This thesis has analyzed syntactical errors made in written English by Brazilian-Portuguese-speaking students of English as a foreign language. The errors were analyzed and explained so as to determine whether the students use their native competence in Portuguese or their transitional competence in English in their hypothesizing in the target language. In case they use the former, their performance in the target language most likely shows a great deal of native language interference; in case they use the latter, their errors are mostly based on overgeneralizations, false analogies within English itself, or are caused by insufficient knowledge of the rule system of English, or by simple carelessness.By means f this careful analysis the investigator supported, at least partially, the hypothesis that native language interference, while an important cause, is not the sole cause of error in foreign-language performance, since approximately 57% of the errors were due to the interference of the mother tongue.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/180289 |
| Date | January 1971 |
| Creators | Varela, Celina Maris |
| Contributors | Ross, Janet |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | iii, 108 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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