This study postulates that eventhough there are significant structural similarities between Annang and English, there are a number of underlying dissimilarities in these apparent similarities. Annang people live in eight local government areas in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. The Annang speaker of English tends to apply the grammatical rules of Annang in his use of English, often violating the intuition of native speakers of English. Moreover, movement from a relatively free and flexible system of word order in Annang to a syntactically bound system in English also poses grammatical problems for the Annang speaker of English. Three null hypotheses were used in the study to capture differences and similarities in the grammatical structures of the two languages, particularly on how these differences and similarities affect the use of English by an Annang person. The population of the study consisted of Annang speakers of English in the eight local government areas in Annangland. One hundred and sixty respondents were selected using stratified random sampling. Literature was reviewed on contrastive analysis, justifying its use in the study. Literature was also reviewed on grammar and the structural patterns of language. The study made significant revelations on the similarities and differences in the structures of Annang and English. At 0.01 confidence level and 1 degree of freedom (df), the calculated value of X2 (102.04) was greater than the table value of X2 (6.63). Consequently, Ho was rejected in favour of H1 in hypothesis 1. Again at 0.01 confidence level and 1 degree of freedom (df), the calculated value of X2 (87.64) was greater than the table value of X2 (6.63). Consequently, H0 was rejected for H1 in hypotheses 2 and 3. The conclusion was that communication in English by Annang speakers is largely affected by similarities and differences existing between the two languages. Teachers of English in Annangland should be sufficiently trained to master the rules of English grammar as well as identify the problems confronting their students in the learning of English. There is need for government and non-governmental organizations to sponsor English language seminars as well as encourage Mother Tongue Education.
Keywords: Annang Language, Annang People, Contrastive Analysis, Grammar And Structural Patterns.
