Title
A Study on Language Transfer of Chinese and Malay Students’ Home Dominant Languages on Spoken English Language
1. Background Information
There have been various studies (e.g. Blom & Baayen, 2011; Khazriyati & Tan, 2005; Sanmuganathan, 2014) that provided a basis for discussion on the influences of a child’s First Language (L1) on the acquisition of their Second Language (L2). These have shone light on the possible influences that could be recognized as a negative influence from language transfer, such as the production of variations that deviate from the standard forms of English with regards to linguistic elements such as morphology, syntax and phonology. (Chidambaram, 2004; Castilla & Perez-Leroux, 2009).
On-going discussions with regards to this topic have provided encouragement for further exploration into the variety of transfer errors as well as the root causes that could lead to the production of non-standard forms by learners. By looking into the findings attained from various literatures, educators can then implement appropriate follow-ups by being equipped with pedagogical skills that will help them to impart language as a whole. This will in turn improve students’ ability in terms of the fluency and accuracy of the language (Abu Bakar et. al, 2007).
2. Literature Review
Blom and Baayen (2011) recognized that learners’ L1 influences verb inflections in the grammar learning of L2. They then signaled out some dimensions that could influence the acquisition. These include factors such as age and language proficiency, highlighting the complexity of language transfer. In disagreement, Richards (1971) contended against the situation that learners’ errors could be attributed to negative transference between individuals’ first and second language. Alternatively, he established that these variations are produced due to the strategies that were implemented for language learning in the classroom.
Similarly, Noori, Shamary and Yasin (2015) found that learners face difficulties with Subject Verb Agreement (SVA) accuracy due to three main causes – inter-lingual errors, intra-lingual errors and induced errors. Interlanguage errors refer to those caused by transfer of linguistic properties from a learner’s mother tongue. Such errors are conjured due to “negative inter-lingual transfer” (Brown, 2000) from learner’s L1 to the target language. Kavaliauskiene (2009) elaborated that inter-lingual transfer errors may occur from the low levels of proficiency of L2. Next, intra-language errors are often observed during learners’ attempts to derive rules that are absent in either the learner’s L1 or target language. These are commonly caused by “learning strategy errors” and “communication-strategy-based errors” (Noori, Shamary & Yasin, 2015). The former considers incomplete rule application and hypercorrection, whereas the latter suggests the lower proficiency levels that will affect the accuracy in expressions of concepts. Induced errors introduces forms that are produced due to ineffective or inappropriate pedagogical instructions and resources.
In order to investigate the above discussed phenomenon on transference, Morales (2014) crafted and executed a study with Spanish students who were learning English as L2. Her findings demonstrated that grammar elements which carry functional features that facilitates concise expressions (particularly tenses) are not easily grasped by L2 learners.
Directing the discussion to a language setting more in parallel to that of Singapore’s, the following paragraphs will explore studies that have explored on the inter-linguistic transfer between Bahasa Malaysia and English as well as Chinese and English of students in Malaysia. In order to gain deeper understanding of the factors that could affect inter-language transfer as well as to identify the frequent types of SVA errors that learners tend to make, Tafida and Okunade (2016) studied the writings of 120 sampled students of Federal University of Technology. It was concluded that errors regarding the inappropriate use of tenses had the highest frequency.
Similarly, English language assumed the role as an official and administrative language in Singapore. This involved the implementation of language policies that required students in mainstream schools to study English as a ‘First Language’ and Mandarin, Malay or Tamil as a ‘Second Language’, otherwise known as ‘Mother Tongue’. English is one of the official languages and the main medium of instruction in schools. All students (with exceptions for those with learning difficulties) study at least two languages. That provides the background on multiple languages and possible L1-L2 transfer. It is then essential to take note that it is difficult to distinguish L1 and L2 in Singapore since many people are bilingual, to varying degrees.
