English and Hausa Consonant Sounds: A Constrastive-Cum-Error Analyses

This study analyses the consonant sounds of English and Hausa languages, by identifying the similarities, differences as well as source of errors made by Hausa ESL learners. Learning of English as a second language by Hausa native speakers is usually faced with difficulties which are usually attributed to the influence of the features of their first language (L1). The Hausa speakers of English use English as a second language and features of the Hausa consonants are transferred into their spoken English. This study as an exercise in applied linguistics adopts a 'Contrastive Analysis Approach' which was initiated by Charles C.C. Fries in (1945) and developed by Robert Lado in (1957) by describing and identifying the similarities and differences between the consonants of the two languages in question. The researcher also adopts 'Error Analysis Approach' which was founded by Corder et-al (1960) to analyse and explain the sources of errors made by the Hausa ESL learners with the aid of the primary data. The result of this study shows that English and Hausa languages have more in common than differences. With a total number of 18 consonants shared by the two languages, yet the Hausa ESL learners still face a lot of challenges in their spoken form. The primary source of these errors according to this study is the intrusion of the L1 features in the learning of English language followed by factors such as inattention to detail and linguistic incompetence.