Parametric Variations of English and Ikwerre Sentence Structures

This study examined the parametric variations of the sentence structures of the English and Ikwerre languages in order to foreground areas of differences and similarities and thereby curb the challenges associated with learning the English language by speakers of Ikwerre. The study adopted Lado’s Contrastive Analysis as its theoretical framework and employed the descriptive research design. Data for the study were obtained from native speakers of the Isiokpo dialect of the Ikwerre language. Findings revealed that English and Ikwerre are both non-pro-drop languages and share the same basic syntactic structures, including SV, SVA, SVO, SVOO, SVC, SVOC, and SVOA structures. The study further revealed that despite these similarities, there are parametric variations that differentiate the Ikwerre language from English, particularly in the head parameter and wh-parameter. These dissimilarities affect Ikwerre-English bilinguals’ proficiency in speech and writing. The study concluded that knowledge of these parametric variations will enable speakers of Ikwerre to overcome learning challenges arising from such variations during the process of learning English. The study therefore recommended that teachers of English language should design curricula that prioritise areas constituting learning difficulties resulting from the dissimilarities between the target language and the native language. Keywords: Ikwerre, Variations, Sentence Structures, Parametric Variations, Ikwerre Sentence Structure.