Date of Award

1-1-2001

Thesis Type

Masters

Document Type

Thesis

Divisions

Faculty of Languages and Linguistics

Department

-

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

This study attempts to discover the influence of first language transfer on the production of written English. Since all the subjects are Malay students, their first language is likely Bahasa Melayu. Their second language is the English Language which is taught in their national primary schools. Besides that, this study also seeks to discover the types of errors involved in first language transfer, whether gender and the socioeconomic background of the subjects affect ESL learning. 194 Year 4 students from two national primary schools in Kajang, Selangor were involved in this study. They were given four sets of writing tasks to do and the researcher assessed their answer scripts to find out the frequency of errors. The subjects and their parents were also required to answer questionnaires to assess the level of English usage. The data collected revealed that first language transfer does interfere with the ESL learning process. The three most common errors are 'omission of articles', 'omission of Be as auxiliary and as main verb' and ·errors in the use of pronouns'. The findings also show that the effect of first language transfer on errors cannot be differentiated by gender. Finally, there is no positive correlation between the socio-economic background of the subjects and the learning of English as a second language.

Initial

snms

Additional Information

Dissertation (M.A) -- Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, 2001.

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