Exploring the Effect of Interference on the Phonetic Errors Committed by the Persian-speaking Learners of Russian

Abstract

Russian and Persian languages, regardless of the linguistic worlds, are special languages in terms of phonetic system, grammar, vocabulary, etc. and have differences with each other Since the learners have already internalized the linguistic knowledge of the first language in their minds, they are very likely to commit errors in the process of learning a second language. This phenomenon, which is mostly natural and unavoidable, is referred to as interference. The present study aims to explore the effects of interference on the errors by providing evidence from the usual errors committed by the Persian-speaking learners of Russian in the elementary level. First, the authors attempt to detect and classify the speaking errors of the learners in terms of the type of interference, and then the authors provide an analysis of them. Phonetic tests are used to collect the data. The participants of the study were 51 elementary level students in Isfahan, Guilan and Gonbad universities. The analysis of the data suggests that the target language (Russian), as one of the influential factors contributing to interference, has a drastic impact on the errors committed by the Persian-speaking learners of Russian. © 2021, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.