CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND IGBO TENSE FORMATION
ABSTRACT
This study examines the tense formation of the English and Igbo languages with a view to predicting the interference problems a learner of either language as a second language will encounter while forming tenses in the target language. The English and the Igbo languages differ in structure in many respects. As a result of these differences, the native speakers of both languages, transfer the features of the native language to the target language while forming tenses in the target language. Hence, it is quite obvious that interference from a learner’s native language is a source of error in the new language.