Exploring the Interference of Mother Tongue in English Pronunciation at Early Stages Instruction. Case of study third year pupils of Ahmed Boughtouta middle school in Mahdia, Tiaret.

Abstract

The phenomenon of language interference has become a worldwide issue especially in EFL classes. English learners always rely on their first language. The aim of this study is to identify the kind of errors that learners do and to highlight the major difficulties that facing third year pupils in their pronunciation and to explore the interference of Arabic language pronunciation. Our case of study is third year pupils of Ahmed Boughtouta middle school in Mahdia, is the impact of their mother tongue Arabic on acquiring English. Mainly, qualitative methods were used for this study: through the participant classroom observation by attending a group of sessions to observe them and the interview which was designed for three teachers of this school in order to answer the research questions. Results revealed that the Arabic language has a large interference especially at the level of accent, pupils in this level have problems with vowels, consonants and silent letters at the same time they are affected by other factors such as the French language, the lack of use the English language and the lack of communication with native speakers. At the end, we recommend some tips for teachers and pupils to overcome this issue.