Interference in learning English: Grammatical errors inudEnglish essay writing among rural Malay secondary schooludstudents in Malaysia

摘要

The purpose of this article is to present an analysis of interference effect, a factor that plays anudimportant role in inhibiting the acquisition of English among young Malay learners inudMalaysian schools. The data substantiating the discussion throughout this article came fromudan empirical study of errors in essays written by Form One students in six schools inudMalaysia. The findings of the study show that despite having gone through six years ofudlearning English in school environment, the learners are still having difficulty in using correctudEnglish grammar in their writings. The three most frequent errors are: 1) the use of articles, 2)udsubject-verb agreement, and 3) copula ‘be’