Cross-linguistic Influence in Structural Errors in EFL Writing: A Case Study of M1 Learners at the University of Amar Thelidji, Laghouat

Abstract

This research examines the structural errors observed in M1 EFL learners’ writings at the University of Amar Thelidji in Laghouat, with special emphasis on the learners’ first language influence, Standard Arabic, on their written production. This study aims at identifying the common structural deviations, including grammatical and syntactic errors, and studying their possible sources. A corpus-based design was implemented to collect and analyse learners’ essays besides Rod Ellis’ (2008) framework. In addition, two analytical procedures were also applied to ensure systematic and comprehensible findings. These procedures are contrastive analysis and error analysis. Eleven categories were identified, including six grammatical, such as subject-verb agreement, article use and verb formation. Besides, five syntactic categories, such as word order, question order and parallel structure issues. The findings revealed that the majority of errors stemmed from intralingual factors such as overgeneralisation and incomplete rule application. Interlingual errors, on the other hand, were primarily observed in article use, verb formation and prepositional use; these errors often appear due to negative transfer between Standard Arabic and English. Thus, intralingual errors were more frequent than interlingual errors. The results of this study are important for English language teaching, especially for Arabic-speaking learners. It highlights the importance of teaching contrastive grammar that is targeted for Arab EFL learners to increase their awareness of the structural differences between Standard Arabic and English