Learning Kiswahili as a Second Language for Iraqw-Speaking People: Explaining the Reasons for Error

Learning Kiswahili as a second language among the Iraqw community has been influenced by various errors committed by the learners. This situation causes various learners of Kiswahili in this community not to achieve native-like competence in the target language. However, the sources of these errors are not explicitly identified. Many studies draw on different perspectives to describe the sources of errors for L2 learners. For instance, Lado (1957) explains that many errors for L2 learners are due to the interference of L1 while Corder (1967) explains that many errors for L2 learners are caused by the learners themselves since they wrongly use rules of their L2. The findings revealed that the Kiswahili learners among the Iraqw community commit different errors in various contexts, namely concordial agreement marking, insertion and deletion of affixes. It has also been revealed that the causes of those errors include the environments that the learners encounter, the structural difference between L1 and L2, the effects of L1 on L2, lack of enough learning and teaching facilities for Kiswahili as L2, and teachers are not well equipped with Kiswahili content and methodologies for teaching and learning Kiswahili as L2.