A study conducted by Wong (2012) revealed that Malaysian L1 Chinese-speakers face difficulties with English L2 tense and agreement . Law’s (2005) study on the acquisition of English SVA by Cantonese Speakers in Hong Kong attempted to analyse and describe the SVA embedded within their English utterances. Her conclusion from the study can be conceptualized and applied to leaners in Singapore since both countries enforce similar bilingual education policy in our classrooms. This curriculum is structured with an objective to strengthen students’ cross-linguistic awareness and sensitivity through the use of their intuitive Mother Tongue knowledge as “a springboard for enhancing foreign language knowledge” (Law, 2005). She concluded that L1-Chinese-speaking learners of English displayed better performance in the acquisition of copula be due to the positive transfer between their existing knowledge of Chinese verb shi into the acquisition of English copula be. Law (2005) then postulated that the better performance in copula be when compared to inflectional morphology could be attributed to the learners’ existing knowledge of the forms of be.
This is also supported by White’s (2003) findings that Chinese learners’ “low use” of English tense and agreement morphology could be attribute to the lack of inflection in Chinese. White’s (2003) study proposed the presence of parametric differences between grammars which are associated with properties of lexical items.
In conclusion, prior research highlighted the significance and need to attain sensitivity towards SVA to attain fluency and accuracy communication in both written and spoken discourse. Results have also pointed out that transfer errors from the first language will be produced in the second language when grammatical features “do not match between the two languages” (Law, 2005).
By building on existing studies (Blom & Baayen, 2011; Tafida and Okunade, 2016; Noori, Shamary, H.K.A & Yasin, 2015; Law, 2005 & Wong, 2012), this paper aims to look into the impacts of Home Dominant Language (HDL) on the production of non-standard spoken English Language, through the analysis of errors in Subject Verb Agreement (SVA) amongst Singapore students. It will focus on learners whose HDL is either Malay or Chinese, as both languages are similar to each other but different from English in the aspect of SVA. Neither Malay nor Chinese requires overt tense and agreement features (Wong, 2012) while English does. With reference to the discussion of language transfer in Singapore, L1 will then refer to students’ HDL, which refers to the language that the child is exposed to the most frequently at home since birth.
This study investigates the following:
1. What is the most common type of Subject Verb Agreement (SVA) error?
2. What are the factors that could lead to SVA errors?
3. Implications of these errors towards pedagogical instructions in classrooms.
3. Methodology
3.1 Participants
In order to explore the effects of language transfer of Chinese and Malay students’ home dominant languages on spoken English Language, a case study was carried out with participants of the same age (5-8 years old) from the following language environments:
1. Chinese family that primarily use English Language
2. Chinese family that primarily use Mandarin
3. Malay family that primarily use English Language
4. Malay family that primarily use Malay Language
Two families that satisfied each linguistic profiles were included. They were selected from the researcher’s circle of friends, which allows understanding of the participants’ linguistic profiles. The table below illustrates the profiles of respective participants.
Table 1: Profiles of participants
Child
Race
Home Dominant Language
Standard
Alan
Chinese
Chinese
P2
Lucy
Chinese
Chinese
P2
Siti
Malay
Malay
P1
Ali
Malay
Malay
P2
Elise
Chinese
English
P1
Joleen
Chinese
English
K2
Minah
Malay
English
P1
Abdul
Malay
English
P2
3.2 Methods
The methodology of the study included:
1. Conducting a survey to find out about the participants’ HDL and frequency of use.
2. Engaging participants in a picture description activity. Participants were given 2 pictures to construct 2 narratives.
3.3 Procedures
Before implementing the questionnaire and picture description activity, participants and their parents/guardians were informed about the study and its procedures through an information sheet. Consent was obtained from the participants’ and their parents. They were also notified that any request of withdrawal would be respected. Pseudonyms are used throughout to preserve the participants’ anonymity.
The survey (see Appendix 1) consisted of 22 scaled questions to investigate the following themes:
1. Frequency of use of language at home.
2. Frequency of use of language of social media by the participant.
3. Frequency of reading activities done with the child.
The survey was constructed such that it would allow me to explore the possible external factors that could affect the SVA proficiency of a child. The caregivers of the participants were invited to complete the survey.
