THE EFFECTS OF MOTHER TONGUE INTERFERENCE IN THE STUDY OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

1.1 Introduction

The mother tongue is a mediating tool between students and teachers in language. Teachers are expected to play a leadership role in the classrooms. While monitoring the students who have problems with understanding the language, they can determine in what situations they need to resort to the use of the mother tongue. Mother tongue can be used as a facilitator to make a task meaningful. Thus the students can focus on the task without difficulty. The role of mother tongue in second language acquisition swings in two ways with one school of thought claiming that proficiency in mother tongue is useful in second language learning and another calling it interference influence.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitation of the study and Definition of terms.

1.2 Background of Study

Language is a creation which every human being is endowed with or blessed; a unique gift of language is used naturally as one tool of expression consisting of different sub skills. The English language is the official and native language of Britain, Ireland, North America, Australia, America and most of the British colonies, (for the colonies, it is regarded as the official language rather than native). It is commonly divided by periods into Anglo-Saxon, or old English (about 450-1100 Bc), Middle English (about 1100 to 15BC) and modern English (from 1500 to date).

Mother tongue is one's native language. A language besides being the major distinguishing phenomenon between man and other creatures is evidently the most enduring of every people's cultural heritage. It reflects the culture of a people and it is in extricable bound up with it.

Language is an important tool that enhances human communication and interaction. It is a vital instrument in cultural transmission and preservation of a social group. It is in a fundamental sense, a crucial tool in the preservation and propagation of the human species. An examination of the linguistic content of a particular speech community can provide information about the life style, occupation etc. of a given people.

This linguistic heterogeneity promotes the continued use of English in Nigeria. Ethnologic include English amongst its list of Nigeria language this hardly supervising since the role of English language in Nigeria diverse and ubiquitous, especially as a means of intra and international communication. It is as a result of the negative effects which the mother tongue had caused the study of English language on the educational structures of the attempt to determine the effect of the use of mother tongue on the teaching and learning process in secondary schools.

The subjects for the study were one hundred male and female SSI students drawn from various government schools in western Nigeria. Using simple percentage descriptive statistic, the research questions that were raised analyzed. The findings reveal that mother tongue influences the students' poor performance in Technical education in Junior School Certificate examination and that there are other factors contributing to students' poor performance in Technical education. These other factors are poor method of teaching, lack of textbooks, language background and lack of professional growth and development of teachers. Measures that could be taken to enhance students' achievement in every aspect of Technical education are suggested also. The respondents' age ranged between 10.52 and 15.17. The participants were those who have sat for the Junior Secondary School

Therefore, in Enugu State where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Effects of Mother Tongue Interference in the Study of Technical Education in Secondary Schools.

1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that before the advent of British traders, missionaries and colonialists, indigenous Nigerian language defined every aspect of the speech community from its religious, cultural, political, economics, social to whatever else that can be through of the language functioned effectively to deal with everything relating to the day existence of the people. The arrival of the British, concomitant with the English language provided a language contact situation with an attempt to a language shift in the population.

New sets of ideas, concepts and values were introduced to the system where indigenous local language had previously been self-sufficient, rendering them inadequate to deal with the new concepts introduced by the British, particularly in the areas of formal education, Western law etc. The result was the initial subtle and later blatant intrusion & influence of English language on domains that were the exclusive preserve of indigenous language.

In recognition of the importance of English language for enhancing educational attainment as well as for improving communication ability of citizens, the government had made the subject a core subject (FGN, 2004). It is also compulsory for students to have credit in Technical education before entering the university. This also explains why many parents go off their way to see that their children pass at credit level or above in Technical education.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the Effects of Mother Tongue Interference in the Study of Technical Education in Secondary Schools using Enugu North Local Government Area of Enugu State as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To find out the relationship between the mother tongue and the study of Technical education.
2. To investigate the effects of mother tongue interference in the study of Technical education.
3. To know the solutions to challenges of studying Technical education after learning the mother tongue.

1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Are the Technical education teachers in schools qualified?
• Does Technical education teacher adopt correct teaching methods in teaching?
• Does mother tongue actually interferes in the learning of technical education in secondary school?
• What are the effects of mother tongue interference in the study of Technical education?
• What are the relationship between the mother tongue and the study of Technical education?
• What are the solutions to challenges of studying Technical education after learning the mother tongue?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: Mother tongue interference does not have a negative effect in the study of Technical education.
• H1: Mother tongue interference has a negative effect in the study of Technical education.

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There is a negative relationship between mother tongue interference and the study of Technical education.
• H1: There is a positive relationship between mother tongue interference and the study of Technical education.

1.7 Significance of Study

This study will be of immense benefit to academic students and other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Effects of Mother Tongue Interference in the Study of Technical Education in Secondary Schools using Enugu North Local Government Area of Enugu State as a case study.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, there were some problems encountered which stood as limitations to the research work. Some of the limitations include:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
3. Initial Cooperation Delay from Respondents: A particular limitation of this work came as a result of the respondent refusal to offer their cooperation at the initial time they were contacted. This contributed in making the success of this research study difficult.

1.10 Definition of Terms

It is imperative to properly define the terms that make the heading of the research topic under study. This will go along way at giving direction to the research work. This includes:

Mother Tongue:

The native language one first learns to speak before other language.

Interference:

In this context, interruption of a language by another especially in pronunciation and intonations.

Anglo-Xason:

A person whose ancestors were English. (2) An English person of the period before the Norman Conquest.

Fundamental:

Serious and very important affecting the most central and important parts of something. (2) Foundation of reality.

Heterogeneity:

Consisting of many different kinds of people or things (2) Uniformity/Alike.

Ethnological:

The moral ideas and attitudes that belong to a particular group or society (2) peculiar to a race or nation.