Addressing Cultural and Native Language Interference in Second Language Acquisition

This paper addresses the problem of cultural and native language interference in second/ foreign language acquisition. More specifically, it examines issues of interference that can be traced to a student’s native language and that also have a cultural component. To this effect, an understanding of what actually comprises both interference and culture is required. The concepts we consequently identify result in an ontology that can be interpreted and used by both humans and computers to build interactive learning environments. We use an ontology as a conceptual foundation to build an instructional scenario, which is then supported by readily available technological tools. A specific example is described.