THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH SPATIAL PREPOSITIONS BY ALBANIAN EFL LEARNERS – THE CASE OF NORTH MACEDONIAN HIGH SCHOOLS

Abstract

Acquiring English as a target language is a very challenging process. The target language has many elements that are distinctive in its role and function. Therefore, Albanian EFL students face challenges learnng a foreign language when it comes to particular prepositions. For language educators, it is significant to discover how Albanian EFL students learn spatial prepositions and the difficulties that they encounter in acquiring them. The main aim of the study is to investigate the acquisition of spatial prepositions by Albanian EFL learners; how learners acquire spatial prepositions and if they use them appropriately. The research instruments that are used in this study were students’ questionnaire, teachers’ interview, and an observation. The research was conducted in three different high schools in Kumanova. Comparison is made with the foreign spatial prepositions and Albanian prepositions during the teaching process. During the acquisition of the foreign language, students face many difficulties that decrease their interest and motivation, and there are cases when learners acquire spatial prepositions and it can be the opposite; they are not able to learn prepositions at all. The results of the study show that Albanian EFL learners have troubles in acquiring spatial prepositions correctly in the target language, in this case English language; students are not able to identify the meanings and usages of spatial prepositions, and cannot use them correctly in the target language.