The students first language interference on their written english production at SMK negeri 1 palopo (original) (raw)

2020, The Asian EFL Journal

This study is a case study conducted on five students of SMK Negeri 1 Palopo who speak both local language (Tae' Language) and Indonesian language in their daily communication. Through error analysis, the study investigated the error committed by the students in producing written English text and how their first language interference contributed to the error, especially lexical and syntactical area. The result of the study shows that in the lexical area, the students make literal or word to word translation, misuse of words, and loan words. This occurs as a lack of vocabulary, students tend to select the first listed word in a dictionary without considering the context, and the students considered that all words look similar, which are they have the same meaning (false cognate). In the syntactic area, the students omitted or added some language features, miss selection of tenses, article, preposition, pronouns agreement, and miss order of words. The errors occurred as the students' limited knowledge of the rule of the target language (English) and the negative transfer of the students' L1 rule. By understanding the major error committed by the learners and source, the teachers/educators can anticipate it and create the appropriate learning strategy to overcome the problem.

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