When
in a country two or more languages are spoken, the risk of causing
interference in
L2, or perhaps, even the risk of causing
contamination is vast and unpredictable.
This
is the situation of Paraguay, a small country in South America, where
two languages have been coexisting together since the arrival of the
Spanish conquerors in 1524.
Paraguay
has two official languages: Spanish and Guarani (on one hand, Guarani
is a metaphorical and agglutinative language, on the other, Spanish
is an inflectional language), are totally different in their
linguistic constellations. This factor should be underlined because
is virtually impossible
to establish which language is L1 or L2 in Paraguay. There is a
terminology problem here: which of the two is L2 in Paraguay?
Normally L2 is referred to as the second language, or as the foreign
language that is taught in school and in private language centers. It
is quite difficult to define which one is really the L2 foreign
language in Paraguay, as there are many languages in the country:
Spanish, Guarani, and a blended language which is called Jopara.
Jopara
is an actual language, but without a written grammar and it has no
prescriptive control. It is just a spoken language that most of the
population use it in their daily lives.
Paraguay
also shares its frontier with Brazil, where Portuguese is spoken, the
influence that Portuguese has on the languages of Paraguay can be
noticed almost every day, for example: on the radio, newspaper,
social media, etc. However,
what is the linguistic situation of the English language? What is the
role of this foreign language in Paraguay? Is
it L2 or L4? Some studies must be done to help understand the current
linguistic situation in Paraguay, I suppose that some studies have
already been made, but until now, I have not read any article that
even attempts to answer this query. Hence, we now have four languages
in Paraguay that are struggling to be part of the Paraguay linguistic
constellation. But, what is the linguistic situation of English,
which is a West Germanic foreign language, in conjunction with the
native languages of Paraguay?
In
this article, I use the normal linguistic definition: L1 is the
native language and L2 the foreign language.
We
should mention that in Paraguay Spanish and Guarani are spoken, and
that the population that learn foreign languages are students,
attending compulsory elementary school, and later when they are in
universities. A large group of people, outside of the educational
system, learn English and other foreign languages in private language
centers, for instance, businessmen, politicians, students who have
the intention of studying abroad, and others. (English is a mandatory
subject in the Paraguayan educational system).
This
population who learn English as a L2 bring their linguistic
structures to L2 classes, although English structure is not far from
the characteristics of the Spanish language, the word order, for
example, is the same: SVO, perhaps the difficulty lays in the
phonetic and morphological fields, where the difficulties might be
seen, because of the new phonemes that the students should learn. The
phonemes in English are more in quantity than in the regular Spanish
phonemes pattern. It can be added to the many obstacles of learning a
new language the broad vocabulary that the students must learn all
along the regular learning process.
In
the case of the Guarani language is not the same as the Spanish case,
but not quite different. Guarani is also an SVO language, but the
difference lays in the prefixes that are fixed to the verb. Example:
Che a-karu. [I eat]. The prefix "a" indicates the first
person singular. If we add a suffix, for example, "ta". Che
a-karu-ta. The sentence will mean then [I will eat]. As we have seen
in the examples, Guarani has the agglutination as the main
characteristic of its language structure. In simple sentences, it can
be seen the structure SVO, but in complex sentences, it is very
difficult to notice the exact word order.
Both
official languages: Spanish and Guarani are more complex than
English, in their structures, English has less productivity than the
two languages (Spanish is an inflectional language and Guarani is an
agglutinative language). We can infer that the students who learn
English might have difficulties in the learning process, not because
of the new phonemes and new vocabulary and other grammar structures
that imply to learn English, but the complex grammar of Spanish and
Guarani that are fixed in their brain. The English language is quite
simple when compared to those that the native speakers of Paraguay
already communicate in.
It
is important to refer to what Lado (1957) once stated:
"we
can predicate and describe the patterns that will cause difficulty in
learning, and those that will not cause difficulty, by comparing
systematically the language and culture to be learned with the native
language and culture of the students"
The
quotation is very old, and many other studies have been done since
its publication. Nevertheless, it is important to mention it here,
because the linguistic situation of Paraguay is a phenomenon that
includes not only linguistic features but also cultural features.
