Learning English as a foreign language in Ntem, Cameroon : a study of language interference in secondary school compositions and suggestions for remedial pedagogy

Abstract

This study was an attempt to investigate types of French language interference in 113 English compositions written by the Francophone secondary school students of Ntem Division, Cameroon. Analyses and explications were afforded in an attempt to verify the Igpothesis that French, the second language of the subjects, interfered with their efforts to produce correct linguistic structures in English. The analyses revealed French interference at all the levels of language design, especially in the area of linguistic specifics where there is no one-to-one correspondence between French and English structures. Results of the statistical count showed that French language interference accounted for 51 percent of all the errors analyzed in the present study. Suggestions of a general nature were also provided for remedial pedagogy.