PREDICTED AND ACTUAL PHONOLOGICAL ERRORS OF JUKUN LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Abstract

 Predicted and actual errors are a major concern to language scholars particularly contrastive analysts who argue that possible areas of difficulties for the learners of a second language can be predicted and thereof emphasized to ensure proficiency. It is on this premise that this paper seeks to investigate predicted and actual phonological errors of Jukun learners of English and a second language. The paper adopts the arguments of psychological learning theories of transfer and interference as cited by Corder (1986) and Adegbite (2009) on negative transfer from MTto L2. It identifies possible causes of these errors among the learners and the specific English phonemes that they find difficult to articulate. The paper is motivated by the learners' communicative performance both within and outside classroom setting. Data /findings from the study reveal that most of the predicted errors actually manifest in the phonology of some Jukun English language users. And that these errors are due to some extent at least, to mother- tongue influence, nonexistence of certain English phonemes in Jukun among others. The paper concludes that, in spite of the above, we cannot generalize the issue of mother tongue interference because even among the learners we still find a very great range of proficient users of Standard English Phonemes.