This country has two languages and two cultures, on one hand,
European culture (Spanish culture) and on the other, the native
culture which was inherited from the Guarani. This situation makes
the country unique, especially due to its linguistic dualism. This
cultural reality of the students should not be ignored.
It
is obvious that interference might occur (structurally and
culturally) in the process of transferring the new language to the
mental structure of the L2 learners. The issue of interference has
been studied for many years. There is a great amount of research that
has brought many interesting and plausible findings. Publications in
linguistics have provided precise information about terms and
definitions, that allow researchers to properly carry out their
research.
I
would like to mention some areas of the L2 language in which the
learners might make mistakes. The answer perhaps we find them, not in
the English language itself, but within the complex linguistic
constellation of Paraguayan learners.
Examples:
The
variety of the Paraguayan Spanish (español
paraguayo)
is a little different from the standard or prescriptive Spanish from
Spain, especially in the oral language. Let us glance at a
hypothetical example to illustrate this phenomenon:
1)
María: dónde está el teléfono? (Spain)
No
lo sé. No lo
he visto. (complete
and correct sentence in Spanish)
2)
María: where is the telephone? (English)
I
don’t know. I haven’t seen it.
(complete and correct sentence in English)
3)
María: dónde está el teléfono? (Paraguay - Paraguayan Spanish
variety)
No
Ø
sé. No Ø
he visto / No Ø
vi (incomplete and incorrect sentence)
4)
Mõo oîme la teléfono. (Guarani-Jopara)
Che
ndaikuaái. Ndahechái kuri (complete and correct sentence)
In
example Nr. 1 we do not see any grammar error, prescriptively the
sentence is correct. The object pronoun is written in bold because
that is the focus of the study of this example. We will
demonstrate if the pronoun "lo" appears in the L2.
In
example Nr. 2, we see the sentence in English, the sentence is
correct and as well as in Spanish from Spain, the pronoun "lo"
is used correctly and the use of the object pronoun is the same in
both languages. The word order is quite the same, but the use of the
pronoun is correct and appropriate.
In
example Nr. 3, in the Paraguayan variety, it can be seen, that the
object pronoun "lo" does not appear in the sentence as well
as the pronoun "lo" (a neutral pronoun) and the pronoun
"lo" (an object pronoun) are not seen in the sentence. We
presume that this example was taken from a conversation between two
people, it is important to mention this, because this phenomenon is
mostly heard in the oral language. In a written communication, the
hypothesis would be different.
In
example, Nr. 4, a sentence in Guarani-Jopara, the sentence is
complete and correct, and we do not see the pronouns "lo"
in it because in Guarani the pronouns are inserted semantically in
the sentence. In some cases, the Guarani language does not need to
mention the pronouns, because the communication is obvious and
understandable for a Paraguayan speaker, who does not need further
explanation through pronouns, in this case, the pronoun "lo"
refers to the telephone.
We
can see in the examples, that interference might occur during the
learning process of a foreign language. The students who have two
languages as native language, which is the case of Paraguay, might
have difficulties to adjust their linguistic native structure to the
new ones or to eliminate the ones that they do not need in L2.
I
think that adequate research should be done in this field to allow
detecting if the strength of the L1 remains in the structure of L2,
and if it causes interference. If this hypothetical example becomes
true, then EFL teachers should find the appropriate teaching
strategies for the Paraguayan learners.
For
those who want to find more information about linguistic
interference, I would suggest you research on the Internet. There are
many studies that have been already done by prestigious universities
and professionals around the world.
References:
Aronoff,
Mark (1976), The
relevance of productivity in a synchronic description of word
formation.
In Fisiak, J (ed.),
Historical morphology,
The Hague: Mouton.
Haspelmath,
Martin (2002), Understanding
Morphology,
New York.
Lado,
Robert (1957),
Linguistics
across cultures: Applied linguistics for language teachers.
University
of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor.
Guasch,
Antonio (1996), El
idioma Guaraní,
Cepag, Asunción.
Diccionario
de lingüística virtual:
http://hispanoteca.eu/Diccionario%20Ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstica/i.htm
Acknowlegments:
Thanks
to Fernando Beconi, James Blocksom and
Matt Kowalski for
their comments and suggestions.
