A MORPHOSYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF THE INTERLANGUAGE OF KISWAHILI SPEAKING LEARNERS OF ENGLISH IN MALINDI TOWN, KILIFI COUNTY

Abstract

This morphosyntactic study analyses the Interlanguage of Kiswahili speaking learners of English at secondary school level. Recent studies in the Coastal region of Kenya have revealed that Kiswahili plays the role of first language or fluent second language for most of the population in this region. Learners in Malindi Town of Kilifi County have continually registered poor results in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination English examination. Research in Second Language Acquisition has shown that some of the errors the learners make can reveal the Second Language processing procedures the learners have acquired and the strategies they use to navigate in the target language. The general objective of this study was to analyze the non-target-like syntactic sequences and morphological forms in the interlanguage of the learners in order to determine the strategies they used to navigate in English. Guided by Processability Theory as proposed by Manfred Pienemann (1998, 2005) and the theory of Interlanguage by Selinker (1972), the study also identified the second language processing procedures the learners had acquired. The data was collected using a grammatical task covering a variety of grammatical concepts appropriate for the learners. Students’ essays written independently of this study were also analysed. Data was collected from six secondary schools. The population sample consisted of 173 students who were randomly selected from forms one, two, and three. The data collected was qualitatively analysed for non-target-like sequences and morphological forms in line with the theoretical framework of this study. The non-target-like sequences and morphological forms in the sentences of the learners revealed deviations in word order, negation, interrogatives, tenses, auxiliaries, clause linkage, word derivations, and inflections. These non-target-like syntactic sequences and morphological forms came about as a result of strategies such as communication and learning, overgeneralization, transfer of training, and language transfer which the learners employed to navigate English. The research also revealed that learners used strategies of communication such as paraphrase (approximation, word coinage, circumlocution) and repetition more than language transfer, overgeneralization, and transfer of training. It is hoped that the outcome of this research contributes to the field of knowledge with regard to Second Language Acquisition and benefits teachers, teacher-trainers, and curriculum developers as they endeavor to help students develop high levels of proficiency in English.