Mother Tongue Interference Towards Students’ English Pronunciation: A Case Study in IAIN Curup

Abstract

Mother tongue interference can affect students' English speaking skill especially in pronouncing the words intrinsically. Considering Rejang language is the dominant mother language used by students at IAIN Curup, the students as EFL learners often use their mother tongue in daily communication and at campus, and Rejang students pronounce English words in a different way. This study investigated the forms of Rejang language interfering students in pronouncing English words, and how they were interfered. This was a descriptive study in the field of English pronunciation elaborated in a qualitative way. Recorded interviews and pronunciation testing were the main techniques of collecting data. Interview guide, validated pronunciation test, and document analysis were the instruments. There were 16 students who used Rejang language in daily communication, and they were incorporated as the subjects of this study. The data analysis adopted Miles and Huberman's model comprising data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification. The findings revealed that Rejang Language as the dominant students' mother language at IAIN Curup interfered students' English pronunciation across the elements of consonants, vowels, and diphthongs. There were five ways of interference. First, they sounded short vowels into long vowels. Second, they sounded long vowels into short vowels. Third, they changed vowels. Fourth, they changed diphthongs into vowels. Fifth, they changed vowels into diphthongs. However, the interference that influenced English words was only in the dimension of pronouncing English words, while the meanings were still understandable. In conclusion, the interference was positive since Rejang language's phonemic sounds have some similarities to those of English, so this condition does not potentially change the meanings of English words.

Mother Tongue Interference in EFL Students’ Writing

“…In learning English as the target language, students usually use their Indonesian rule as their mother tongue [4]. Therefore, this study tries to identify the interference of students' Indonesian as their mother tongue by using comparative analysis.…”

Challenge in Teaching English for Young Learners: A Pre-service Teachers Perspective

“…This data shows that the mother tongue affect the students in term of their English pronunciation and their sentence structure/sentence pattern. Phonological interference is related to the first language of foreign language students which is affected the sound production of the target language [14]. It is supported by a research result that the biggest impact of mother tongue interference can be seen in the speaking as a language skill and grammar as a language area [15].…”

The Effects of Mother Tongue Interference among ESL Learners’ Speaking Skills

“…Due to this experience, the students negatively perceive their ability to converse in English, even in the ESL classroom. As a result, when outside of their classroom, students would return to their first language or their mother tongue as it has been used and learned since childhood (Noviyenty & Putri, 2021). Additionally, they also receive limited encouragement to speak or practice at home as the student's first language is more often used than English (Al Zoubi, 2018).…”

“…The component which is quite visible when there is mother tongue interference is grammar. Improper proficiency in language will cause the entire language to be distorted (Noviyenty et al, 2020). This is apparent in reading, speaking and writing.…”