People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Mentouri University Constantine Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of Languages Errors in Applying Rules for English Possessive Case.The Case of 3rd Year Students, Constantine. Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master Degree in Applied Language Studies Submitted By Supervisor Lemtaiche Sabrina Dr. Belouahem Riad Academic Year: 2009/2010 Dedication “Yesterday is a history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift that is why we call it the present.” To : My beloved family; my father and my mother. My brother and my sisters. To: My best friends. i Acknowledgement First and foremost, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Allah the almighty for the completion of my study. In this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to the people who helped me finishing my final project. My greatest gratitude goes to: Dr. Belouhem Riad, my supervisor, for his patience in providing continuous and careful guidance as well as encouragement, indispensible suggestion and advice. Dr. Ahmed Sid haoues who has permitted me to conduct the test in his class. My beloved family and my best friends who always give their love, care, and support me to finish my project. Finally, I realize that the study is still far from perfect; I have great expectation that this final project would be useful for further study. ii Abstract This project aims mainly at determining the main errors and finding out the causes or sources of the errors in using English possessive case markers by 3rd year university learners at the English Department, Mentouri University, Constantine. This study is conducted under the consideration that English possession is expressed in a different way from that of Arabic. It, also, has a number of rules and grammatical structures difficult to learners to master and apply in an effective way. A test method is used to gather data. After identifying the error patterns, various sources of the learners’ errors are analyzed. The results of the study reveal the sources of the learners’ errors to be complex and multi-faceted. Through the analysis of the sources of possessive case errors in learning English as a foreign language, the study confirms that interference from Arabic, the native language of the learners, is the main factor that affects their process of learning. It is noteworthy that errors in using English possessive markers are still made by 3rd year students. So, it is suggested that the learners of English as a foreign language should pay considerable attention to English grammar rules. iii Table of Contents Dedication …………………………………………………………..….i Acknowledgement ……………………………………………………..ii Abstrat………………………………………………………………….iii Table of contents…………………………………………………….…iv List of tables and Diagrams……………………………………………viii Transliteration of the Arabic Writing System……………………. …...ix List of Abbreviations................................................................................x General Introduction……………………………...............................1 1. Statement of the problem………………………………………….…1 2. Aim of the study……………………………………………………..1 3. Research Questions and Hypothesis………………………………...2 4. Means of Research……………………………………………..........2 5. The Structure of the Study………………………………………….3 Chapter One: Learning English As a Second Language……………4 Part one: The Process of Learning a Second Language …………...4 1. Second Language Acquisition……………………………………….4 2. Contrastive Analysis…………………………………………………5 1.2. Definition………………………………………………………….5 2.2. Transfer as the basis for CA……………………………………….6 iv 3.2. Interference Theory………………………………………………..7 4.2. The Strong Version of Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH)....8 5.2. The Weak Version of CAH………………………………………10 3. Error Analysis (EA)………………………………………………...10 1.3. Definition…………………………………………………………10 2.3. The Definition of Error……............................................................10 3.3. The Classification of Errors………………………………………12 4.3. Strengths and Weaknesses of EA………………………………...13 4. Interlaguage Theory………………………………………………...14 Part two:English Versus Arabic Possession..………………….……16 1. English Possessive Case…………………………………………….16 1.1. The Genitive Case “ ‘s” ………………………………………......16 1.1.1. Basic rules…………………………………………………….