The extraction of positive and negative language transfer factors

Abstract

This study aims at exploring the possibility of extracting two language factors, i.e., negative and positive language transfer factors, by means of the statistical technique of factor analysis. One thousand five hundred and forty-four Sudanese students, who are native speaker of Arabic, were asked to write five Wh-questions in response to five tasks set by the researcher. Each of the linguistic forms in the five Wh-questions was treated as a test item and was scored according to a certain marking scheme. The seven scores obtained by each student were· factor analysed. A rotated factor analysis produced two factors. The first factor had loadings from the linguistic forms which are found in Arabic and English, whereas the second factor had its significant loadings from the linguistic forms that are used in English, but not in Arabic .