A STUDY ON THE USE/OMISSION OF THE ENGLISH OBJECT PRONOUN IT IN BRAZILIAN LEARNERS WRITTEN PRODUCTION

A study on the use/omission of the English object pronoun it in Brazilian learners written production Leila Cristina Vitek Evaristo Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina

A STUDY ON THE USE/OMISSION OF THE ENGLISH OBJECT PRONOUN IT IN BRAZILIAN LEARNERS WRITTEN PRODUCTION 1. Introduction

The researchers experience in teaching beginner English learners was the motivation behind this study. It has been observed that these students present some common mistakes when writing in English. One of the most recurrent errors is the omission of the object pronoun it in their written production. Apparently, students do not know the use of this pronoun is mandatory in English, while in Portuguese it is usually omitted in daily language. Thus, it is possible to assume that, in this specific case, the first language seems to play an important role by interfering in second language written production. In line with this premise, this paper aims at comparing Brazilian Portuguese and English use of object pronouns, focusing on the referential anaphoric unstressed third person singular pronoun and how it affects Brazilian EFL learners written performance. Therefore, the research question that leads the present study is: Does the use/omission of clitics in Brazilian Portuguese affect learners written production in English? This paper is organized as follows: Section 1 presents the Introduction; Section 2 presents the Review of the literature; Section 3 presents the Method; Section 4, presents the Analysis of the results; and finally, Section 5, presents the Final remarks.

A STUDY ON THE USE/OMISSION OF THE ENGLISH OBJECT PRONOUN IT IN BRAZILIAN LEARNERS WRITTEN PRODUCTION 2. Review of literature

Since the application of linguistic and psychological theory to the investigation of language learning brought a new light on the discussion of errors (Corder, 1981, p.6), many second language acquisition theories have tried to account for learners errors in the process of acquiring a second language. One of them is the Meaning-to-Grammar Hypothesis, proposed by Banda (in Yang & Xu, 2001, pp. 10,11). The author claims that there are two dimensions of knowledge of language: formal (syntactic-grammatical rules) and semantic (meanings). For a second language learner, semantic knowledge can be used both in the individuals first and second language, while formal knowledge requires much more awareness. Consequently, a greater amount of errors regarding the formal aspect of the language may take place, as it seems to be case in the use of object pronouns. According to Corder (1981, p.10), there are two kinds of errors: systematic (errors of competence) and unsystematic (errors of performance), and a vast number of errors are related to the first language system in a process known as interference, or transfer. He also states that errors provide significant evidence for interlanguage, i.e. the internal system that a learner has constructed at a single point in time (Ellis, 2003, p.350). The omission of the object pronoun in written production thus can be classified both as a systematic and an unsystematic error because it can be related to the lack of second language competence, and also in some cases it could be caused by innumerable variables, e,g. tiredness, stress, lack of attention, and pressure. Also, the omission of the object pronoun is a possible consequence of first language transfer. Contrastive analysis is a way of comparing languages in order to determine potential errors for the ultimate purpose of isolating what needs to be learned and what does not need to be learned in a second-language-learning situation (Gass & Selinker, 2008, p.96). Contrastive analysis

A STUDY ON THE USE/OMISSION OF THE ENGLISH OBJECT PRONOUN IT IN BRAZILIAN LEARNERS WRITTEN PRODUCTION

supporters believe that the tendency of using the first language system to produce second language speech will generate many irregularities, since the two systems are different (Yang & Xu, 2001, p.17). Dulay (as cited in Yang & Xu, 2001, p.17) advocates that similarities between first and target language will facilitate while differences will hinder the learning process. Transfer is a possible reason why Brazilian learners of English tend to omit the object pronoun in written production. As stated by Guedes (2006), research on Brazilian Portuguese language shows that personal pronouns have been suffering functional modification through time. She attributes these changes to the fact that everyday language does not follow the prescriptive features of the language. In Brazilian Portuguese, she asserts, it is possible to omit the object pronoun in many situations, because the referent can be easily deduced by the linguistic context in which the utterance is produced. The third person clitics (o, a) seem to be the most affected ones since they require gender and number markers, while other clitics (lhe, me, te) do not. She also suggests that the coexistence of two language systems (prescriptive and functional) may affect the process of learning a foreign language. On the other hand, the use of object pronouns in English is mandatory, and the pronoun is located right after the verb. In the case of phrasal verbs, the pronoun maintains this position, and must be inserted between the verb and the preposition (Wallenberg, 2008). A pronoun is a language structure which is used to refer to a noun previously or subsequently mentioned in a textual fragment (Neves, 2000). This study will focus on the referential anaphoric unstressed third person singular pronoun (Brazilian Portuguese: o, a; English: it). Referential anaphoric because it points to a previously mentioned object; unstressed because it

