Chapter 2 questions and Answeres
Compare syllabus structure of Persian and English on the basis of CA? Would Persian students of English face any difficulty learning English syllables?
Persian syllable structure is CVCC. Considering all the possibilities, in Persian we can have six kinds of syllables.
While in English we might have three consonants before and four consonants after the vowel. So we might have eighteen different kinds of syllables. The degree of markedness is based on the length of the onset and the coda of the syllable(onset is the consonant at the beginning and coda is the consonant at the end of a syllable). Since Persian and English syllable structures are different, as learning English syllable would be more difficult for Iranian students when it has more consonants.
Why learning English prepositions is very difficult for Iranian students?
Sometimes a preposition is used in English while in Persian equivalent structure prepositions are not used:
The book consist of five chapters.
کتاب شامل پنج فصل است

What is the difference of English and Persian indirect questions structures?
Sometimes a preposition is used in English while in Persian equivalent structure prepositions are not used:
The book consist of five chapters.
کتاب شامل پنج فصل است

-Sometimes in English we don’t use a preposition while in the Persian equivalent structure we should use a preposition.

He married his cousin.
او با دختر عمویش ازدواج کرد
-Sometimes there are more than one equivalent for a Persian preposition in English: under, below, beneath, under beneath.
- sometimes both languages have two prepositions, but they use them in different situations.
I’m writing for my dad.
از طرف پدرم نامه مینویسم
I’m writing to my dad.

برای پدرم نامه می نویسم
So there can be three difficulties in preposition learning:
1.Omission of preposition
2.redundant use of preposition
3. wrong use of preposition
The only reason in preposition learning problem is not interference. As we have seen there can be a preposition in a language without having an equivalent in the other. So inappropriate teaching can be another reason for the difficulty.

Consider the following information about English and Persian indirect questions?
_ in Persian for making an indirect question we change our intonation and the verb and subject agree:
از من پرسید چند سالمه؟
_ in English the indirect question won’t have the structure of the question:
He ask how they came here?
A Persian student of English has uttered an indirect question like the following :
He asked how did they come here?
What is the reason for his error?
What is the difference of English and Persian indirect questions structures?
The problem is how they came here.
It is very common to see Persian students of English producing sentences such as:
*The problem is how did they come here. There is no similar changes in our mother tongue so the student’s mother tongue is not interfering. The problem is overgeneralization. It means he has learned a structure(question making structure) in his second language, English and he is using it in a wider situations.

How many kinds of relation can you recognize between English and Persian lexis?
1. No similarity other than meaning.
Cat گربه
2. One word in TL can have several equivalents in SL. convergence
Uncle عمو،دایی
3. Two or more words in TL are equivalents for one in SL. divergence
Foot, leg پا
4. The words are similar in form and meaning. cognates
Brother برادر
5. The words are similar in pronunciation, but not in meaning.
Deceptive cognates/false friends
Machine ماشین

What is the meaning of Deceptive cognates/false friends? Give examples.
The words are similar in pronunciation, but not in meaning.
Deceptive cognates/false friends
Machine ماشین

What is the meaning of convergence ?
One word in TL can have several equivalents in SL. convergence
Uncle عمو،دایی

When do we say the words are divergence?
Two or more words in TL are equivalents for one in SL. divergence
Foot, leg پا

What is the meaning of cognates?
The words are similar in form and meaning. cognates
Brother برادر


Why do we need to consider pragmatics n our CA studies?
Learning a new language is not simply learning the words and structures. We should learn about their meaning in cultural situations. When a language learner commit a grammatical mistakes, the natives usually understand that it is a mistake. While committing a pragmatic mistake can lead to misunderstanding and the speaker might seem rude.
A good example could be complements.