The picture description activity required participants to carry out picture description in English (Appendix 2). Participants were given 2 sets of pictures and were instructed to construct narratives. The researcher did not interrupt the process to carry out any forms of corrections or to provide guidance to the participants. The entire process was audio recorded and later transcribed (Appendix 3) for analysis for SVA variations via Microsoft Excel through the use of a table (Figure 1). Erroneous utterances were picked out and evaluated for their standard forms. Variation types were also identified.
Figure 1 : Structure of table used for analysis of utterances.
S/N
Sentence
SVA accuracy (Y/N)
SVA Error
Other variation(s)
Variation type
Remarks
1
I am Aron
Y
Participants’ transcribed narrative were further broken down into unit sentences. These were then assessed for SVA accuracy. In the event that there was inaccurate SVA, the type of disagreement were then identified in the adjacent column. Following which, other variations (if any) were picked out (Figure 1.2), and the type of variation stated. Finally, the inaccurate utterances were revised under the ‘Remarks’ column.
Figure 1.2: Structure of table used for analysis of utterances.
S/N
Sentence
SVA accuracy (Y/N)
SVA Error
Other variation(s)
Variation type
Remarks
5
and l..and saw some fire out of she’s window.
Y
she's window
possessive pronoun
"I saw smoke" instead of "she saw smoke". Learner might have confused between the character and himself
Past studies (Lashari, Hafeez & Gopang, 2014) have utilized Contrastive Analysis (CA) (Appendix 4) to identify the accuracy of SVA produced by participants. Evaluation of the accuracy of tenses were determined based on techniques that participants have received through the education received through curriculum in classrooms. Hence accurate tense will then refer to the prototypical features of the use of past tense in narrative text types since the task requires participants to carry out story telling with a plot. This study will thus apply CA to postulate the errors produced by participants. In the event participants do not adhere to the prototypical past-tense features of narratives, their use of tense with regards to SVA will be evaluated based on present tense.
4. Results and Discussion
4.1 Overview
The survey gathered demographic and literacy practices information of the participants. Appendix 5 presents the data collated from respective participants from the survey. The transcriptions of the picture description activities are attached as Appendix 3. The relevant information is woven together, below, in the description of each child.
4.2 Results and Discussion
4.2.1 Child A – Alan
Alan is a Primary 2, Chinese participant with a Chinese HDL. Alan demonstrated understanding of the required textual features of a narrative by appropriately using the past tense most of the time with accurate SVA during the narrative task. There were however, instances that SVA errors were detected. Table 2 categorizes the sentences that consists of accurate and inaccurate SVAs out of a total of 21 sentences. Table 3 illustrates the variations present in the utterances produced by Alan.
Table 2: Number of accurate and inaccurate SVAs for Alan
Accurate SVAs
Inaccurate SVAs
19
2
Accurate SVAs (%)
Inaccurate SVAs (%)
90
10
Table 3: Erroneous utterances observed for Alan
Line
Variation
Standard Form
Type
11
walk
walks
quantity
21
can sees
can see
modal- infinitive
It is however, worthy of consideration that the variation observed in Line 21 may be attributed to hypercorrection. Alan utilized the accurate verb, “sees” to follow the singular pronoun “he”, which adheres to SVA. It can be suggested that he has not considered the modal which he had included in the sentence “can”, which will require “sees” to be in its base form, “see”.
Alan’s high percentage of accurate SVA disagrees with the established stance that participants with Chinese HDL will produce erroneous SVA due to negative influences of the HDL, since Chinese language does not require users to produce tenses that establish quantities. Alan’s sensitivity towards SVA could be attributed to his frequent exposure to English through external enrichments and the media. Since Alan is enrolled in English supplementary classes, he would be exposed to more opportunities and platforms to practice the language, hence increasing his level of proficiency. Further, the media would act as an avenue to enhance teaching and learning of English language, as it “build bridges” between students’ knowledge and learning objectives by engaging them and encouraging knowledge retention through motivation. Such value-adding learning experiences illustrate the relevance of the concepts and application of SVA through contextual learning.
