You have no items in your shopping cart.
ABSTRACT
The study examines the influence of mother tongue interference on the academic performance of junior secondary school students in Ovia North East Local Government area of Edo state. The questions bordered on: To what extent does mother tongue interferes on the learning of English language in junior secondary school? Are there qualified phonetics teachers who can effectively teach phonetics? Do English language teachers adopt teaching methods in teaching?
The aim is to know how mother tongue affects the academic performance of the students in junior secondary schools especially the eleven (11) secondary schools in Ovia North East Local Government area of Edo State. The descriptive research design was used for this research work. The targeted population for the study was 108 and the questionnaire was administered for data collection. The data was analyzed using percentage. The following was the researcher’s findings: that mother tongue has a huge influence on the learning of English language. That mother tongue interferes in the way students write, pronounce words and also reduce their confidence in communicating in English language. That lack of qualified teachers who can teach English language and phonics. That teacher actually adopts teaching methods but lack the use of audio-lingual method which is essential in the teaching of phonics for communicative competence and performance purpose.
In view of the above, the following recommendations were made: teachers should avoid the use of mother tongue while interacting with students and should encourage the use of English language in the school among students. School administration should enforce strict rules and regulation. Government should make it mandatory for schools to have qualified and competent phonics teachers. Teachers should adopt the use of teaching method.
