Syntax interference caused by Kichwa and Spanish when writing in English.

Abstract

There have been important contributions in regard to syntax interference in the last decades, especially in Peru. A wide variety of research about Quechua and Spanish, which are related with the Ecuadorian Kichwa, have been published. In terms of making a contextualized study, the present work aimed to identify the syntax interferences of Kichwa and Spanish when writing in English.   In order to get this information, a set of 90 short paragraphs written in English were taken from 30 students of an English program at the Technical University of Ambato. This data was collected in three different moments.   The paragraphs were analyzed based on the syntax in their contents.   A quantitative and qualitative system was applied to analyze and classify the information from the students”™ paragraphs. Besides, these results were used to set a sub-categorization of positive and negative syntax interference when communicating in a written way. The conclusions synthesized the results based on the findings of the analysis made to the structure of each language.   The findings showed a moderately negative syntax interferences in some cases, and in other cases moderately positive syntax interference. This also helped to consider some other morfosintactic effects that mother tongues cause on a new language or a third one.