It was also noted from the survey responses that Alan makes the effort to practice the use of English language in school by communicating with his peers. Through such opportunities, the child would be able to identify gaps between his output and the target structure, hence promoting self-regulation. Aron also demonstrated understanding of the grammar of English language when he performed self-correction in Line 4.
4.2.2 Child B – Lucy
Lucy is a Primary 2, Chinese participant with a Chinese HDL. However, in contrast to Alan, the number of SVA errors observed is larger. Table 4 categorizes the sentences that consists of accurate and inaccurate SVAs out of a total of 37 sentences. The erroneous utterances observed for Lucy are presented in Table 5.
Table 4: Number of accurate and inaccurate SVAs for Lucy
Accurate SVAs
Inaccurate SVAs
20
17
Accurate SVAs (%)
Inaccurate SVAs (%)
55
45
Table 5: Erroneous utterances observed for Lucy
Line(s)
Variation
Standard Form
Type
1, 5, 31
go
goes
quantity
3
see
sees
modal- infinitive
7
tell
tells
quantity
10
run
runs
quantity
13
calls
call
quantity
15
bring
brings
quantity
18
see
sees
quantity
21
He very happy
He was very happy
Lack of auxiliary verb
22
use
uses
quantity
25
go
goes
quantity
28
play
plays
quantity
32
do
does
quantity
34
He very sad
He was very sad
Lack of auxiliary verb
35
return
returns
quantity
37
The boy happy again
The boy was happy again
Lack of auxiliary verb
Since Lucy did not receive external help and additional exposure to English literacy activities, the amount of influence that her HDL could have on her inaccuracy of SVA in utterances is significantly higher (45%) than that as compared to Alan (10%). It can also be observed that there is the tendency for Lucy to omit auxiliary verbs that precedes adjectives (Table 5). On top of the lack of interaction which allows opportunities of production as well as the lack of external supplementary instructions, Lucy does not receive additional educational resources and does not expose herself to English language media, hence further reducing the amount of exposure and input she received.
Interestingly, it could be taken into consideration that the observed erroneous utterances may be due to over-generalization. This phenomenon is often attributed to the effort of the learner “reducing [her] linguistic burden” (Richards, 1974). Mohamed, Goh and Eliza (2004) postulated that the above “mixed-up verb tense” behavior might be a result of the method that these learners create additions to their exiting repertoire of grammatical knowledge for later retrieval. Rather than processing the past or perfect tense, these learners often reduce the effort required to acquire these verbs by placing emphasis on the verb stem, which holds the central meaning. Hence, the stem form would also be the one most likely to be retrieved within a shorter period of time for production. Hence, it can be suggested that this subconscious selection of verb-stem for acquisition has led to the particular occurrence of tense errors. In place of inflecting verbs to indicate the required tense in English language, Chinese HDL thus demonstrated the tendency to use verb stems liberally.
4.2.3 Child C- Siti
Siti is a Primary 1, Malay participant with a Malay HDL. Her stories were mostly recounted through the use of present tense. SVA accuracy was hence analysed across verbs that are produced in present tense. Table 6 categorizes the sentences that consists of accurate and inaccurate SVAs out of a total of 31 sentences. Table 7 illustrates the variations produced by Siti during the picture description activity.
Table 6: Number of accurate and inaccurate SVAs for Siti
Accurate SVAs
Inaccurate SVAs
27
4
Accurate SVAs (%)
Inaccurate SVAs (%)
88
12
Table 7: Erroneous utterances observed for Siti
Line(s)
Variation
Standard Form
Type
12
scold
scolds
quantity
20
tie
ties
quantity
21
go
goes
quantity
22
play
plays
quantity
23
come
comes
quantity
25
go
goes
quantity
29
give
gives
quantity
As compared to Lucy, who had 20% of her utterances that consist of accurate SVAs, Siti produced a significantly larger percentage of 88%. She does not have adequate opportunities for input and production of English language, which would further impede the acquisition process.
The survey responses also indicated that Siti communicates with her friends using English language in school, allowing opportunities to obtain input and produce output. These communicative practices could have contributed to her language development. Further, she reads English books, which could provide repetition of the target structure.
