The Interference of First Language and Second
Language Acquisition
Ali Derakhshan
Department of English Language and
Literature, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran
Elham Karimi
Department of English Language Teaching,
Gorgan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Gorgan, Iran;
Department of English Language Teaching,
Golestan Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Gorgan,Iran.
The language which is
acquired during early childhood starting before the age of about 3 years is
first language. First language has
different names such as, mother tongue, native language and primary language. First language acquisition is the
first language that we recognized before another language or commonly we called
it home language. Every people took a long period in this learning process,
they have to follow every step of
learning their first language
simultaneously with their age. In the last step, they may communicate fluently
in all context by using their first language. The individual may have an accent and
use idiomatic expression and grammatical , when they can
create a success communication by using their first language, so this is what
we called acquisition.
Second language acquisition is the next
language that learned by people after their first language or home language. Second
language has many differents patterns with the first language. This
differentiation, makes low the acquisition of second language learners because
of the interference of learner first language.
First language
influence may be an indicator of low
acquisition, or the result of the performer attempting to produce before having
acquired enough of the target language. It is not surprisingly, found most
often in foreign language, as opposed to second language situations. A learner has
difficulties in second language such as phonology, vocabulary and grammar due
to the interference of habits from L1 and L2 (Beardsmore, 1982).Those errors
that occur in learning debate in second language cause interference which are
categorized asfollows:1. Developmental errors: the errors that are not related
to learner’s first language.2.Ambiguous errors: the errors that involve
interference and developmental errors. Interference is the result of old habits
of the firstlanguage, and it must be unlearned before the learning of the new
hobbits of second language (Dualy, Burt, &Krashen,1982).
The learner of second
language tend to transfer the forms, meaning and culture of their L1 to the
foreign language and culture when
attempting to speak the language. when negative transfer occurs, we can study
learners with different native language and compare them to find out the effect
of L1 in learning a second language. First language can be considered as a tool
for language acquisition to solve learning and communication problems.
Source : 437-1706-1-PB
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