Chapter One: Contrastive Analysis

During World War II, the United States military needed a way to communicate better with both allies and enemies. This created a big demand for teaching and learning foreign languages, especially English. To meet this need, different experts worked together: 1. Linguists (people who study language...

During World War II, the United States military needed a way to communicate better with both allies and enemies. This created a big demand for teaching and learning foreign languages, especially English. To meet this need, different experts worked together: 1. Linguists (people who study language structure) 2. Teaching specialists 3. Psychologists who focus on behavior Their goal was to find the best and most efficient ways to teach languages. One idea that became popular was called the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis. The people who supported this idea believed that: - The best way to teach a new language is to compare it with the learner\'s native language - By finding the differences between the two languages, you could predict what mistakes students might make Because of this belief, Contrastive Analysis became a very important part of language teaching for many years. In fact, some people thought it could solve all problems in language teaching! As a result, researchers in both America and Europe did many studies comparing different languages. These studies had a practical goal: they wanted to predict and solve the problems and mistakes that language learners might have. However, not everyone agreed that Contrastive Analysis was the perfect solution. There were debates about how useful it really was. That\'s why it\'s important to look at different views on this topic. **Historical Perspective** Comparative Linguistics, originally called Comparative Philology, started in the 18th century. Scholars began to compare different languages to see if they shared a common origin. This shared origin was called a \"proto-language,\" or a common ancestor for related languages. For example, linguists studied Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Old Persian to reconstruct a language called Proto-Indo-European, which existed before any written records. Some linguists also compared different stages of the same language. For instance, they looked at how Persian has changed over time, comparing Old Persian with Middle Persian and Modern Farsi. Linguists also study modern languages to classify them based on similarities. This type of study is called \"Comparative Typological Linguistics.\" Another type of study, called \"Contrastive Linguistics\" or \"Contrastive Analysis,\" is what we will focus on here. **What is Contrastive Analysis?** Contrastive Analysis (CA) is the systematic study of two languages to find their differences and similarities. This is usually done for translation and teaching purposes. The goal is to help second-language learners by identifying which parts of the target language might be difficult for them to learn. CA is also used in translation studies to find equivalent words or phrases between two languages. Unlike other types of comparative studies, CA focuses only on modern languages. It can also be applied to studying different dialects (varieties of the same language), registers (language used by specific groups, like doctors or lawyers), and styles (formal vs. informal language). **Types of Contrastive Analysis** There are two main types of contrastive studies: theoretical and applied. 1. **Theoretical Contrastive Studies**: These focus on comparing two or more languages without focusing on one language's specific features. Instead, they look at universal categories in both languages. For example, rather than just comparing English and Arabic, theoretical studies look at how both languages express universal ideas like time or space. 2. **Applied Contrastive Studies**: These focus on solving practical problems, like: - Helping learners avoid making errors when learning a foreign language. - Assisting translators in transferring meaning between languages. - Finding equivalent words when creating bilingual dictionaries. The main job of applied contrastive analysis is to explain why some parts of a new language are harder to learn than others. This type of study, called \"pedagogical contrastive analysis,\" will be our main focus for the rest of this chapter. **Pedagogical Contrastive Analysis and Its Psychological Basis** In the 1950s and 60s, **Pedagogical Contrastive Analysis (CA)** was used to explain why some parts of a new language are harder to learn than others. CA compares two languages (your native language and the new one) to find differences, and then it predicts where you might make mistakes. For example: - In Arabic, the sentence structure is usually **verb-subject-object** like \"ذهب أحمد إلى المدرسة\" (literally: \"went Ahmed to school\"). But in English, the word order is **subject-verb-object** like \"Ahmed went to school.\" So, Arabic speakers might accidentally say \"Went Ahmed to school\" in English, following the Arabic structure. **Why was this useful?** 1. It helped teachers understand why students made certain mistakes. 