Colpa dell’interferenza: analisi contrastiva di errori negli scritti di studenti universitari slovenofoni di italiano
The Blame Is on Interference: A Contrastive Analysis of Errors in the Writing of Slovene-Speaking University Students of Italian

Summary/Abstract: This contribution aims to address and show the crucial points of mother-tongue interference in the writing of Slovene-speaking learners of Italian. The issue is presented on the basis of a comparison between the language rules in Slovene and Italian in relation to the difficulties encountered in concrete contexts. The goal of this article is to identify the hypotheses underlying learners’ language choices. The article illustrates the mistakes made in the choice of verbal paradigms (consecutio temporum; doubts regarding choosing between the perfect and the imperfect and the explicit and implicit forms; some passive constructs; and the subjunctive) as well as the difficulties in using articles and certain adjectives and pronouns (possessive, demonstrative, and relative ones). The work also contains documented and commented examples of errors in the use of the comma and cases of interference that can be attributed to “false friends” (errors of spelling and of a morphological-syntactic, derivational, and lexical nature). The results of this analysis confirm the need for a conscious integration of direct teaching, noticing linguistic mechanisms, and a focus on form in learning processes in order to regulate the input, facilitate understanding, and stimulate natural processes of acquisition.

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