4.2.3 Child D- Ali
Ali is a Primary 2, Malay participant with a Malay HDL. Similar to Siti, Ali has foregrounded the stories in present tense, which deviates from the prototypical feature of narratives, hence reflecting similar proficiency and level of accuracy of the use of past tense. Since the stories were mostly recounted through the use of present tense, SVA accuracy was analysed based on verbs that are produced in present tense. Table 8 categorizes the sentences that consists of accurate and inaccurate SVAs out of a total of 17 sentences. Table 9 presents the observed errors in utterances produced during the picture description activity.
Although both participants have reflected inadequate knowledge of the use of past tense in narratives, it was observed that both Siti and Ali have effectively constructed their utterances with accurate S-V-O. Further, it was also noted that the number of accurate SVAs produced was larger than inaccurate.
Table 8: Number of accurate and inaccurate SVAs for Ali
Accurate SVAs
Inaccurate SVAs
15
2
Accurate SVAs (%)
Inaccurate SVAs (%)
88
12
Table 9: Erroneous utterrances observed for Ali
Line(s)
Variation
Standard Form
Type
7
decide
decides
quantity
13
run
runs
quantity
The above findings oppose existing studies which have established that students with Malay HDL tend to produce inaccurate variations due to interference of their first language. It was explicated that the grammar system that makes up the English language requires the form of copula ‘be’ as crucial in a sentence to establish connection between subject of a sentence and a predicate. There are mainly three forms of copula ‘be’ that exist the prefix in the range of verbs in present tense – ‘am’, ‘is’ for the third person singular subjects and ‘are’ for plural ones as well as ‘you’. In the past tense, ‘was’ is used for singular subjects (I, he, she, it) while ‘were’ is for plural subjects (you, we, they) including ‘you’ in the form of second person singular. That this phenomenon that does not exist in Malay grammatical structure coupled with the complexity of grammatical rules pose as a constraint towards the acquisition of target language. Nik Safiah et. al (1997 also elaborated that inflections such as suffix –s are affixed to root words to indicate grammatical meaning. Plural inflection increases in complexity when it is influenced by phonological rules. Mat Awal, Abdul Hamid and Jalaluddin (2007) demonstrated that words with consonant /h/ endings, have their plural form inflected with –es, for example ostrich – ostriches. This however, is not present with words which end with /t/, such as the conversion process for accident – accidents. Therefore, students should be encouraged to learn the phonological rules together with plural inflection and this will indirectly add to the difficulties that students face in learning English.
In line with the above discussion, it was also noted that these inflections are not essential in the production of utterances in Malay, whereby plurality is indicated by cardinal and ordinal words (Asmah 1986). On top of which, plurality is also often indicated through the use of prefix ber- to words of measurement, which then undergo reduplication. For example – berjamjam, berhari-hari, berbulan-bulan. It is thus consequently evident that Malay language and English have distinct forms to indicate plurality which may lead to problems in students’ understanding. Hence, it can be concluded that the diverse range of English copula could have influence towards students’ failure in acquisition of grammar rules of English language.
Having evaluated the utterances produced by participants with Chinese or Malay HDL, Table 10 to 13 presents the analysis of participants from Malay or Chinese ethnicities with English HDL.
4.2.4 Child E- Elise
Elise is a Primary 1, Chinese participant with English as her HDL. She has foregrounded the stories in past tense, which aligns with the prototypical feature of narratives. Table 10 categorizes the sentences that consists of accurate and inaccurate SVAs out of a total of 23 sentences. Survey responses have also indicated that on top of the wide use of English language amongst family members, participant was also widely exposed to language resources such as books and media. On top of which, Elise was also sent for enrichment lessons which run in parallel with the curriculum offered in school. Survey response has also indicated that her parents utilize the one-parent-one-language policy, where by respective spouses interact with the child using a particular language. This suggests an environment that provides balanced opportunity for language input and production.
Table 10: Number of accurate and inaccurate SVAs for Elise
Accurate SVAs
Inaccurate SVAs
23
0
Accurate SVAs (%)
Inaccurate SVAs (%)
100
0
Although Elise has the mother tongue of Chinese, she has ample opportunities at home for production of English language when she communicates amongst family members. Although she does not receive external enrichment in formal grammar instructions, she has been exposed to learning materials such as books and social media that provides learning experiences.
