Investigating the Use of the Relative Clause by Second Year Students of English in the English

Abstract

The present research tries to investigate the use of the relative clause by twenty-one second year students of English (EFL) at the University of Algiers 2. After several years of teaching this grammatical structure to second year students of the English degree course, I have observed that students have problems using the relative clause, specially the pronouns WHO, WHICH, THAT, WHOM, the possessive WHOSE and the after prepositions such as OF WHICH, WITHOUT WHOM, FOR WHOM. One of the reasons for their difficulties in learning this complex grammatical structure may be the influence of their L1, Arabic. L1 influence has been reported on the acquisition of relative clauses (Lightbown and Spada 2006). And for learners whose L1 does not have a particular clause type such as object of comparison (for example, The person that Susan is taller than is Mary) it is more difficult to use that clause type in English. Thus, Arabic speakers often produce the relative marker and the pronoun it replaces as they do in their own language (for example, The man who I saw him was very angry,), which is quite confusing. This study deals with second year students’ use of the relative clause and tries to identify their problems and to suggest possible solutions. Grammar tests with exercises on the relative clause followed by a questionnaire on the test were given to twenty one of these students. The data from both research instruments were analyzed, as well as the students’ errors made in the tests. The findings are quite interesting and reveal that many but not all the errors are due to L1 (Arabic) interference. The students have demonstrated three main types of problems related to the relative clause: vi - Misuse of the relative pronouns (who, which, whom, that) and of the pronouns they replace ( it, they, him…etc.) - Misuse of the possessive WHOSE and the after-preposition relatives such as OF WHOM and FOR WHICH. - Misplacement of the relative clause in the sentence. The study ends with some suggestions of activities that may improve the students’ understanding of the meaning of sentences containing the relative clause and their use of this somewhat problematic grammatical structure.