When doing an internship at a German secondary school, I realised English teachers are pointing out many errors to their students. Whether it is grammar, wrong use of a vocabulary word or their pronunciation, no matter their age or grade, the students are corrected whenever they say something wrong, but not once did I notice a teacher point out any prepositional mistakes to their students. But prepositional mistakes seem to be very common, I heard them in loads of sentences students tried to form on their own. As a result of this observation, I want to conduct in this study how many and what kind of prepositional mistakes are being made in the English language acquisition of German native speakers.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- Hypotheses for this Study
- Theoretical Background
- Data Method
- Participants
- Methods of Data Collection
- Data Analysis
- Result
- Discussion
- Hypothesis 1
- Hypothesis 2
- Conclusion
- Synthesis of Current Study
- Shortcoming of this Study
- Outlook
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This study investigates the prevalence and types of prepositional mistakes made by German native speakers learning English. The aim is to analyze these errors and determine the specific categories of prepositions that pose the most difficulty for German learners.
- Analysis of prepositional mistakes in English language acquisition by German native speakers.
- Examination of the impact of negative transfer from German to English on prepositional usage.
- Categorization of prepositional errors based on similarities and differences between German and English.
- Exploration of the role of interlingual and intralingual errors in prepositional acquisition.
- Quantitative and qualitative analysis of prepositional mistakes in written essays.
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
- The introduction presents the study's background, highlighting the prevalence of prepositional mistakes among German learners of English. It outlines two hypotheses regarding the difficulty of specific categories of prepositions.
- The theoretical background chapter discusses the influence of the native language on second language acquisition, emphasizing the role of negative transfer. It defines interlingual and intralingual errors and their implications for prepositional usage.
- The data method chapter details the methodology employed in the study, which involves analyzing essays written by German students. It describes the participants, data collection methods, and the quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques used.
- The results chapter presents the findings of the study, including the total number of prepositional errors and their distribution across different categories. It provides statistical data and visualizations to illustrate the prevalence of various error types.
- The discussion chapter analyzes the results, focusing on the verification or refutation of the initial hypotheses. It discusses the significance of the findings and explores potential reasons for the observed patterns of prepositional errors.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The key terms and concepts explored in this study include: prepositional errors, English language acquisition, German native speakers, negative transfer, interlingual errors, intralingual errors, SGEP, DGEP, GPEC, EPGC, quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis.
- Quote paper
- Fee Koppenburg (Author), 2021, Prepositional Mistakes in German L2 English Speakers, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1278892
