MOTHER TONGUE INFLUENCE ON COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH
Abstract
This paper focuses to encapsulate the influence of mother tongue while communicating in English language. On the grounds that the place of English language in India, the poor performance of students in the use of the language is absolutely an issue of academic distress. English occupies a place of status in our country even after more than six decades since British left India. No native language in spite of enforcing Hindi in the mind of people has risen up to stand equal to English either as a medium of communication or as an official language in India under the authority of nationalistic feeling and emotional assault. English began to reassert its position. Even though English has been of recent origincompared – less than 500 years ‘ it has acquired the unique disagreement of the only communicative language among the comity of nations for various reasons. It is used as an official language in many of world bodies and organizations due to the impact English has created throughout the world in spite of being the second language.
After the initiation of the technological revolution, it has drenched into the living room of every citizens who aspire to excel in personal and professional life. Now it has become the global language due to globalization. The third world countries have started to partake in the economic development in the 21st century mainly due to the development in school and higher education through English medium. Linguists have long studied the relationship between second language procurement and mother tongue. In addition, the proficiency in the mother tongue is established in a different manner if you are acquiring the second language in a natural ambience or learning a foreign language in a classroom setting. Now- a-days it is still urgent to discuss what to teach and how to teach a foreign language taking into account the objective, social and professional needs of future experts in our country. Besides, businessmen, tradesmen, engineers, scientists and scholars, everyone should know English since it is the International means of exchange of information and experience.Whenever we come across any result associated to academics, we become aware of that the main reason for the downfall is absence of enough knowledge of English. Most of our textbooks and assessment patterns are in English. The way English is taught creates an impact in the future of any individual.Our system or method of language teaching is responsible, largely responsible for the failure. Linguistics and Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used by human communication by means of which a social group operates.
Education and teaching are certainly very lofty and there are inadequate means to realize them. The strategy makers have forgotten that English is not the mother tongue of Indians. We shouldacknowledge that the standard of its teaching has fallen vastly and that is why it is essential to know the problems of teaching English in Indian classes. Mother Tongue Influence is one of the biggest hindering factors in acquiring a second language especially English language, which has been around us for more than three centuries. In order to rule the Indians the immigrants imposed English through each and every sphere of common people.
Key Words: English, influence, language, learning, mother tongue, student, teaching
Introduction
Language is a method of conveying ideas, opinions, and desires through sounds for psychological and physiological existence. One of the most inhibiting and innate factors is the influence of one’s Mother Tongue. Its influence could not be ignored away. Through arduous and conscious efforts, an individual could strive to avoid it provided the second language learner immerses himself in the target language and has the opportunity in using the target language constantly. English acts as a second language in 110 countries, more than any other language. Eventhough it is not our mother tongue it has become a Global language.
The aim of teaching English is not to imitate the native speakers or to develop the British or American accents. The aim of this article is to discuss the mother tongue influence in speaking English in thestudent’s community and how one can surmount problems faced by an Indian learner of English.
The kids who were born to English speaking parents and are brought up in the environment in which English is the only communication language or spoken medium, could articulate English with excellent proficiency and fluency. This is true in the case of upper middle and middle class families in urban India. When we begin speaking in the second language (i.e. English), begin using sounds from our mother tongue Thus, everyone has mother tongue influence (MTI) at the initial stage. With more and more listening to those who are fluent in the second language, practicing speaking yourself and correcting mistakes must be done.
DEFINITION OF MOTHER TONGUE
Mother tongue is one’s native language which is learned by the children and passed on from one generation to another. It is his inborn language or first language that one learns from his parents when he is an infant. One’s Mother tongue may also be called in other words as dominant language, home language, native tongue or native language. Mother tongue is strongly associated with culture. Hence, it is the language community of the mother tongue, the language spoken in a region, which enables the process of enculturation, the growing of an individual into a particular system of linguistic observation of the world and sharing in the centuries old history of linguistic perception.
As far as a mother tongue is concerned, myth is another important aspect which is crucial to explain one’s first language. The notion of ‘mother tongue’ is thus a combination of myth and ideology. The family is not necessarily the place where languages are transmitted, and sometimes we observe breaks in transmission, over and over again translated by a modification of language, with children acquiring as first language the one that dominates in the milieu. This phenomenon concerns all multilingual situations and most of the situations of immigration.
In India there are numerous languages spread across all the corners of the country. The scheduled languages are eighteen and Tamil language is one among them. There are more than 8,000,0000 speakers who regard as Tamil as their native tongue. An extensive range of people spread across the borders of neighboring states of Karnataka, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh, also consider Tamil as mother tongue. Other than Tamil Nadu, Tamil is spoken as their mother tongue by millions of people spread across Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius and other parts of world including the United States of America. A remarkable number of migrants living in mainland Mumbai and the slums including Dharavi, still speaks Tamil as their first language. The entire community does not stop learning any additional language. According to their needs and requirements, they learn a second or a third language.
In Bangalore, many Tamil speakers are fluent in Kannada while many Tamil migrant workers speak Telugu as their second language for business purpose. Similar is with people living in Kerala, particularly in Munnar district. They are bilingual conversing in Tamil and Malayalam (Wikipedia,2011). In South India, English is learnt primarily as the second language for a long time and as it is the medium of instructions in educational fields like schools, colleges and universities. Second Language has become an important component of various studies for both research and academic purpose.
HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF MTI
The impact of Mother tongue on a second language has been there for a long time. The impact or influence by a mother tongue on a target language is not uniform and universal per se. There are variations based on many factors. The grammatical relationship between the mother tongue and the second language plays a vital role. If the two languages, the mother tongue and the target language are from the same language families, the impact may be very less. Scientific studies to explore the impact of mother tongue are only of recent origin peculiarly after the 20th century.
After several studies, these researchers have formulated some theoretical perceptions and ideas and have successfully brought in the impact into the field so that students, learners, researchers and teachers of second language could further develop the exploration about impact of MTI. After 20th century, the mother tongue influence inlearning of second language has been investigated and continues to be searched by many target language experts and linguists for various reasons. As the knowledge of a second language particularly English has become an important factor in one’s interaction with the outside world.
‘Without English it is very tough to manage in this ultra-modern world.’
English can be considered as the universal language. At the global level it is the second largest native language, the official language in 70 countries, and English-speaking countries are responsible for about 40% of world's total GNP. English is inevitable in this modern world. Apart from our mother tongue we must have the universallanguage as a common mode of communication with the other part of the globe. English is the familiar language which is acknowledged to most of the people in the world. It is very important to have an effective communication in English to reach people better.Many students seek foreign countries for education purpose and employment opportunities. If their mode of communication is English they can deal with their communication easily. Students are major learners of English because if they want to set up a good career, they need to have good English speaking skills and confidence to face job interviews.Mother tongue troubles the smoothness of communication. Students with less confidence level make use of mother tongue instead of proper English.
MOTHER TONGUE INFLUENCE AND ITS IMPACT ON SPOKEN ENGLISH
English is held high in the Indian society with a lot of esteem being attached to the language. A lot of time and energy is dedicated to teach or learn English in the Indian schools. Despite this, least attention is given to improve the speaking skill in the average Indian classroom. It is assumed that the learner will pick up the skill from general classroom activities and instructions over a period of time is a false assumption made. As a result, the learners are not able to develop this skill and hence it will lead in lack confidencewhile conversing in English.The importance of pronunciation and intonation in interactions cannot be denied. In fact it is equally essential as grammar and vocabulary. Yet, the evidence of mother tongueinfluence on English is very obvious. This is evident inthe form of incorrect pronunciation.
Pronunciation mistakes may be due to variousproblems. Guesswork or lack of clarity of the correct form of a word or sentence, or a general incompetence of the language could be the reason for mispronunciation. The general reason is transfer or interference from the mother tongue. Generally, errors occur in pronunciation due to variation in the sound system and spelling symbols between the mother tongue and English.As a regular practice the teacher is seen as a replica for correct speaking in class. The learners are anticipated to be introduced and familiarized with the pronunciation of words in English by their teacher in the day-to-day communication. It is when the teacher her/himself has coloured pronunciation that the learners are unable to acquire correct skills in spoken English. The pronunciation samples they are exposed to in their learningenvironment being improper, the learners are most likely to adopt a similar pronunciation skill.
FACTORS INFLUENCED BY MOTHER TONGUE
As mentioned earlier, different languages modify English learning in a different way. For some, sentence, word order may be wrong. We might hear sentences like "I for breakfast eat toast" or "I tomorrow will go to Japan".
These types of errors areoften easy to put it right.The trainer needs to remind the learners of the correct word order, and give them practice on a regular basis or a need basis. In fact, most errors are fixed by just practicing more.In other languages, pronunciation might be a problem. The classic example is the pronunciation of "W" as "V" and uttering sentences like "Welcome to my place". Americans pronouncing the letter "A" is another well-known mother tongue influence. Indians deliberate way of pronouncing ‘I’ before words starting with ‘S’.Some colloquial examples are: ‘Englis’ ‘istrict’, ‘istool’, ‘reshpekt’ and other such words.
In several languages, speakers will have a "schwa" (mid central vowel sound). This way of adding a sound onto the end of words, such as saying Book, "Bookka" or "Dogga" instead of Dog. This is usually caused by two things, the first being that they were trained phonics incorrectly, or have let it slip.
The other reason of a schwa is because their own language has very different sounds and pronunciations. When trying to manage with the softer sounds that English can have, it can be difficult. This is also the reason why some people resist with correctly articulating different vowel sounds. We cannot avoid mother tongue influence entirely. Infact, to ease our pain, certain Indian peculiarities of pronunciation have actually become acceptable and that is what neutral Indian accent is. For us Indians, the objectivemust be to minimize our mothertongue influence so much that from a Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Marathi or Bengali English speaker, we become an Indian English speaker.
HOW TO TRIUMPH OVER THE INFLUENCE OFMOTHER TONGUE
‘ Interacting with our acquaintances in English language makes the other end people to spot out the blunders and rectify it.
‘ Listening to the English channels mostly news channels which will definitely make us to reduce MTI considerably.
‘ Paying attention to English news and noting down the unfamiliar words or the word which influences more to be tried with correct English pronunciation.
‘ Constant practice by uttering the words/ sentences in front of the mirror will not only improves our pronunciation and intonation but also boosts the confidence level of speaking the second language without MTI.
‘ Reading English books on various literary genres can also gradually improve to overcome MTI.
‘ Practice few tongue ‘twisters daily.
‘ Listing down frequently used words and ask the one who speaks good to pronounce and record it and listen leisurely.
‘ Recording one’s own voice can zenith our pronunciation and makes to overcome MTI.
‘ Have spontaneity while speaking, don’t use the fillers like ummm, ohhh, ahhh, etc.
‘ This challenge of overcoming MTI can surely be met by using the mother tongue removal tool utilized in a good digital language lab. These language labs have an inbuilt facility to meet up this requisite to ward off mother tongue influence.
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