Kurdish Language Interference in Learning English as a Foreign Language: Grammatical Negative Transfer

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate Kurdish interference in learning English as a foreign language in the field of grammar. Learning a foreign language usually involves the transfer of one's native language (NL) to a foreign language (FL). This can have both positive and negative effects. One of the sources of effects in speech production is still students' use of their NL, which is called "negative transfer." The tool of this study involves sixty first-grade students as participants who write compositions. It is to deal with students' grammatical errors in their written texts. In detecting the grammatical errors in the participants' compositions, 331 errors were found. Of the errors, 214 (65%) are considered NL interferences because the errors belong to several different aspects of grammar between the English and Kurdish languages. Many grammatical incongruities are found between Kurdish and English. This can support EFL teachers in helping their learners become familiar with differences and get over them in their learning.