Abstract:
This study tries to identify the impact of Dagara on the teaching and learning of French as a foreign language by third year students in Senior High School in the Upper West Region. All the students who constitute our sample speak Dagara as their first acquired language (LI). In the study, we try to bring out the similarities and differences that exist between French and Dagara. This is to enable us identify the difficulties associated with the transfer of Dagara from the phonetic (phonologic) and semantic (lexical) points of view. The data collected from the study was based on two instruments namely, a questionnaire and three tests: listening comprehension, dictation and reading.
The results of our analysis reveal that differences as well as similarities from the phonetic (spelling and reading) and semantic (comprehension) points of view among other factors, are responsible for students' learning difficulties in French as a foreign language.
The study ends with pedagogical suggestions for teachers to take into account the student's Ll in the teaching and learning situation in a multilingual context like Ghana in order to minimise these difficulties.