4.2.5 Child F- Joleen
Joleen is a Kindergarten 2 (K2), Chinese participant with English HDL. She has mostly foregrounded the stories in past tense, which aligns with the prototypical feature of narratives. This posits that the participant is aware of the use of past tense in narratives. There were however, the presence of present tenses in the utterances that disagrees with SVA. Table 11 categorizes the sentences that consists of accurate and inaccurate SVAs out of a total of 18 sentences.
Similar to Elise, Joleen’s family also provides her with a balanced language environment, through the implementation of one-parent-one-language approach. Further, it was also indicated that Jane has external help with both her HDL as well as English language.
Table 11: Number of accurate and inaccurate SVAs for Joleen
Accurate SVAs
Inaccurate SVAs
11
5
Accurate SVAs (%)
Inaccurate SVAs (%)
58
26
Table 12: Erroneous utterances observed for Joleen
Line(s)
Variation
Standard Form
Type
9
want
wants
quantity
10
tie
ties
quantity
15
see
sees
quantity
16
go
goes
quantity
18
give
gives
quantity
Table 13: Accurate utterances observed for Joleen
Line(s)
Sentence
6
His son is burning
7
The lady thanks
8
Boy is taking
Although Joleen produced inaccurate SVAs, her knowledge of the accurate forms are demonstrated through the presence of accurate ones, as reflected in Table 13. Her inconsistency could be attributed to the lack of isolated grammar teaching via formal education. Since Jane is only in K2, whereby curriculum emphasizes on communicative use rather than grammatical accuracy.
Although there are inaccuracies observed in Joleen’s transcript, it should be considered that the errors produced (Table 12) can be attributed to performance errors in conversations, which has led to the variation in tense accuracy since she has also produced utterances that adhere to SVA (Table 13). These have thus demonstrated her awareness and sensitivity towards the agreement. As explicated by Kovac and Horga (as cited in Kovac, 2011), utterance construction is a ‘demanding, complex and continuous process” whereby the various components of mechanisms of language production can fail, leading to speech errors. Kormos (2006) also elaborated that although speech processes are automatic in nature, speakers often produce speech that display variations which deviates from speakers’ communicative intent. Further, since the task required participants to conjure narratives, participants were then engaged in a complex cognitive process whereby their most of their attention would be channeled towards the planning and organization of speech acts within a given time frame. Hence, in consideration of her young age coupled with lack of formal education and opportunities of production of narratives, the participant might not be developmentally ready to manage the “coordination of production processes on different levels in real time” (Kovac, 2011, p. 28).
Joleen’s grammatical repertoire could also be contributed by the various avenues of exposure to the language, such as reading materials and social media. Furthermore, the frequent interaction in English language amongst family members could provide her with adequate input and production opportunities, which in turn could encourage an increase in language proficiency.
4.2.7 Child H- Abdul
Abdul is a Primary 2, Malay participant with English HDL. He has foregrounded the stories in past tense, which aligns with the prototypical feature of narratives. Table 14 categorizes the sentences that consists of accurate and inaccurate SVAs out of a total of 16 sentences.
Table 14: Number of accurate and inaccurate SVAs for Amirah
Accurate SVAs
Inaccurate SVAs
18
0
Accurate SVAs (%)
Inaccurate SVAs (%)
100
0
On top of the accurate and appropriate use of SVA in utterance, Abdul has also effectively constructed a coherent narrative. This could stem from the learning received through formal grammatical instructions in school, coupled with the language input and production opportunities provided through frequent interaction amongst family members. Further, it was also indicated that Abdul received external enrichment which builds on the knowledge received from school. He also had access to ample resources such as media and reading materials which facilitates the increase in language proficiency. Hence, although Abdul has a mother tongue of Malay, the influence on his acquisition of English language is negligible.
