Mother-Tongue Interference in the Acquisition of English Articles by L1 Arabic Students

Abstract

Native speakers of Arabic face a number of problems in their attempt to acquire the English language. One of these problems is encountered in their attempt to use English articles. According to earlier studies, learning English articles by students whose mother-tongue is Arabic is one of the most frequent and significant difficulties Arab learners of English come across. This paper supports and highlights such findings. Arab learners of English encounter difficulties in their use of the English articles because of the differences between the article systems in both languages. The Arabic language has an article system that functions differently, the notion of definiteness and indefiniteness are encoded differently than in that of the English language. Given the fact that articles are one of the most frequent words used in the English language, this paper has aimed to pin down such an important issue. The aim of this paper is to pinpoint previous researchers' findings regarding English articles. This is done by illustrating how the differences between the Arabic and English languages in concern to the article system cause Arab learners of English to make mistakes or even errors in their English learning process.

Keywords: English expression, Mother-tongue, Arab learners