ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING: THE MOTHER TONGUE INFLUENCE (A CASE STUDY OF A PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN THE RURAL AREA IN ILLELA LOCAL GOVERNMENT)

English

English language learning in Nigeria is being faced with myriad of problems ranging from lack of qualified teachers, lack of motivation from both teachers and learners, in adequate language learning materials and of course the mother tongue influence on the spoken English of the leaners ‘of the language in Nigeria. To learn English language means not its grammatical structures but also its phonological rules. Mother tongue interference as been a major problem affecting learners of English as second language in Nigeria. This paper therefore investigate the level of the mother tongue interference in the spoken English of selected primary school pupils of Hausa native in a remote boarder village called Araba in Illela local government area of Sokoto state. Specifically the paper examines how this problem affects the use of vowels and consonant sounds by the sampled population. Tape recorder was used and recorded twenty (20) pupils of primary five (5) and six (6) of the school while speaking in English language within the school premises. Errors detected were analyzed as substitution using a tabular form and a simple percentage procedure. The aim is to find out the problem, its courses and suggest possible way forward. The paper found that pupils in the rural areas are having serious pronunciation problems as most of the vowels and consonants sounds of English language are being substituted by the sounds available in their mother tongue. For instance, the plosive, bilabial and voiceless /p/ sound is being substituted with the fricative, labio-dental and voiceless /f/sound. The vowel sound /ʌ/ is also being substituted by the learners to /ͻ/ or /a/ sound. This explained why the sampled population mispronounce words like ‘people’ as /fi:ful/ and ‘love’ as /lͻv/. the paper therefore recommend that only qualified and interested persons should be employed to teach English language in the rural areas, pupils should also redouble effort in learning the language especially its spoken aspect.

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