The Problems of Teaching Dual and Plural between Arabic and English Languages

Abstract

The study tackles some of the problems facing non-native speakers of Arabic especially when learning the dual and the plural, and shows the importance of the Arabic language and the procedures that should be followed when comparing two languages in terms of ayntax or morphology and how such interaction may lead to difficulties in learning Arabic. The study also examines the relationship between error analysis and contrastive analysis and states some of the common reasons behind error making including language interference and the influence of the source and target languages. The study mainly discusses mistakes in forming the dual and the plural in Arabic since this subject does not exist or is used differently in other languages like English for example. The study concludes the importance of knowing the aspects of the Arabic language especially in terms of forming the dual and the plural and that when a non-native speaker of Arabic writes, he/she should not think of their own mother language. It also concludes that special attention should be made when teaching how to form the dual or the plural to non-native speakers of Arabic.