MOTHER TONGUE INFLUENCE IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING: A CASE STUDY OF CHINESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

Abstract

This article is on the influence of mother tongue on Chinese learners of English. Some of the mother tongue influences that happen in the process of learning the English language in China are: phonological transfer, syntactic transfer as well as grammar and tense. The data obtained in this research was gotten using the case study and interview method. The researcher was able to make some findings that early exposure to the English language, exposure to the English culture and having a native English teacher play a huge role in reducing the mother tongue interference in the learning of the English language. The researcher made these suggestions based on the findings: organizing seminars for Chinese English teachers, creating more time for teaching oral English, reward-punishment system should be introduced to encourage the use of Standard English language in schools, students should be discouraged from communicating in mother tongue in classroom environments, teachers should introduce drilling especially in the English phonetic classes.