Browsing by Author "Rautanen, Netta"

The study investigates transfer-induced errors in the upper secondary school oral examinations of Finnish EFL learners. Transfer-induced errors are errors influenced by the impact of the learner’s first language, in other words, they are caused by cross-linguistic influence. Specifically, the study aims to investigate how errors influenced by cross-linguistic influence manifest themselves in the spoken interaction of the students, and to identify the linguistic subsystems where cross-linguistic influence is the most prevalent. Despite the substantial differences between Finnish and English, the general English proficiency of Finnish individuals tends to be relatively high, largely attributed to the considerable exposure they receive on a daily basis. Hence, the significance of cross-linguistic influence in the output of Finnish EFL learners merits consideration. The study utilizes the FUSE Corpus, which includes transcribed audio files of upper secondary students participating in the English oral examination. The dataset comprises 28 audio files and corresponding transcripts, each featuring a pair of students. Lexical and syntactic errors were identified and analyzed using error classification established by Meriläinen (2010), and the percentage of each error type was calculated. The errors identified were nearly evenly distributed between lexical and syntactic errors, although the number of syntactic errors was slightly higher. Errors were often influenced by semantic and functional factors, meaning that the usage of English words and structures often reflected conventions or norms associated with their Finnish translation equivalents. In contrast, errors involving literal word forms were rare among students. The findings support the notion that assumed similarities or unnoticed differences between languages may prompt transfer-induced errors.