Analysis of errors in the use of grammatical gender by Persian students of Spanish as a foreign language

Abstract

Spanish is a language with unique characteristics, such as the use of the grammatical gender morpheme and the article as a determiner, which makes it difficult for speakers of languages such as Persian, whose native language lacks these elements, to learn. The difficulty is further compounded when it comes to the agreement of gender and number in nominal groups in Spanish. In this study, we seek to analyze a corpus of Persian students of Spanish using the Error Analysis methodology with the purpose of identifying frequent errors regarding grammatical gender in Spanish, analyzing the underlying causes, and suggesting possible solutions to improve understanding, and the use of grammatical gender in Spanish among Persian students.

Keywords

• Gender in Spanish
• gender agreement
• error analysis
• Persian language
• Spanish SFL