MOTHER-TONGUE INTERFERENCE AND CLASHING PHONETIC AND PHONOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS IN SPEECHES OF EHUGBO NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH

Abstract

Native tongue interferes with students’ phonological ability to study English as a second language in Ehugbo, Ebonyi State, Nigeria. This study investigates the place of mother-tongue interference in the phonological competence of Ehugbo non-native speakers of English. Questionnaires were used to source primary data from five secondary schools in Ehugbo. The data were analysed using Contrastive and Error Analysis. The analysis reveals that following the differences in the phonological features of English and Ehugbo dialect of Igbo, these student speakers find it very difficult to correctly pronounce some English words. Such words include English silent letters and those that their phonemes and phonemic representations are lacking in Ehugbo dialect. The study concludes that the cumbersome nature of English phonology and Ehugbo speakers’ poor knowledge of it are the bane of the mother-tongue interference. The study recommends that these speakers should be familiarised with a comparative contrastive phonological analysis of Igbo and English languages so as to master the phonological differences and similarities between them.