The effect of colloquial Jordanian Arabic on learning the English definite article and negation

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of Colloquial Jordanian Arabic upon the use of negation and the definite article in English. The sample of the study consisted of 100 male and 100 female Jordanian 10th graders in the academic year 2011-2012. The students were randomly selected from public schools in the region of Karak-Jordan. A translation test as well as a gap-fill test were constructed to arrive at the objectives of the study. The study concluded that the students committed more transfer errors in their use of English negation and the definite article than other types of errors in the same syntactic areas as a result of the effect of CJA.