…18 1.1.2. Special rules……………………………………………………..19 1.1.3. Double possessive……………………………………………….19 1.1.4. The genitive “ ‘s” or the “of structure”………………………..20 2. Arabic Possession…………………………………………………….22 1.2Strategy1…………………………………………………………..22 2.2 Strategy2………………………………………………………….23 3.2 Strategy3…………………………………………………………..24 v 4.2Strategy4……………………………………………………………24 5.2 Strategy5…………………………………………………………..24 6.2Strategy6…………………………………………………………..25 7.2 Strategy7…………………………………………………………..25 Conclusion……………………………………………………………26 Chapter2: Test……………………………………………………….27 1. Introduction………………………………………………………27 1. The test…………………………………………………………….27 1.1. The sample………………………………………………………27 2.1. Description of the test…………………………………………..27 3.1. Methods of the study…………………………………………...28 2. Data Analysis………………………………………………………29 3. part 2: Test of Knowledge…………………………………………29 1.3. Discussion…………………………………………………..……31 4. Part2:The Analysis of Exercise2 Results………………………..…35 5. Part3: The Analysis of Exercise3 Results …………………………..37 6. Discussion…………………………………………………………..38 1.6. Confusion over usage…………………………………………….38 2.6. Wrong placement of the Apostrophe…………………………….39 3.6. Omission of the Apostrophe……………………………………..40 vi 4.6. Unnecessary Insertion of the Apostrophe………………………..41 5.6. Other Grammatical Errors……………………………………….42 7. Results of Error Analysis…………………………………………..43 Conclusion……………………………………………………………45 General Conclusion.............................................................................46 47.....................................................................................................ﻣﻠﺨﺺ Résumé……………………………………………………………..48 Bibliography…………………………………………………………49 vii List of Tables and Figures Table1: Basic Rules…………………………………………………………….19 Table2: Special Rules…………………………………………………………...22 Table3: Genitive “ ‘s” or “of structure”………………………………………...22 Table4: Number of Errors……………………………………………………….30 Table5: Categorization of Errors………………………………………………..30 Table6: Number of Errors in Confusion Over Usage…………………………...32 Table7: The percentage of Error Categories……………………………………33 Figure1: Percentage of Error Categories………………………………………..34 viii Transliteration of the Arabic Writing System: The following transliteration system has been used when representing Arabic script in this dissertation. The scheme is as in Saad (1982:4) Arabic Letters Transliteration Arabic Letters Transliteration Consonants d ض ? ء ’t ط b ب zh ظ t ت c ع th ث gh غ j ج f ف h ح q ق x خ k ك d د l ل dh ذ m م r ر n ن z ز ’h ﻩ s س w و sh ش y ي ç ص The definite article will be transliterated as /al: in spite of the fact that it has a hamza /?/ in the Arabic system of writing. ix List of Abbreviations CA: contrastive Analysis EA: Error Analysis L1: first language L2: Second language SLA: Second language acquisition CAH: Contrastive analysis hypothesis x General Introduction 1. Statement of the problem One of the central goals in research on second language acquisition is to discover what knowledge and abilities learners bring to the learning situation. In learning a foreign language, learners are said to be engaged in comparing the linguistic features of their mother tongue with those of the target language. This research will examine an error pattern committed by university students: the genitive marker “of/’s” indicating possession. It is conducted in the sense that the great majority of them find difficulty in applying its rules of usage and fail to make the distinction between the two markers. In fact, this is a highly complex matter not only for second language learners but for native learners as well. Hence, learners seem to be affected by interference from their first language in which there is a limited sense of possession. Then, they tend either to generalize rules or to avoid the “ ‘s” marker and use the “of structure” thinking that they are always interchangeable. Considering, however, naturally occurring data in a corpus, it is possible to find a habitually preferred pattern by English native speakers. 2. Aim of the Study The present study examines the errors made by university learners in the application of English possession. The specific aim of the research is to investigate the extent to which students succeed in applying the rules of possessive case. It, also, tries to make students aware of the difference between English possessive case rules and those of their first language. Moreover, the major aim of the research is to highlight the rules of English possessive case, 1 and those of Arabic which do not work in English, to help learners produce coherent English writings. 3. Research Questions and Hypothesis: This research tries to find answers to the following questions: -What is the reason behind making errors in applying rules of English possessive case? -What kinds of errors do learners make in the process of expressing English possession? -Does learners’ knowledge of the first language interfere in the process of learning the rules of English as a foreign language, specifically those of possessive case? Trying to answer these questions and other related ones, the following hypothesis is stated: If students trie to use the Arabic way of expressing possession in the process of learning English