Analysing EFL Discourse of Saudi EFL learners: Identifying Mother Tongue Interference

Abstract

Language specialists and teachers have long been interested in the study of discourse, whether written or spoken as a means of identifying the mental processes underlying learning. The current research is especially suitable for the entire Saudi EFL community as it endeavours to highlight the pattern of Mother Tongue interference in the EFL output of learners. The aim is to suggest means to rectify this particularly confounding problem for both the teachers and learners. It is an empirical study that analysed the free writing samples of 18 College entrants at Qassim University. Instances of MT interference were statistically recorded and linguistically analysed to verify the pattern of disruption and breakdown. Breakdown of language was, accordingly, identified on ten language parameters. Results of the showed that Saudi EFL learners are facing problems in writing mainly on subject-verb agreement, wrong verb form, redundancy of preposition and others. The study is expected to prove significant in rectifying these problems in their early stages of EFL exposure in the pre-university scene.