A GRAMMATICAL INVESTIGATION OF MOTHER-TONGUE INTERFERENCE IN THE SPOKEN ENGLISH OF NURSERY AND PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS

Abstract

Language interference is a term used to describe a situation whereby the structures and patterns of one code are noticeable in another code. This occurs when a language user is proficient in more than one language. Interference is highly noticeable where two languages are dissimilar in structures and patterns. Interference of L₁ on L₂ is usually traceable to mother-tongue, and in most cases, mother-tongue interference brings about linguistic error. Investigating mother-tongue interference in the spoken English of nursery and primary school pupils, this study is predicated on Bloomfield’s (1933) Transfer Theory for analysis. Ten private nursery and primary schools in Ondo West Local Government Area were randomly selected. This target population was selected because the pupils are usually enforced to speak English in schools. Data were got adopting the researchers’ participatory observation and recorded conversations of the participants. Findings revealed mother-tongue errors related to nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs. These errors manifested in the participants’ expressions because of differences in the structures and patterns in English and Yoruba. For instance, while English has gender distinctions in pronouns and adjectives, this is absent in the grammar of Yoruba. This paper, therefore, recommends that language experts should put more effort in identifying other grammatical areas of mother-tongue interference and exposing pupils to a lot of English vocabulary in order to minimize the error of mother-tongue interference in the spoken English of pupils in L₂ context.