2. It helped teachers know which parts of English would be difficult for Arabic speakers to learn. **Behaviorist Psychology and Language Learning** CA is based on **Behaviorist Psychology**, which says that learning happens by forming habits. Think about how you memorize something --- you repeat it until it becomes automatic, like reciting a poem. Behaviorists, like **Skinner**, believed learning your first language (L1) is similar to how animals can be trained to perform tasks. They thought that when you learn a second language (L2), habits from your first language might make things harder. For example: - Arabic doesn't have the English sound \"p\" (like in \"pen\"). So, Arabic speakers might pronounce \"pen\" as \"ben\" because Arabic has the sound \"ب\" but not \"p.\" **Positive and Negative Transfer** **Transfer** means using what you know from your first language (L1) when learning a second language (L2). There are two types: - **Positive Transfer**: When something from Arabic helps you in English. - Example: Arabic and English both use adjectives before nouns in certain phrases, like \"beautiful house\" or \"بيت جميل.\" This makes it easier to learn adjectives in English because the structure is similar. - **Negative Transfer**: When something from Arabic makes learning English harder. - Example: In Arabic, you don't use the verb \"to be\" in the present tense. You say \"أنا سعيد\" (I happy) without the verb \"am.\" But in English, you must say \"I **am** happy.\" So, an Arabic speaker might forget to include \"am\" and say \"I happy,\" which is an example of negative transfer. **How Contrastive Analysis Helps Teachers** Teachers used Contrastive Analysis to create lessons that helped students avoid mistakes. For example, if they knew that Arabic doesn't use \"to be\" in the present tense, they would make sure to focus on teaching how to use \"am,\" \"is,\" and \"are\" in English sentences. In the 1960s, teachers believed making mistakes was bad, and they wanted to prevent errors. For example, if a student said \"He good\" instead of \"He **is** good,\" teachers would make the student repeat the correct sentence \"He **is** good\" many times to form the rigERSIONS OF caht habit. **Versions of CA** **The Strong Version** The **strong version** of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis claims that the main challenge in learning a new language is the interference from your native language (L1). This version is based on the idea that comparing two languages (L1 and L2) can **predict** all the difficulties you will face. It suggests that: 1. The difficulties come from how different L1 is from the target language (L2). 2. The bigger the differences, the harder it is to learn. 3. By comparing the two languages, we can know in advance which mistakes you will make. **Example**: In Arabic, there's no sound for \"p,\" so an Arabic speaker might say \"ben\" instead of \"pen\" in English. According to the strong version, this mistake could be predicted by knowing that \"p\" doesn't exist in Arabic. **1.4.2 The Weak Version** The **weak version** is more realistic. It doesn't claim to **predict** all mistakes in advance. Instead, it suggests that we should first observe the mistakes learners make and then use **contrastive analysis** to explain why they happened. For example, if a student says, \"He go to school\" instead of \"He goes to school,\" we could use contrastive analysis to explain that in Arabic, verbs don't change depending on the subject (no third-person singular \"-s\"). The weak version looks at errors after they occur, rather than predicting them beforehand. **1.4.3 The Moderate Version** The **moderate version** of CAH focuses on the **subtle differences** between languages. It argues that learners may actually have more difficulty with small, similar features between L1 and L2 than with major differences. For example, Arabic speakers may struggle with English words that sound similar but have different meanings, like \"ship\" and \"sheep,\" because the small difference between the vowel sounds can be hard to distinguish. The moderate version says these small differences are sometimes harder to learn than completely new sounds or words. Additionally, this version suggests that learners may also make **intralingual errors** (errors within the new language) and not just **interlingual errors** (errors due to transfer from their native language). **Conclusion** - The **strong version** tries to predict all difficulties in advance, but it's too ambitious. - The **weak version** focuses on explaining mistakes after they happen. - The **moderate version** looks at small differences between languages and suggests that these can sometimes be harder to learn than big differences. This approach helps understand why Arabic speakers might face unique challenges when learning English and why some errors are more common than others. **Linguistic Levels of Analysis** Linguists study language by breaking it down into **different levels**. These levels are: 1. **Phonology**: The sounds of the language. 2. **Morphology**: The structure of words. 3. **Syntax**: How words are arranged into sentences. 4. **Semantics**: The meanings of words and sentences. 