Mother Tongue Influence on English Pronunciation: A Case study in College Students

Abstract

Mother tongue interference can affect students’ English speaking skill especially in pronouncing the words intrinsically. Considering Tamil language is the dominant mother language used by students at College level, the students as EFL learners often use their mother tongue in daily communication and at campus, and College students pronounce English words in a different way. This study investigated the forms of Tamil 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. In conclusion, the interference was positive since Tamil language’s phonemic sounds have some similarities to those of English, so this condition does not potentially change the meanings of English words.