THE EFFECTS OF MOTHER TONGUE INTERFERENCE IN THE STUDY OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Abstract
The study’s focus is on how mother tongue influences students’ ability to learn English in secondary schools in Enugu State’s Enugu North Local Government Area. The purpose of the study is to determine how mother tongue influences English language acquisition in secondary school, particularly in four chosen schools in Enugu North Local Government Area of Enugu State. 500 people made up the study’s target group, and questionnaires were used for data gathering. The four schools in Enugu North Local Government Area of Enugu State that were chosen received the questionnaires. Percentage analysis was used to examine the data. The research team’s conclusions are as follows. The lack of instructional resources among English language instructors in Enugu North’s numerous schools.students’ limited proficiency with the English language. relatively few pupils buy books in the English language since the majority of English language instructors are not qualified. most students have very low comprehension of some of the vocabulary in the English language. Given the foregoing, the researcher suggests that the fourth edition of the national policy on education’s restrictions on the use of mother tongue be followed and that teachers be required to utilize the proper teaching methodology when instructing in English. That student needs to be instructed in speaking English at all times. English language instructors should be required to make sure that at least each student follows along with the lesson in class. that hiring qualified teachers is a good idea.
Introduction
Every human being is born with the ability to utilize language; it is a special gift that is employed involuntarily as one tool of expression made up of various subskills.
The official and national language of Britain, Ireland, North America, Australia, and the majority of British colonies is English (for the colonies, it is regarded as the official language rather than native). Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon, roughly dates back to 450–1100 BCE, Middle English, roughly dates back to 1100–15BCE, and modern English (from 1500 to date).
Native language is one’s mother tongue. A language is undoubtedly the most resilient part of each people’s cultural legacy, in addition to being the main factor that separates humans from other animals. It is inextricably linked to a people’s culture and reflects it.
Language is a vital instrument that improves human contact and communication. It is a crucial tool for social group cultural transmission and maintenance. Fundamentally speaking, it is a vital tool in the maintenance and expansion of the human species. An analysis of a speech community’s linguistic makeup can reveal details about a certain people’s way of life, occupation, etc.Our second language is English because it is the official national tongue of the British colonies, which includes Nigeria. Consequently, our individual mother tongues predate colonization. This has made it necessary for English to be taught and learned, interfering with our native languages in various study locations across the country. As a result, it is obvious to say that Nigeria is a linguistically complex nation just by virtue of the fact that it has a long history. Between 250 and 400 languages are thought to be spoken in Nigeria (INTER NET).The continuous use of English in Nigeria is encouraged by this linguistic diversity. English is included in Ethnologic’s list of Nigerian languages, however this is barely warranted given the language’s varied and pervasive use in Nigeria, particularly as a method of intra- and inter-national communication. The attempt to ascertain the impact of mother tongue use on the teaching and learning process in secondary schools is a result of the detrimental effects that the mother tongue had caused the study of the English language on the educational institutions.
Statement of the problem
Before the arrival of British traders, missionaries, and colonizers, the indigenous language of Nigeria defined every aspect of the speech community, including its religious, cultural, political, economic, social, and anything else that could be communicated through the language and dealt with all aspects of the daily lives of the people. In an effort to alter the population’s language, the British immigration and the introduction of the English language created a situation where languages were in contact.
Where native local languages had previously been self-sufficient, new sets of ideas, concepts, and values were introduced to the system, making them unprepared to deal with the new notions introduced by the British, particularly in the areas of formal education, Western law, etc. As a result, English began to infiltrate areas that were previously the sole realm of indigenous languages, first subtly and eventually overtly.
The English language, which was brought to Nigeria through colonialism and missionary activity, is now widely spoken, thought of, and taught there.Wherever English sentences are spoken, intonation, a term used to describe pitch variation, is typically present. For English language speakers who speak tonal as their first language, this is frequently a tough issue. One of the main issues that English language learners face is this. Sentence and word stresses, vowel sounds, and English suprasegmental of pitch are some other problematic areas. The goal of the study was to determine how mother tongue affected students’ ability to learn English in senior secondary schools in Enugu North Local Government Area, Enugu State.
Objective of the study
To find out the level at which mother tongue can interfere in the learning of English language in secondary school.
To investigate the qualifications of English teachers in secondary school in Enugu North.
To know how teachers makes use of correct methods in teaching of English language in secondary school in Enugu North
Reasarch Question
Does mother tongue actually interferes in the learning of English language in secondary school?.
Are the English language teacher in schools qualified?
Does English language teachers adopt correct teaching methods in teaching?
1.6 Hypothesis
Ho Mother tongue interfers in the learning of English language.
Hi Mother tongue dose not interfers in the learning of English language.
Ho2 English language teachers makes use of correct method of teaching in teaching and learning of English language.
Ho2 English language teacher do not make use of correct teaching method.
significance of the study
This study will assist in illuminating the various variables that affect how native or mother tongues affect the study of English. The interference’s effects on other research areas that rely on English as their primary language of communication will also be noted.
Teachers will be able to pinpoint their English language issues according to this study. Additionally, this coursework will help students learn how to employ English words, particularly in terms of phonetics, intonation, and pronunciation. Additionally, it will give teachers the opportunity to conduct additional study on English language usage.Given that English has been used as a second official language and occasionally as a foreign language in Nigeria for a long time and that language in contact has an inescapable behavior, it is normal to expect it to have characteristics that can distinguish it as a genuine subject, dialect, variety, or idiom of global English. These could be considered research findings on interference, derintation, and originality as they are observed to exist among speakers. in Nigeria It is now general knowledge that the characteristics of Nigerian English, like those of other new English, are essentially innate, especially in the early stages of learning. Nigerian English is now used to refer to the subject of English spoken or written by Nigerians.
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