A STUDY ON THE USE/OMISSION OF THE ENGLISH OBJECT PRONOUN IT IN BRAZILIAN LEARNERS WRITTEN PRODUCTION

is not emphasized in the sentence; and third person singular because it corresponds to the subject pronouns ele and ela, in Brazilian Portuguese, and it, in English. An example is shown below:

[Minha chave] estava na mesa. Eu [a] vi ontem. [My key] was on the table. I saw [it] yesterday.
subject referential anaphoric unstressed third person singular pronoun

In English, the object pronoun is placed right after the main verb, whereas in Brazilian Portuguese, the object pronoun can be placed before, after or even in the middle of the verb phrase (Luft, 2008, pp.38-40). There are specific cases in which each position should be used. In addition, another important difference between object pronouns in both languages is that in Brazilian Portuguese the pronoun has a gender marker and it is used both for things and people, while in English the gender in it is neutral, and there are specific object pronouns for man and woman. In order to see if the aforementioned differences affect Brazilians written production in English, the following sections will provide more details about the present research.

3. Method 3.1 Participants In order to answer the research question, a test was applied to 19 Brazilian level 2 (beginners) students of the Extracurricular English course at UFSC (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina).

A STUDY ON THE USE/OMISSION OF THE ENGLISH OBJECT PRONOUN IT IN BRAZILIAN LEARNERS WRITTEN PRODUCTION 3.2 Instrument

The test (Appendix) was designed by the researcher, and consisted of 8 sentences written in Brazilian Portuguese. In 4 sentences, the pronoun was explicit, respecting the prescriptive system of Brazilian Portuguese (Set 1), and in the remaining 4 the pronoun was omitted, in an attempt to emulate the functional aspect of language (Set 2). All the sentences in Set 1 presented the use of the Brazilian Portuguese clitics (o, a) before the verb, being two of them using the masculine gender, and the other two, the feminine gender. In Set 2, three masculine pronouns and one feminine pronoun were intentionally omitted. 3.3 Procedure During regular class time, the students were asked to voluntarily participate in the research. After they had consented, each student was given a hardcopy of the test, and then the students were asked to translate the sentences into English. Although the sentences were short and simple, the teacher-researcher provided vocabulary and conjugation aid whenever it was needed. No time limit was imposed.

4. Results and analysis Is it possible that the use/omission of clitics in Brazilian Portuguese affects learners written production in English? In Set 1, students used the object pronoun it in 52.63% of the sentences, while in Set 2, students were able to use the correct pronoun in only 23.68% of the sentences (Chart 1). Yet, out of the total number of the sentences in which the object pronoun was used, in 3.95% of the sentences it was misplaced, usually before the verb. The placement of the

A STUDY ON THE USE/OMISSION OF THE ENGLISH OBJECT PRONOUN IT IN BRAZILIAN LEARNERS WRITTEN PRODUCTION

pronoun in their native language seems to have influenced their English version of the sentences. Since in the Brazilian Portuguese sentences the pronouns were sited before the verb, some of the students were most likely compelled to do the same in English.

Chart 1. Percentage of sentences in which the correct pronoun was used or omitted.

From these results, it is possible to conclude that the omission of the pronoun in the Portuguese sentences (Set 2) possibly influenced the students to omit the pronoun in their translations. 26.3% of the students did not use object pronouns at all, neither in Set 1 nor in Set 2, and only two students used the pronoun in all sentences of both sets. This could signal some students are not aware about this linguistic phenomenon at this point. The omission of the object pronoun can provide evidence for their interlanguage, as suggested by Corder (1981). Apart from the students who omitted the object pronoun in all sentences, the analysis of the data showed that it is difficult to characterize the errors according to Corders categories of systematic and unsystematic errors. In the cases which the object pronoun was omitted in all the sentences, the error seems to be systematic, caused by the lack of competence in the second language. However, in other cases the error appears to be unsystematic, because students could use the pronoun accurately in some sentences, but they omitted or misplaced the object pronoun in the other sentences.

