The spanish definite article interference upon the english definite article usage on students of Intermediate Intensive English II, Group 04, of the Bachelor of Arts in English Language Teaching at the University of El Salvador, Semester I-2018

The present research is about the interference of the Spanish definite article upon the English definite article usage on Students of Intermediate Intensive English II, Group 04, of the Bachelor of Arts in English Language Teaching at the University of El Salvador, Semester I-2018. The definite article is a unique and complex feature in the English language. It is also one of the most used words in English (Harb, 2014). Many studies have approached the difficulties of acquiring the English definite article when it is studied as a second or foreign language. These studies have concluded that Spanish language has an impact on this process. Students who have a L1 that does not use definite articles find it more difficult to acquire them than students that have an L2 that has articles (Zdorenko & Paradis 2011). Nevertheless, students whose native language contains article systems might find other problems. Many linguists have examined the acquisition process of English articles by learners whose L1 contains articles. Some authors have concluded that “language transfer” is the responsible why students misuse the English definite article (Nitschke, S. et al. 2010). However, there is not much information in order to know for sure that this is the case of students of the Foreign Language Department at University of El Salvador (UES). In order to expand the amount of knowledge regarding the complexity of the topic, it is necessary to determine what theories have to be studied and what particular aspects have to be taken into account in the case of intermediate students of English. This contains some aspects that can help to explain the research topic such as, measuring the influence from Spanish language, showing the hypotheses and the results. First, the statement of the problem leads the way to the whole process of the research. Then, some hypotheses are used to state the problem. Third, the theoretical framework considers some linguistic theories like: Interlanguage, Language Transfer, etc, in order to have a clear idea about the aspects that can lead to a better understanding of the problem. After that, the methodology describes: the type of focus, research method, technique and instruments. The next part is, the population, sampling frame, and sample. Then, the findings are described, containing the data analysis and interpretations of the results. After that the conclusions are presented. And finally, a list of recommendations