AN ERROR ANALYSIS OF UNDERGRADUATE LEARNERS' SINDHI-ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Abstract

This study aims at finding out L1 (Sindhi) interference in the English language use by undergraduate Sindhi students having Sindhi as their mother tongue. The study exploits a modified model of error analysis propounded by Rod Ellis ( 1994) that contains four stages: identification, description, explanation and evaluation of the errors. For this purpose, a questionnaire was designed, containing ten sentences in Sindhi language which were taken rom a Sindhi daily "Sindh Express". These sentences were about everyday issues like sports, showbiz, politics and social issues. Twenty undergraduate students having Sindhi as their mother  tongue were selected through purpose sampling strategy in order to ensure that the students  in question had basic proficiency level in English language as the researcher knew them  personally. Participants were accessed through email communication and were requested to fill in  questionnaires. Out of the received responses, 25 items were selected having 35 errors. Out of  those 35 errors, a few were found repeated several times by different participants. These responses  were identified, described, explained and evaluated. It was found that whether they were caused by  mother tongue interference or not. Errors were divided into three categories: semantic, morphological and syntactic. The results of the study showed that out of 35 errors, 21 were  semantic, 12 were morphological and 2 were syntactic in nature. 16 (45%) errors were caused due to  interference from the mother tongue. Hence, the study revealed that L1 interference is not the  only cause of learners' difficulties in learning English language. Learners' assumptions, knowledge of grammar and personal experiences also become responsible for their English  language use errors.