The Relative Clause Revisited: A Novel Approach to Error Analysis

Negative interference from a mother language is said to be one of the major sources of errors committed bylearners of a foreign language. Due to this interference, it is our belief that mere analysis and finding of differencesbetween the languages concerned are inadequate. Therefore, the present research is engaged in giving a moreprofound approach to deal with errors in general, and one of the commonest errors committed by PalestinianArabic speakers learning English, in particular: namely, relative pronoun deletion from the subject position ofthe relative pronoun. Building on certain linguistic constructs and rules, as well as an enlightened pedagogicalaccount, the absence of the subject relative pronoun is given a new perspective. Our account addresses both teachers’ and students’ cognitive linguistic knowledge to eradicate the problem at hand. Our approach to the problem which is thus interdisciplinary, helps students in the acquisition of complex structures like that of the relative clause and can be a model to be followed in tackling other problems in foreign language learning and teaching.