INTERFERENCE OF MOTHER TONGUE ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ENGLISH IN EGOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE

ABSTRACT

This study examined the negative interference of mother tongue on the teaching and learning of English language in Egor language government of Edo state. Four research questions were raised to guide the study. The study adopted a descriptive ethnographic qualitative research design. The population of the study is all the 96 secondary schools in Egor Local Government Area. A sample population of 128 senior secondary school students from three randomly picked secondary schools were used to gather the relevant information for the study. The instrument used for the study is the Mother Tongue Influence on English Instruction Questionnaire (MTEIQ) in order collect the relevant data from the research sample population. The instrument was validated and its reliability tested. The study revealed that though Edo is a mother in Egor Local Government, it is not often used by the children of school age; the language is mostly used at home. Also, the Edo mother tongue has little interference on the teaching and learning of English language in the local government. However, some sound in English are difficult to learn viz: /θ/, /ð/ and /Ə/. This is due to the fact that there are no language laboratories in the schools to aid the students learn these sounds, which are alien to them. The study recommended that parents aid their children gain mastery of the language. Also, teachers encouraged to pay attention and channel their strength to those areas of English that are alien to the Edo natives. The ministry of Education is advised to enforce the teacher-student ratio of class size in order to help the teacher pay attention to individual student’s linguistic need.