The Errors that Arabic-Speaking Palestinians make in forming the english relative clause

The Errors that Arabic-Speaking Palestinians make in forming the english relative clause

Zajel / An-Najah National University

Ahmad A. Mahmoud The purpose of this study is to investigate the errors that Arab Palestinian learners make in formation of the relative clauses, especially in written English. To achieve this, the researcher gathered all kinds of errors made by the pupils through the free different compositions (narrative, analytical and descriptive). The free compositions were given to 400 pupils (males and females) in the 11th grade in Jenin District schools. The researcher chose 10 schools randomly from the whole district. The researcher divided the sample into two groups (controlled and experimental). The two groups were given the same free compositions. Besides, the researcher gave the same instructions and time for the two groups. The 11th-grade learners showed positive and negative transfer in their output of English in the same examples. Although this type of errors is not frequent, it is worth giving further attention and research. Another important phenomenon which the researcher noticed, and which as far as the researcher knows, was not dealt with by other scholars, is the wrong substitution of "where" and "when" Although this type of errors is not frequent, it deserves further research. Ahmad A. Mahmoud Supervisor Dr. Rami Hamadallah Dr. Suzan Arafat 1997