5. **Pragmatics**: How language is used in different situations. Each of these levels can be compared between two languages, such as Arabic and English, to help identify similarities and differences. **Example**: - In **phonology**, Arabic doesn't have the "v" sound like English, so learners might struggle with words like \"very,\" pronouncing it like \"ferry.\" - In **syntax**, Arabic often follows a verb-subject-object order (like \"Ate Ahmed the apple\"), while English uses a subject-verb-object order (\"Ahmed ate the apple\"). **Procedures for Comparing Languages** **1. Selection** Not every feature of a language needs to be compared. The teacher or linguist selects the most important aspects that might cause problems for students. This selection can be based on personal experience or by looking at common student errors. **Example**: If many Arabic-speaking students confuse "p" and "b" sounds in English, the teacher might focus on this difference. **2. Description** After selecting certain features, the linguist describes the features of both languages. The description needs to be systematic, using the same framework for both languages. **Example**: In Arabic, verbs don't change depending on the subject (no \"he goes\"), while in English, verbs change (\"he goes\" vs. \"they go\"). **3. Comparison** After describing the features, the linguist compares the two languages to find **similarities and differences**. The comparison happens on three levels: - **Form**: How the words look or sound. - **Meaning**: What the words mean. - **Distribution**: When and where the words are used. **Example**: In both Arabic and English, plurals change the form of the word. In Arabic, adding \"-een\" or \"-aat\" makes a word plural, while in English, adding \"-s\" or \"-es\" makes a word plural. **4. Prediction** Once the comparison is made, the linguist can predict where students will have difficulties learning the second language. **Example**: Since there's no "p" sound in Arabic, students might have trouble with words like \"pen\" or \"paper.\" The teacher can predict these problems and design lessons to help. **5. Verification** Finally, the teacher or linguist checks if their predictions are correct by observing the mistakes learners make. If learners are making the expected mistakes, it confirms that the analysis was accurate. **Example**: If Arabic-speaking students consistently confuse \"p\" and \"b,\" this verifies the teacher\'s prediction based on comparing the two languages. **Summary** By following these steps, teachers can better understand where Arabic-speaking students might struggle when learning English. This allows them to create targeted lessons to address those specific challenges. ### **Prator's Six Levels of Difficulty with Arabic and English Examples** 1. **Level 0 - Transfer**\ No difference or contrast exists between the two languages. The learner can directly transfer a feature from their native language (Arabic) to the target language (English).\ **Example**: The sounds /b/ and /m/ exist in both Arabic and English, so Arabic speakers can easily pronounce these sounds in English.\ **Diagram**:\ English: /b/, /m/\ Arabic: /ب/, /م/\ (No difficulty: direct transfer) 2. **Level 1 - Coalescence**\ Two or more items in Arabic are expressed by a single item in English, requiring the learner to collapse distinctions they are used to.\ **Example**: Arabic distinguishes between two types of past tense verbs, \"كان\" (kan - used for habitual actions in the past) and \"كان يفعل\" (kana yaf\'al - used for continuous actions in the past), while English uses just one past tense: *was* or *used to*.\ **Diagram**:\ English: *was/used to*\ Arabic: كان / كان يفعل\ (Difficulty: merging two forms into one) 3. **Level 2 - Underdifferentiation**\ An item exists in Arabic but is absent in English, so learners must avoid transferring it.\ **Example**: Arabic has the \"glottal stop\" sound (ء, represented by /ʔ/), which is common in spoken Arabic but does not exist in English. Arabic learners must learn not to pronounce this sound in English.\ **Diagram**:\ English: \--\ Arabic: /ʔ/ (ء) 4. **Level 3 - Reinterpretation**\ An item that exists in Arabic is given a different shape or distribution in English.\ **Example**: In Arabic, the sound /l/ is always clear, but in English, it has two forms: \"clear\" /l/ (before vowels, like in \"light\") and \"dark\" /ɫ/ (at the end of words, like in \"full\"). Arabic speakers need to learn when to use the \"dark l\" sound in English.\ **Diagram**:\ English: Clear /l/ and Dark /ɫ/\ Arabic: Clear /ل/ 5. **Level 4 - Overdifferentiation**\ English has a completely new item that does not exist in Arabic, so learners must learn it from scratch.\ **Example**: Arabic does not have the sounds /p/ or /v/. Arabic speakers often struggle to distinguish between /p/ and /b/ (e.g., \"park\" vs. \"bark\") and /v/ and /f/ (e.g., \"van\" vs. \"fan\").\ **Diagram**:\ English: /p/, /v/\ Arabic: \--\ (Difficulty: learning new phonemes) 6. **Level 5 - Split**\ One item in Arabic becomes two or more distinct items in English, requiring the learner to make new distinctions.\ **Example**: In Arabic, the pronoun \"هو\" (huwa) is used for both \"he\" and \"it\" when referring to a masculine object. In English, learners must distinguish between *he* (for people) and *it* (for objects or animals).\ **Diagram**:\ English: *he* / *it*\ Arabic: هو