Native Language’s Cultural and Linguistic Interferences on EFL Learners’ Writing Performance The Case of Second Year Students of English at Larbi Tébessi University

Abstract

The ability to understand and use a foreign/second language nowadays has become a privilege. English for instance is one of the most used languages in the world, and its mastery requires the mastery of its four basic skills; reading, listening, speaking, and writing. However, the process to learn these skills involves some difficulties and interferences, and writing seems to be the most complex one. Accordingly, this study aims to identify the native language cultural and linguistic interferences on second year EFL students’ writing performance at Larbi Tebessi University, Tebessa. It attempts to extract the varied range of errors that appear in the students’ writings by reason of their L1 interferences, moreover, to investigate the students and teachers’ perspectives towards the integration of culture in the learning/teaching process of English. The research hypothesizes that second year EFL students are facing many difficulties that prevent them to write appropriately, and getting the students exposed to the target culture will help them to improve their writing skill and language learning. In this regards, the study utilized a quantitative descriptive method to realize the research purpose, thus, two questionnaires were administrated to 25 second year EFL students and to 4 teachers at the department of English, Tebessa, in order to test and confirm our hypotheses. Consequently, the results obtained from the questionnaires have evidenced the impact of L1 on students’ process of learning to write, in addition, the data also demonstrate that both EFL teachers and students have positive attitudes towards culture learning in EFL classes. On the ground of the questionnaires’ findings, the incorporation of the target cultural aspects in EFL learning is highly recommended by both students and teachers.