Elements Associated to Mapuzungun Language that Facilitate and/or Interfere in the English Language Learning Process in Mapuche Students

Abstract

This research proposes the aim to determine the associated elements in mapuzungun language that facilitate and/or obstacle the learning process of english language. In this way,
there are several factors that imply on the english language process as a third language. Regarding to the elements that are related to the mapuche culture, it was found out such
elements that could have facilitated and obstructed english language learning process. These findings state that the element associated to mapuzungun language that facilitates the english learning process in the participants (students interviewed in the research) is Language Transfer because this factor was found out in four out of six cases. The participants pointed out that the several elements similar in both languages (spanish and mapuzungun) facilitate the english learning process. Likely, there were some other factors that were found out in just one case that influenced positively the english learning process, such as: Metalinguistic Awareness and socio-cultural factors. Regarding to the factors associated to mapuzungun that obstructed the English learning process, there were found out the relationship between the mapuche and western culture. On the other hand, there was a finding that showed the difference in the linguistic origin of spanish, mapuzungun and english was an obstructed element in the english learning process.