EFL Learners’ Prior Knowledge in French and its Impact on the Effective Learning of English: Case of Third Year EFL Students at Bakadja Cheikh Secondary School (Tamazoura).

Abstract

Teaching foreign languages has been given an importance nowadays. In Algeria, students learn several foreign languages at school. Among these languages French and English. This research treats and investigates the EFL learners’ prior knowledge in French and its impact on the effective learning of English in both speaking and writing skills. Yet, to understand the sources of both speaking and writing mistakes that are resulted from the influence of French on learning English. The main motivation behind conducting that study is to highlight how the prior knowledge in French stands as an obstacle in learning English and to find suitable solutions and activities, which may help reducing the negative impact in hand and to narrow down learners’ mistakes. To accomplish this, three research tools are used: questionnaire, interview and classroom observation. The findings of the work show that the involved sample state that in addition to the existence of a negative impact, there is also a positive one. At the end some recommendations and suggestions are provided to EFL teachers and pupils in order to reduce such impact.