Educacion

The influence of the mother tongue in the learning of a second language
Introduction

One of the topics appellants in the investigations linked to the learning of the second languages says to the influence that he exercises the knowledge of the mother language in the learning of another language.
Based on the premise of which the acquisition of the mother language and the learning of thesecond language are similar processes, the linguists and pedagogues been interested in the language teaching designed programs directed to helping the student to acquire the second language (or, in terms mechanics, to acquiring the correct habits in the second language) by means of exercises that were consisting of listening and repeating, again and again, words and structures of the language forbeing acquired.
It is in this context that the call and becomes important hypothesis of contrastive analysis. According to this hypothesis, in its most radical, one can predict what aspects of the second language will be more problematic for the language learner. This is necessary to compare or contrast the two languages, mother tongue and second language, and identify the differences andsimilarities between them. This contrastive analysis should consider all levels of language structure: the higher phonological, morphological and syntactic, as well as aspects relating to the meaning, to pay attention to the similarities and differences between semantic and pragmatic aspects of both languages. Under this approach, areas that present more difficulties in learning would be those in which thetwo languages differ. On the contrary, all shared common elements or both languages without problems would be acquired by the student. A fundamental concept of this theory is the transfer. Knowledge of the language or native speaker is transferred to the second language. This transfer can be positive or negative. There is talk of positive transfer in those cases where the similarities between bothlanguages help learning the second language. The negative transfer or interference, however, occurs in those moments when the gap between the elements of both languages interferes with the acquisition process.

Typical interference errors

Learner language is the type of language produced by second -language learners who are in the process of learning a language.
In this process learner’serrors are caused by such phenomena as borrowing patterns from the mother tongue, expressing meanings using the vocabulary and syntax which are already known.
Typical interference errors are exemplified and explained in the following areas: (1) articles, (2) gender, (3) number, (4) personal pronouns, (5) relative pronouns, (6) adjectives, (7) prepositions, (8) possessives, (9) question formation,(10) negation, (11) verb tenses, (12) passive voice, (13) word order, and (14) false cognates.

1. Articles
I will read my book and the yours also.
I will read my book and yours also.
In Spanish the definite article (el, la) is used with possessive pronouns: Voy a leer mi libro y el tuyo también.

Our uncle is doctor.
Our uncle is a doctor.
In Spanish the indefinite article (un, uno,una) is not used before nouns describing profession, occupation or social status: Nuestro tío es médico.

Juan is looking for one house for his parents.
Juan is looking for a house for his parents.
No distinction is made between the indefinite article (un, uno, una) and the number one (uno) in Spanish: Juan está buscando una casa para sus padres.

Can you recommend ones good books?
Can yourecommend some good books?
The plural form (unos, unas) of the Spanish indefinite article (uno, una) means “some”: ¿Puede recomendar unos buenos libros?

2. Gender
What bright moon! Look at her!
What bright moon! Look at it!
Grammatical gender is assigned to nouns in Spanish, in which the moon (la luna) is feminine: ¡Qué luna más brillante! ¡Mírala!

3. Number
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