Contrastive Analysis of Cross-Linguistic Interference of Trilingual Oil Workers

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify, describe and classify errors in the Russian and English speech of the native Kazakh speakers working in the oil industry as well as to give a possible explanation of the reasons for their occurrence. The cross-linguistic interference characteristics of the Kazakhs’ speech were investigated with the involvement of 30 Kazakh oil workers. Based on the contrastive linguistic analysis of the Kazakh, Russian and English languages, typical errors in the oil workers’ speech were established. After gathering the data, the numbers and percentages were employed. The data was then grouped and categorized as per the problems of the study, the characteristics of the items, and the objectives before analyzing it on the basis of frequency of responses. The study has shown that in the speech of oil workers, there were interferences like under-differentiation, over-differentiation, reinterpretation, substitution. These interferences in the speech of trilingual (represented phonetically, lexically, and grammatically) were more complex than in bilingualism. Kazakhs’ Russian speech was also found as close as possible to the norms of the Russian language, and with trilingualism. There was a two-component unidirectional influence seen on the acquisition of a third language (English). The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of applying these results in order to draw up a methodological and practical basis for teaching English, taking into account the peculiarities of the differences in language systems.