Ukrainian Language Vs. English Language

By Eric Hoopengardner

History• Ukrainian language is written in a form of Cyrillic

alphabet and is closely related to Russian and Belorussian, from which it was indistinguishable until the 12th or 13th century. (Ukrainetrek.com)

• After the fall of Kievan Rus in the 13th century, the dialectal characteristics that distinguished Ukrainian language from its sister languages emerged, but for many centuries there after the language had almost no literary expression owing to Ukraine’s long political subordination. (Ukrainetrek.com)

History

• It was not until the end of the 18th century that moden literary Ukrainian language emerged out of the colloquial Ukrainian tongue. . (Ukrainetrek.com)

• The modern Ukrainian literary language is the mixture of the elements of the three main dialects, with the domination of Poltava dialects. The basis of the vocabulary is formed with the words of the general Slavonic origin, but there are also many words, which emerged in Ukrainian in the period of its independent historical development. . (Ukrainetrek.com)

Main Features of Ukrainian• The Ukrainian language is printed and written in the Cyrillic

alphabet.

• Ukrainian grammar does not use articles in sentences.

• In Ukrainian language there are three tenses: Present, Past, and Future which indicate the action, which coincides with the moment of speaking, precedes or follows it. (Lingua Sourcs, 1)

• The present day Ukrainian tense category is expressed by three tense forms for the imperfective verbs and two tense forms for the perfective verbs; there is no present tense of the perfective verbs. (Lingua Sourcs, 1)

English vs. Ukrainian LanguageEnglish Language

• The English Language is based off the Latin alphabet and consist of letters.

• The English language has two articles a / an and the.

• When looking at English it is made up of three tenses also, however depending on the situation there can be up to six: simple present, present perfect, simple past, past perfect, future, and future perfect.

• English uses auxiliaries such as be, can, do, shall, which help in forming of certain tenses

Ukrainian Language• The Ukrainian language is based off the

Cyrillic alphabet and has 33 Cyrillic letters .

• Ukrainian is a largely phonetic language. This means that a word's pronunciation can be predicted from its spelling and its spelling from its pronunciation.

• Ukrainian grammar does not use articles in sentences.

• The present day Ukrainian tense category is expressed by three tense forms for the imperfective verbs and two tense forms for the perfective verbs; there is no present tense of the perfective verbs.

• Ukrainian language does not have auxiliaries, and omit them.

English Alphabet vs. Cyrillic Alphabet

English AlphabetA B C D E F G H

I J K L M N O P

Q R S T U V W X

Y Z

Cyrillic Alphabet

Maria from Ukraine

• The person used for research.

Name: MariaSex: FemaleAge: 26Language: UkrainianCountry: UkraineHometown: KharkovYears Speaking English: 10 YearsLanguages Maria is fluent in English, Russian, Ukrainian, and Norwegian.

Maria’s Data Analysis

• Types of Errors Made

Types of Errors

Spelling ErrorsArticle ErrorsVerb TensesSentence Structure

6

84

6

Data Analysis:

Spelling Errors 6Article Errors 8Verb Tenses 4Sentence Structure 6

Analysis of Maria’s MistakesSpelling Errors

What Maria Wrote Correct Form Error

I buy alot of cookbooks and even get to use them from time to time.

I buy a lot of cookbooks and even get to use them from time to time.

Alot is spelled incorrectly should be “a lot”

I’m such a fun of hiking I’m such a fan of hiking Fun should be “fan”

usually get surprized when surprised Suprized should be “surprised”

I’ve learnt to cook learned Learnt should be “learned”

to the curios tourists. to the curious Curios should be “curious”

It not like It’s not like Wrong form of it, should be “it’s”

Analysis of Maria’s MistakesArticle Errors

What Maria Wrote Correct Form Error

I get urge to cook fancy dinner. I get an urge to cook a fancy dinner. Missing the article “an”

I guess the biggest holidays in Ukraine are New Year’s Eve, Easter, and Independence Day

I guess the biggest holidays in the Ukraine are New Year’s Eve, Easter, and Independence Day.

