LANGUAGE IN INDIA

The Influence of First Language Grammar (L1) on
the English Language (L2) Writing of Tamil School Students:
A Case Study from Malaysia

Mahendran Maniam, Ph.D. (ESL)

Contents

Chapter One      Introduction

Chapter Two      Literature Review

Chapter Three      Methodology

Chapter Four      Data Analysis

Chapter Five      Discussion and Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendices

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

I decided to embark on this study when I was teaching English to some Tamil school students, a few years ago. I found that these students always had the tendency to answer English questions in Tamil. When they really tried to answer in English, they usually resorted to using the direct translation method. I observed that whenever they did this, their answers were heavily influenced by their mother tongue, both phonologically and grammatically. This observation is based on my intuition as a multilingual speaker who has had experience, in terms of mother tongue interference, while studying English in college. A lot of research has been conducted regarding the phonological interference of inter-languages, for example, (Keys, 2002). A much relevant research that was done pertaining to writing was in 1999 which was published in the International Educational Journal. "Native Language Interference in Learning a Second Language: Exploratory Case Studies of Native Language interference with Target Language Usage." (Baljit Bhela, 1999). I would like to explore the grammatical interference of L2 learners further, particularly among children. How does a child create the mental construct that is language? Children do not wake up one morning with a fully formed grammar in their heads or with all the 'rules' of social and communicative intercourse. Linguistic knowledge develops in stages. Chomsky (1950) first resorted to this concept of Universal Grammar because he believes that children can not learn their first language so quickly and effortlessly without the help of some inborn talents.

In terms of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), learners are faced with the same logical problems faced in the process of acquiring the first language. Furthermore, this learning is also influenced, either positively or negatively, by the first language. However, to what extent does the interference (if any) really affect the learners? These are the questions that always concern me whenever I teach children in vernacular schools. Since the 1960s researchers like Nabakov (1960) have pointed unequivocally to the advantages of bilingualism. Children who know a second language are better at separating semantic from phonetic aspects of words, at tasks involving classification, and at tests of creativity. They are said to have sharper awareness of language.

Knowledge of a second language is a normal part of human existence, therefore it may well be unusual to know only one language. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is not a uniform and predictable phenomenon. There is no single way in which learners acquire knowledge of a second language (L2). There are many factors that contribute to SLA. Different learners in different situations learn L2 in different ways. Second language acquisition refers to all the aspects of language that the language learner needs to master. However, the focus, for example has been on how L2 learners acquire grammatical sub-systems, such as the syntactical rules, subject-verb agreement and tenses. It is a strong belief among scholars in language studies that SLA is influenced by the learners' first language (L1) to varying degrees. The clear support for this belief comes from 'foreign' accents in the L2 speech of learners. When an Indian of Tamil or Hindi background in the subcontinent speaks English, his/her English sounds Tamil or Hindi (popular languages among the Indians).

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