Investigating The Impact of Language Interference on The Speaking Performance

Abstract

Almost any situation which is marked by the concurrent use of different language varieties is bound to the appearance of language interference in speakers' performance. The dissertation at hand examines the impact of language interference, namely negative transfer on EFL teachers' speaking performance, at Tiaret primary schools, in Algeria, precisely the newly recruited primary school teachers. For the purpose, a mixed-method approach has been adopted in the investigation. The first tool consists in a classroom observation of third and fourth-year classes, and the second is a questionnaire administered to novice teachers of the classes in question. The findings reveal that language interference has a great impact on EFL teacher speaking performance, moreover, the results of classroom observation and the questionnaire have confirmed that language interference is largely dominant in novice teachers‟ performance. The study puts forth that there is a great deal of in-service training required to help this category of practitioners to refine their competence and performance in the target language and minimize the impact of language interference in their speech.