A STUDY ON THE USE/OMISSION OF THE ENGLISH OBJECT PRONOUN IT IN BRAZILIAN LEARNERS WRITTEN PRODUCTION

In relation to Bandas dimensions of knowledge of language, the errors found in students translations are much more related to the formal rather than to the semantic dimension. All students were able to render the kernel of the sentences into English. Many of them were not aware of the grammatical rule for object pronouns, though, as it is possible to see in P3 (participant 3) translations of two sentences from Set 1: I like this book. I read every day. / I lost my pen and didnt it found. In the former sentence, the participant omitted the object pronoun, while in the latter the same participant misplaced the object pronoun. Despite the grammar mistakes, the meaning of the sentences was not compromised. This indicates that the formal aspect of the language requires much more awareness indeed. Some errors that possibly could be attributed to transfers from Brazilian Portuguese to English are the gender marker, and the pronoun position in the sentence. The following examples show that the object pronoun a (feminine) was translated into the personal pronoun she: My key in the table. I see she yesterday (P10); My key was in table. I see yesterday she (P13). Still, in some other cases, the plural object pronoun was used instead of the singular one, as follows: I lost my pen and didnt find them (P15). I have a car. My wife drive them (P18). This could indicate that the neutrality of the English object pronoun may cause problems to Brazilian learners of English. Another example shows that the position of the pronoun in the Brazilian Portuguese sentence may have influenced the English version of the sentence: I have a car. My wife it drive (P11). It is then possible to assume that the students first language system plays an important role when it comes to the use of the object pronouns.

5. Final remarks

A STUDY ON THE USE/OMISSION OF THE ENGLISH OBJECT PRONOUN IT IN BRAZILIAN LEARNERS WRITTEN PRODUCTION

Since the results showed a positive evidence for the influence of the use and omission of clitics in Brazilian Portuguese in learners written production in English, it is important that teachers raise students awareness about this aspect of the English language. The sooner they learn how to use the object pronouns accurately, the more they can improve their writing skills in the second language. Special attention should be given to the use of the third person clitics because, according to Guedes (2006), they are the most problematic ones for Brazilians. This issue can be approached in very early stages of learning with the aim of raising students consciousness given that this kind of error is related to the formal dimension of the language, thus it demands much more attention (Banda, in Yang & Xu, 2001), and also practice. Further research on this subject could make use of students written production along the course, because it could avoid the anxiety caused by a test, and also it could provide more significant and richer examples of uses and misuses of the object pronouns.

References Corder, S. P. (1981). Error analysis and interlanguage. London: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. (2003). The study of second language acquisition. New York: Oxford University Press. Gass, S. M. & Selinker, L. (2008). Second language acquisition: an introductory course. New York: Routledge Guedes, A. P. (2006). Interferncias da lngua materna e suas implicaes no uso dos pronomes pessoais na produo textual escrita em francs lngua estrangeira. Unpublished masters thesis, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianpolis. Luft, C. P. (2008). Moderna gramtica brasileira. So Paulo: Editora Globo.

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Neves, M. H. M. (2000). Gramtica de usos do portugus. So Paulo: Editora UNESP. Wallenberg, J. C. (2008). English weak pronouns and object shift. In Proceedings of the 26th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, ed. Charles B. Chang and Hannah J. Haynie, 489497. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. Yang, X. & Xu, H. (2001). Errors of creativity: an analysis of lexical errors committed by Chinese ESL students. Lanham: University Press of America.

Appendix

Traduza as seguintes frases do portugus para o ingls: Eu gosto deste livro. Eu o leio todos os dias. Ele cortou a ma e comeu. Minha chave estava na mesa. Eu a vi ontem. Ele fez o exerccio e acertou.

A STUDY ON THE USE/OMISSION OF THE ENGLISH OBJECT PRONOUN IT IN BRAZILIAN LEARNERS WRITTEN PRODUCTION

11

Eu tenho um carro. Minha esposa o dirige. Ela pegou o brinquedo e quebrou. Eu perdi minha caneta e no a encontrei. Minha irm tem um anel e sempre usa.