An analysis of semantic errors and L1 interference among Thai medical technologists

This study focused on the analysis of semantic errors, which is a sub-type in the lexical errors taxonomy of James (1998). The aim of this study was to identify the types of semantic errors that Thai medical technologists usually commit and determine the extent of the L1 interference in Thai-to-English translation. Fifty Thai medical technologists answered a questionnaire and took a multiple-choice test. The findings revealed that the participants’ semantic errors were confusion of sense relations more than collocational errors. The errors were influenced by their mother tongue or interlingual interference, in addition to their lack of English proficiency and the difficulty of English itself, which is intralingual interference.It is advisable to give more consideration to semantic errors and L1 interference, as this will benefit EFL learners, teachers and students.