Phonetic interference in Italian native speakers learning English

Abstract

The aim of this research is of an interlinguistic nature, i.e. it will study the contact between two different languages and the interference which results. The first language (L1) which exercises the interference being Italian whiles the second language (L2) suffering from the interference being English. The setting for the study is the English language classroom and the subjects are native Italian speaking students. The study was carried out on Italian students of intermediate L2 competence between 15 and 17 years of age. Variables such as geographic origin, the number of years spent learning the new language, the language learning setting and methods of learning this foreign language are also considered. Methods of enquiry consist of questionnaires and recordings of one-to-one interviews. A long process of error analysis follows. For the purpose of this study, "errors" are not simply grammatical or orthographical, but rather elements of phonetic interference which result from the L1 of the student. The resulting elements of language interference are then classified in major categories according to their nature. The aim of this study is to prove the hypothesis that the acquisition of a new language is seriously hindered by the phonetic interference coming from the mother language.