CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am heartily thankful to my supervisor, Dr. James Street, whose encouragement, supervision and support from the preliminary to the concluding level enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject. Lastly, I offer my regards and blessings to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of the project.

DECLARATION

I, Khamzat Salmurzaev, declare that the work submitted here is my own and expressed in my own words except where declared otherwise. Any work used by any other author(s) in any form has been properly acknowledged where used. A list of all the references used has also been included. This work has not already been submitted for any degree and is not being submitted concurrently for any degree.

Signed __________________ Date _________________

ABSTRACT

In this study the aim is to determine how does L1 (Russian) influence in learning of L2 (English). This study is the replication of the study “Awareness of L1/L2 differences: does it matter? by Ahlem Ammar”. This target of that study was Russian students learning English as a secondary language. In this study, the participants are Russian students and the entire method and process is replicated.

Aims

To find out how L1 knowledge (meta-linguistic knowledge) will affect in forming Past Perfect tenses in English (grammar performance).

Research Question

1. What evidence is there of Russian L1 influence on students’ ability to judge and to use tenses in L2 English?

2. What is the relationship between learners’ awareness of L1–L2 differences and their success in judging or constructing L2 English tenses?

3. What is the correlation between meta-linguistics and grammar performance?

4. To what extent the rules of grammar teaching is a effective tools that help learners to distinguish the fields use the simple past and imperfect in Russian?

5. How learners represent the rules that govern and use the simple past perfect tenses in Russian?

Findings

· Russian students do face problems in forming Past perfect tense in English.

· Russian students do have an understanding of English words; they do nott have full command but can translate the English word in their native language.

Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, on the one hand, from the findings which are statistically significant the hypothesis of this study is supported and we can say that those two domains of meta-linguistic knowledge and grammar performance are closely related. It can be said that the students who have English as a foreign language have to face a number of problems when they have to study in the conventional classrooms. The reason behind this problem is the fact that these students usually face a number of problems in their EFL classrooms and it is very difficult for these students to buck up. Meta-linguistics capabilities should be developed in Russian students during their childhood, it should be include in their schooling curriculum. Proper framework should be developed in order to get proper understanding of the grammatical structure of English by the Russian students. On the other hand, the weakness of this project is that it was limited with time and word conditions. Moreover, because of limited materials were taken to achieve the main aim of the study, the arguments might not be convincing enough. Consequently, this research can be improved by making more careful and progressive further investigation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT_ ii

DECLARATION_ iii

ABSTRACT_ iv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION_ 1

Background of the Research_ 1

Introduction_ 2

Problem Statement 4

Purpose 4

Aim of the Study_ 5

Research Question_ 5

Rationale 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW__ 7

Previous research_ 7

Relationship between First and Second Language 10

Developing the ability to regard language as an object of reflection_ 15

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY_ 17

Research context 17

Participants 17

Measures 17

Instrument 18

Grammaticality judgement 18

Scrambled questions 19

Interviews 19

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS_ 21

Results 21

Grammatical Judgment 21

Scrambled questions 22

Interviews 23

Discussion_ 24

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS_ 30

Recommendations 32

REFERENCES_ 33

APPENDICES_ 38

Appendix 1_ 38

Appendix 2_ 41

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Date: 2016-01-05; view: 1248