The phonological basis of misspellings in the written English of Kikuyu speakers in Kenya

Abstract

This study examines the influence of Kikuyu as a leamer's first language (L I) phonology on orthography in English as a second language. The study focused only on the misspellings made by learners whose first language is Kikuyu. The study was done to investigate whether the phonology of Kikuyu as a leamer's first language and his/her pronunciation of words in English as his/her second language, based on the influence of the phonology of Kikuyu, affect orthography in English. Since the study drew on two

linguistics areas: error analysis and segmental phonology, an eclectic theoretical

framework was used.

Data was collected from compositions written by high school learners whose first language is Kikuyu. All the miss-pelt words from the collected corpus were identified and written down. The findings of the study indicated that some words that were mis-spelt by these learners had errors that conformed to the phonological pattern of Kikuyu which is their first language.

Chapter Two presents the phonology of Kikuyu language. Phonological processes in the language were also examined with a view to providing a basis for the description of errors that occurred out of influence of the phonology of Kikuyu.

Chapter Three presents and describes the data. The misspelt words collected are discussed one by one and an explanation is provided on the probable cause of that misspelling by examining the nature of the misspelt word .. -

In Chapter Four, the errors described in the previous chapter are classified into eleven categories of possible areas of influence of phonological on orthography ..

Chapter Five presents the conclusion to the study and the recommendations for further and more in-depth research on the topic of this study.