N°021_Vol.1_28

Introduction: Personal pronouns are essential components of grammar in every language. In English, personal pronouns encode person, number, gender in discourse, playing a central role in sentence cohesion, reference, and pragmatic meaning (Nelson, 2001). Therefore, the mastery of the English language by foreign language learners such as Sɔgɔkiré native speakers also depends on their ability to appropriately use personal pronouns. Difficulties in the use of these pronouns may result in poor communication in the language. Based on feedback from 12 years’ experience of teaching English as a foreign language, we observed that English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Burkina Faso Secondary schools encounter difficulties in the use of personal pronouns, which, most of the time, prevent them from improving their English written production. For the Sɔgɔkiré-speaking learners of English, who are also Burkinabe students, acquiring full competence in English personal pronoun usage presents persistent challenges. This is obvious as personal pronoun usage has always been problematic for EFL learners (Nokas, 2021). As writing is the most difficult task in English for EFL learners, the difficulties observed from Sɔgɔkiré speakers’ use of personal pronouns in written English can prevent them from acquiring full competence in written English (Harahap, 2023). In the literature, there is an exhaustive classification of personal pronouns. Some works, such as Stoian (2023), restrict them to a limited set, while others such as (Harahap, 2023; Handayani & Cenderato, 2023) adopt a broader range. Within this exhaustive classification, one aspect on which these researchers agree is that personal pronouns include both subject and object forms. The present study deals with the analysis of errors in personal pronouns, focusing specially on these two personal pronouns categories: subject personal pronouns, and object personal pronouns. The main objective of the study is to analyze errors in personal pronouns by Sɔgɔkiré native speakers in English in view of improving their written production. Specific objectives are to: point out the types of Sɔgɔkiré native speakers’ personal pronoun errors in English; find out the most frequent types of their personal pronoun errors; explain these errors. To reach the above objectives, we ask: what are the types of Sɔgɔkiré native speakers’ personal pronoun errors? Which of these error types has the highest frequency of occurrence in their English production? Why do they make these errors? The research hypotheses include: H1: Sɔgɔkiré native speakers’ personal pronoun errors are subject-pronoun and object-pronoun error types in English. H2: Among their personal pronoun errors, object-pronoun errors are the most frequent error types. H3: Sɔgɔkiré native speakers’ personal pronoun errors are due to both interlingual and intralingual sources in English.