MOTHER TONGUES AND LEARNING SPANISH/LE IN GABON:

Spanish as a foreign language (Spanish/LE) is acquired in Gabon in an institutional context. At the beginning of their learning of Spanish as a foreign language, Gabonese learners are already rooted in the articulatory habits of their mother tongues. Thus, in their verbal productions, the influence of these mother tongues is noticeable. Given this presence of mother tongues in the learning of Spanish/LE, it is useful to contrast the systems present in order to highlight the similar structures that can facilitate the learning of the target language. As far as the phonetic-phonological framework is concerned, the contrastive analysis of Inzebi (B52) and Spanish revealed the existence of certain similarities (5 vowel phonemes and 18 consonant phonemes) between the two languages that can facilitate the phonic perception of the target language.