„Znam frącuski i troche po polsku” : phonetic interference in the spoken language of native French-speaking learners of Polish

The objective of this paper is to identify and analyse the most common phonetic errors caused by interference in the speech of native French-speaking learners of Polish (level ALI). The first part of the article focuses on the notion of language error in language teaching and learning, and error types and sources, including numerous interference phenomena (intra- and interlingual). The second part presents an analysis of the phonetic interference in three types of spoken language samples: spontaneous conversation, prepared speech and reading aloud. The most common errors identified involve Polish phonemes that do not exist in French, and groups and chains of consonants. The third part of the analysis demonstrates a significant correlation between phonetics and orthography. Pronunciation errors caused by interference from the speaker’s native orthography were present when reading aloud, yet absent in spontaneous or prepared speech. The final part of the paper presents some possible applications of both negative and positive transfer for Polish language learning and teaching.