INFLUENCE OF MOTHER TONGUE INTERFERENCE IN TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE



INFLUENCE OF MOTHER TONGUE INTERFERENCE IN TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE 
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
        English language is not an indigenous language to Nigeria, due to the fact, that Nigerians already have their own spoken language (mother tongue). Every Nigeria learning English language is usually faced with a complex language situation in his process language development.
        Besides having to master his own language and other indigenous language, he needs to have a good command of English as indispensable tool in his daily life in a changing world. Language is our greatest invention, without it, trade, government, family life. Regions and the art would be either impossible or very different.
        The human being is characterized by the ability to communicate with his fellow human being, this chief characteristics is what distinguished the human from animals. The process of learning indigenous language begin very early in life, right from time early, an adult attempt to communicate with a child by using all kinds of sound to him and the child in turn begin to respond to the communication through imitation.
        The child proficiency in use of his mother tongue is accelerated by his constant exposure to language. This communication is made possible in human being by the use of two types of sensory stimulation, such as auditory and visual.
The mother tongue is the greatest asset people bring to the task of foreign language learning and provides Language Acquisition Support System. The importance of English in this modern time cannot be denied. English is one of the greatest second languages of the world. It has become international language of science, technology, commerce, business, international politics and diplomacy. It is estimated that 1.4 billion people use English as their official language. It is the language of more than 1500 million non native speaker’s .It is claimed that three out of four speakers of English are non natives. In Pakistan English is taught as a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools. It is considered a source of bright and prestigious future. The use of mother tongues  goes side by side with English. So their influence in learning English cannot be denied and over ruled. It is interesting to note that most of our languages in Nigeria  belong to the British family of languages. 
Statement of the Problem.
Before the advent of British traders, missionaries and colonialists, indigenous Nigerian language defined every aspect of the speech community from its religious, cultural, political, Economics, social to whatever else that can be through of the language functioned effectively to deal with every thing relating to the day existence of the people. The arrival of the British, concomitant with the English language provided a language contact situation with an attempt to a language shift in the population.
New sets of ideas, concepts and values were introduced to the system where indigenous local language had previously been self-sufficient, rendering them inadequate to deal with the new concepts introduced by the British, particularly in the areas of formal education, Western law etc. the result was the initial subtle and later blatant intrusion & influence of English language on domains that were the exclusive preserve of indigenous language.
Now, the English language is generally an accepted language which was introduced into Nigeria through colonialism and missionary activities is now spoken, thought and learned in Nigeria.
Where English language sentence are made, they are characteristically uttered with variation in pitch often referred to as intonation. This is often an area of difficulty for second language, users of English language who have tonal? Language as their first language. This is one of the major problems encountered by learners of English language. Other areas of problem encountered are’, Sentence and word stresses, vowel sounds and English suprasegmental of pitch. The study intended to identify the influence of mother tongue in the study of English language in senior secondary schools in Abua /Odual Local government area
Significance of the Study:
This study will help to expose the numerous factors that influence the interference of the study of English language by the mother tongue or native languages. It will also identify the effects of this interference on other study area that are based on the use of the English language as the basic communication.
This study will enable teachers to identify their problems in English language. This study will also enable student to understand how to make use of English words especially in pronunciation, intonation and phonetics. It will also enable the teachers to make more research on the use of English language.
Since English language has been used as a second official and some times even as a foreign language in Nigeria for along time and give the inescapable behaviour of language in contact, it is normal to expect it to have factors which can identify it as bonafide subject, dialect, variely or idiom of world English. These may be seen as research findings relating to interference, derintation and creativity as are seen to obtain among speakers. In Nigeria. English is now the term Nigerian English is used to refer to the subject of English spoken or written by Nigerians, it is commonly known that the features of Nigerians English language, like those of other new English, are essentially inherent particularly at the early stages of learning by the mother tongue features.
Purpose of the Study:
1.     To find out the level at which mother tongue can interfere in the learning of English language in secondary school.
2.     To determine the attitude of secondary schools students towards the use of mother tongue
3.     To find out the effect of mother tongue on students academic performance in english lanaguge
4.     To investigate if teachers make use of mother tongue in teaching english language
Reasarch Question
1.     Does mother tongue actually interferes in the learning of English language in secondary school?.
2.     What are the attitude of secondary schools students towards the use of mother tongue
3.     What are the effect of mother tongue on students academic performance in english lanaguge
4.     Does teachers  Make use of mother tongue when teaching English language
The Scope of the Study.
This research is the influence of mother tongue in study of English language among secondary school students in  Abua/Odual Local Government Area. The study will focuss on SS 1 to III students in five selected secondary schools in Abua/Odual Local Government Area
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Mother tongue: Native, language, the first which is normally acquired by human being in early childhood through interaction with other member of his own native speakers. This can also be called primary language, its one’s first language of interaction.
Second language: Foreign language, any language other than the native language or mother tongue. A second language usually learnt and not acquired through interaction with other.
Interference: The errors native made by carrying over the speech habit of the native language or dialect into a second language or dialect. The interference can be noticed in features of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary when a person is learning to master the pattern of second language.
Transfer: The process or result of carrying over speech habit from one language to another e.g. language teaching, the patterns of the mother tongue or when translating lexical items may be borrowed from the native language. Negative features that are not available in the mother tongue are to features that are present in the second language. This means that there are some distinctive features inherent in the mother tongues that are transferred to the second language.
Positive common features: Are those features that are present both in first language and the second language.      
      



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