be borne in mind when Arabic speakers are mixed with foreigner students.

The Three-Consonant Root in Arabic

The basis of Arabic language is the three-consonant root. A notion such as writing, cooking or eating is represented by three consonants in a particular order. There is a large potential for errors of interference when Arab learners produce written or spoken English.

All words (parts of speech) are formed by combining the three-root consonants with fixed vowel patterns and, sometimes, an affix. Arab learners may be confused by the lack of patterns in English that would allow them to distinguish nouns from verbs or adjectives.


This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


Yahia Ahmed Qaid, M.Ed. in ELT, Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Linguistics
University of Mysore
Mysore 570 006
Karnataka, India

Also Faculty Member, Department of English
Hajjah University
Hajjah
Yemen qaid555@yahoo.com

L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Central Institute of Indian Languages
Manasagangotri
Mysore-570006
Karnataka
India
ramamoorthy_ciil@yahoo.com


Custom Search


  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you either cited or used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian scholarship.