Missing the article “the” in front of Ukraine

things I do on daily basis are things I do on a daily basis are Missing the article “a”

That’s why city has a unique architecture

That’s why the city has a unique architecture

Missing the article “the”

Kiev is beautiful city Kiev is a beautiful city Missing the article “a”

English could be useful for me in future

English could be useful for me in the future

Missing the article “the”

both in school and at university, both in school and at the university Missing the article “the”

middle of Ukrainian nowhere middle of the Ukrainian nowhere Missing the article “the”

Analysis of Maria’s MistakesVerb Tenses

What Maria Wrote Correct Form Error

I like go to the cinema with my friends.

I like going to the cinema with my friends.

Go needs an “ing” ending

We are used to it Use Wrong verb tense of used, should be “use”

I like to go to school I liked going to school Verb tense past should be “liked”

if the person will end up somewhere if the person would end up somewhere

Wrong verb tense should be “would”

Analysis of Maria’s MistakesSentence Structure Errors

What Maria Wrote Correct Form Error

Maybe because this way I can sit quietly and observe people that pass by, Maybe because sometimes some of those people happen to be someone I know, and they stop by and we have in many ways unexpectedly nice conversation.

I do this because I can sit quietly and observe people that pass by. Sometimes some of those people passing by are people I know and we end up having a conversation.

The sentence needs restructuring run-on sentences and hard to understand.

I always take them first of all to Kiev, which is the capital

I always take my friends to Kiev which is the capital

Sentences needs restructuring to make better sense.

My native language is Russian, I speak also Ukrainian fluently.

My native language is Russian, I also speak Ukrainian fluently.

Sentence restructuring speak also need to be swapped to “also speak”

I speak also English I also speak English Sentence restructuring speak also need to be swapped to “also speak”

There are many universities and scientific research centers there also.

There are also many universities and scientific research centers there.

Sentence restructuring moved also to beginning of sentence.

some seminars and stuff like that that were in English.

some seminars and stuff like that were in English.

Impacts of L1 on development of English

• Ukrainian students learning English will initially struggle with learning the phonological system of English language.– Ukrainian language consists of 5 vowel sounds, with no differentiation

between short and long vowels. This contrasts with English which has 12 vowel sounds (5 long, 7 short), plus 8 diphthongs.

• Ukrainian learners will struggle with auxiliaries in verb tenses and article usage. For example when asking the question ‘How do you do that’ a Ukrainian learner might say ‘How you do that.’

• Ukrainian learners will also struggle with article usage, since they do not exist in their language

Instructional Implications

• There are significant differences between the English language and the Ukrainian language and educators and parents should be aware of the challenges faced when learning English.

• In terms of grammar, Ukrainian has a complex morphology. Ukrainian, like German and Latin, is an inflected language. This means that nouns, adjectives and pronouns must have case endings to indicate their function (subject, object or indirect object) in a sentence.

– English is not an inflected language; therefore, students require considerable time and practice to acquire grammatical understanding in modeled, structured and unstructured situations

Instructional Implications

• Due to the vast differences between the Latin and Cyrillic alphabet, “many younger students confuse the Latin and Cyrillic letters and transfer incorrectly between languages.

• It is important to understand that additional time is required for students with Ukrainian as a first language to develop fluency in English because of its complexity and unique characteristics.

References

• Alberta Education, L. (2008). Ukrainian Language Arts Grades 4-6: Guide to Implementation. Alberta Education.

• Berry, C., Brizee, A., & Angeli, E. (2010). Sequence of Tenses. Retrieved October 12, 2011. From http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/601/01/.

• Lingua Source. (2011). Retrieved October 12, 2011. From http://lingua-source.com/2011/05/26/grammatical-categories-of-english-and-ukrainian-verbs/.

• The differences between English and Ukrainian. (2011). Retrieved October 12, 2011. From http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/ukranian.htm.

• Ukrainian. (2011). Retrieved October 12, 2011. From http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ukrainian.htm.

• Ukrainian Language. (2011). Retrieved October 12, 2011. From http://www.ukranianlessons.net/.

• Ukraine: The Ukrainian language. (2010). Retrieved October 12, 2011. From http://where.org.ua/ukraine.php?r=The-Ukrainian-Language

• Ukrainetrek (2011). Retrieved October 12, 2011. From http://ukrainetrek.com/about-ukraine-culture/ukrainian-language.