4.2.7 Child I- Minah
Minah is a Primary 1, Malay participant with English HDL. She has foregrounded the stories in past tense, which aligns with the prototypical feature of narratives. Table 15 categorizes the sentences that consists of accurate and inaccurate SVAs out of a total of 16 sentences.
Table 15: Number of accurate and inaccurate SVAs for Minah
Accurate SVAs
Inaccurate SVAs
15
1
Accurate SVAs (%)
Inaccurate SVAs (%)
94
6
Table 16: Erroneous utterances observed for Minah
Line(s)
Variation
Standard Form
Type
13
go
goes
quantity
16
cannot
could not
tense
17
gived
gave
irregular past tense
Interestingly, although Minah was provided with a balanced language learning environment through the use of one-parent-one-language approach at home, Minah does not receive enrichment out of curriculum hours. This, coupled with the minimal exposure to formal education in mainstream primary school might then provide a possible explanation towards the variations produced in her utterances, which comprised of the inaccurate use of tense and inability to identify the transformation of verbs into irregular past tense.
In summary, findings gave hints that participants with English HDL demonstrate higher competence at producing utterances consisting of accurate SVAs, as reflected by the lower percentages of the inaccurate SVAs produced.
5. Conclusion
The research questions could be addressed upon discussion of the findings :
1. What is the most common type of Subject Verb Agreement (SVA) error?
2. What are the factors that could lead to SVA errors?
3. Implications of these errors towards pedagogical instructions in classrooms.
In summary, the most common error was SVA (quantity). However, it should be acknowledged that utterances produced by participants did not all contain errors; there were many instances of correct usage. This observation could probably be attributed to the constant exposure to English language that the Singapore context provides. However, of the errors that were found, the majority were quantity. This echoes existing literatures, results collated from the study have agreed that the most common type of SVA error is verb that is related to quantity.
Findings have suggested the possibility that HDL does not have a significant negative influence towards language acquisition. It should be noted that there are confounding factors – and this leads to the need for further study. External factors such as learners’ accessibility to learning resources and opportunities to receive comprehensive input and output production have also been identified as significant contributors of language learning experiences.
Findings from this study have also hinted that the extent of influence when a child’s HDL is Chinese is larger than that when a child’s HDL is Malay, due to the more similar morphological properties and sentence structure between English and Malay as compared to Chinese. Although findings discussed in this paper have suggested that HDL could have influences on learner’s acquisition of L2, there are some limitations that should be acknowledged to facilitate future researches. Further, findings have also shone light on other factors that could affect learner’s proficiency of L2, such as opportunities of use of language outside home.
The following paragraph intends to point out some methodological limitations. Immediate reference to illustration during the picture description activity might have caused participants to use present tense in view of conversation manner. A point for consideration will be the setting of the activity which could influence the register of utterances. Since the activity is a verbal, rather than written one, participants might have lower tendencies to review grammar knowledge and evaluate for accuracy, which could lead to a higher production of erroneous utterances. On top of which, McCarthy (1998) pointed out that linguistic accuracy of verbal discourse may be more difficult to analyze due to the nature of speech, as these often do not comprise of well-formed sentences, as spoken English refers to “utterances as near as to a native speaker’s as possible” (Bartram & Walton, 2002, p.32). Beattie (1983) explicated that the spontaneous production of speech during the activity will contain many mistakes and sentences are usually not concise. The informal setting also points out the inappropriate context that requires students to produce concise and accurate utterances when they speak (Brown, 2003).
While variations of SVA are deemed as one of the many grammatical errors frequently made by non-native speakers of English, this study has echoed the possibility of a particular form of SVA error being a feature of spoken English during informal verbal discourse situations. The usage of the base form of verbs for singular subjects (e.g. He ride a bike) might present itself as a form of SVA error in consideration of the surface structure. However, it is noteworthy that this type of error may be due to “past tense and present tense being not morphologically marked” (Bautista & Gonzales, 2006, p.135). This absence of morphological marking for tenses was illustrated as a feature of Singapore English. It can then be considered that participants are not demonstrating transference errors due to influence of HDL, but rather, they are merely structuring their utterances based on Singapore Colloquial English.