Interference Patterns in the Written English of Igbo-Speaking University Students: A Morphosyntactic Analysis in Imo State

This study presents a morphosyntactic analysis of interference patterns in the written English of Igbo-speaking university students at Imo State University, South East Nigeria, with a focus on identifying the structural sources of persistent grammatical errors in student academic writing. Language transfer errors in Nigerian university writing persist despite years of formal English instruction, and systematic morphosyntactic documentation of interference from Igbo is necessary to develop targeted instructional interventions. The study adopts an error analysis methodology grounded in contrastive analysis theory and Corder's error classification framework. A corpus of 200 undergraduate essays was compiled from across four faculties and subjected to systematic error identification, classification, and source attribution. Errors were coded as transfer-related, developmental, or ambiguous based on a structured attribution protocol applied by two independent raters. The analysis focuses on tense and aspect marking, determiner use, relativisation, and subject-verb agreement, which preliminary data identified as high-frequency error sites. Findings reveal that 63 percent of morphosyntactic errors are attributable to Igbo structural transfer, particularly in tense aspect conflation, relativiser omission, and mass-count noun distinction errors that reflect Igbo nominal structure. The study makes a significant empirical contribution to applied linguistics in the South East zone and recommends the development of Igbo-English contrastive grammar materials for use in university writing centres. Keywords: morphosyntactic interference, Igbo, academic writing, error analysis, Imo State.