A Contrastive Analysis of Conditionals in English and Moroccan Arabic: Potential problems when learning English conditionals by Moroccan EFL learners

Abstract

Learning to handle hypothetical situations in a new language is always difficult (Catford, et al., 1974). This rule holds true for Moroccan Arabic (henceforth MA) speakers learning English because grammatical devices in the two languages differ in almost all equivalent situations. For instance, while English verb forms are used to indicate tense in conditional sentences, MA uses them to indicate aspect. Adopting the typology of conditional constructions suggested by Dancygier (1999) and Dancygier & Sweetser (2005), this study provides a contrastive analysis of conditionals in English and MA to predict the possible errors EFL/ESL learners are likely to make while learning English. The analysis shows that the main discrepancy between English conditionals and MA conditionals lies in the verb form used by the two systems. Accordingly, if EFL/ESL learners are influenced by verb form in their L1, they are likely to face some challenges while learning English conditionals. That is, they are likely to use the past tense in the protases of English predictive conditionals and generic conditionals since the perfective form of the verb is used in the protases of these two types in MA. Concerning the protases of English non-predictive conditionals, Moroccan EFL/ESL learners are likely to use either the past tense or the present tense since both the perfective and the imperfective forms of the verb are possible in the protases of MA non-predictive conditionals. However, due to the fact that the perfective form is the prototypical form in the protases of conditionals in MA, EFL/ESL learners are likely to use the past tense more often than the present tense. The analysis also shows that EFL/ESL learners tend to use the present tense in the apodoses of English conditionals since the prevalent form in the apodoses of MA conditionals is the imperfective.

Keywords

• conditional
• constructions
• contrastive analysis
• efl/esl learners
• generic conditionals
• non-predictive conditionals
• predictive conditionals