The Impact of Mother Tongue in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language
Chapter One
Objectives of the study
- To find out the level at which mother tongue can interfere in the learning of Arabic language among University students.
- To investigate the speech qualification of Arabic teachers using questionnaires, Using Bauchi State as case study
- To know how teachers makes use of correct teaching methods during the teaching of Arabic language in Bauchi state.
- To investigate whether background and environment also influence language, In order words to find out, how the language used in the child’s immediate environment influences a child’s use of langauage
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Introduction
Today, it is not uncommon for English language teachers to complain about the extremely poor standard of students in Arabic language. On the other hand, there are a few of the students whose written and spoken English hardly reflect their educational attainment. For instance, it is not uncommon to hear a University student say: my little brother is eating his big finger , when he actually means my little brother sucks his thumbs .
One of the causes of such short coming could be traced to the problem of Arabic language coming in contact with the mother tongue where Arabic is the L2. As noted by Weireith (1968), he said that when languages come into contact, they are bound to influence each other positively or negatively. In a case of languages coming in contact, it is expected that the first language (L1) or mother tongue will, in many ways interfere with the acquisition of the L2.what usually happens is that the pattern of L1 tends to be transferred unconsciously into the L2, which in this case is the Arabic language.
In this chapter therefore, the research will review the available literature on Mother Tongue in the acquisition of the Arabic language as a second language , and the likely factors responsible for such interferences.
The mother tongue interference.
Many researches have already been done in the area of native language interference in the target language. However, the essay gives an account of the following readings about the topic under study. Ellis (1997) refers to interference as transfer’ that s the influence that the learner s Ll exerts over the acquisition of an L2. He argues that transfer is governed by learner’s perceptions about what is transferable and by the stage of development in L2 learning. In learning a target language, learners construct their own interim.
According to Bhela (1999) ‘although foreign language learners appear to be accumulating enough knowledge, they come across problems organizing coherent structures when speaking relying on mother tongue structures in the foreign language, showing a gap between gathering knowledge and producing orally’. In the cases in which the gap increases and becomes more complex to solve thus, the possibility of mother tongue interference emerges. Odlin. (1989). defined the mother tongue interference as the negative transference of linguistic patterns . This means that students take the structure belonging to the mother tongue to construct messages in the foreign language, constraining their learning about new elements. Since they start making performance mistakes that gradually become competence errors.
Kohn (1986) stated that. “As a learning process, transfer supports the learner’s selection and remodeling of input structures as he progresses in the development of his inters language knowledge. As a production process, transfer is involved in the learner’s retrieval of this knowledge and in his efforts to bridge linguistically those gaps in his knowledge which cannot beside stepped by avoidance.”
According to Ashworth (I992) ‘ the mother tongue or native language is the language which the person acquires in early years and which normally becomes his/her natural instrument of thought and communication’. An online article, entitled “Mother Tongue” defines mother tongue (first language. native language or vernacular) as the language a person learns first. And correspondingly the person is called a native speaker of the language The American Heritage Dictionary of the Arabic Language Skiba. (2000) defines mother tongue as one s native language; the language learned by children and passed from one generation to the next; it is received by birth or from ancestors.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGICAL DETAILS
Methodology
This research is to analyze the use of language among University students in Bauchi State using the two sections (public and private Universities) through the means of questionnaires.
This research will analyze the results gotten from questionnaires distributed to the students. Their teachers will also be carried along in the exercise, especially Arabic teachers.
It is a common believe in Nigeria that children from poor background and children who grew in the slums are more affected by mother tongue interference; public schools in Nigeria accommodate most of these kinds of students and also teachers alike. So, most of the questionnaires will be focused on this aspect of people.
The data will be analyzed using phonological rules because this is the most pervasive type of interference according Romaine (1989, p.52).
In the process, if tape recording will be useful, it will also be used to record some selected people in the school and oral interviews can also be conducted.
These are some of the methods that have been chosen for the success of this work.
Research design
This research was designed to investigate the interference of mother tongue with English language during the course of Arabic language teaching as a second language and also during speech making. For this purpose, two sets of questionnaires were designed. The first set of questionnaire was designed for teachers of Arabic in the two randomly selected Universities. The questionnaire was to obtain useful information about the teachers of Arabic language on:
- Their qualifications,
- Adequacy of text books and its effective usage
- Phonological and orthographical problems arising from student’s
The second set of questionnaire was designed for and administered on the one hundred and fifty randomly selected students from the two randomly selected schools. It was to find out their linguistic background and possible interference of the mother tongue with English language.
The last items given to students included:
- Dictation of five pairs of words very near in sound but with different spellings;
- Translation of five Hausa sentences to find out the effect of transliteration on English
Research instrument
The main instrument used for this study was the questionnaires. Two sets of questionnaires were designed for this purpose. The first questionnaire, meant for the teachers, was to obtain useful information about the teachers’ qualifications, availability and suitability of text books the way English language is taught and the students’ oral or spoken English competence as observed by the teachers. In some cases, teacher’s qualification is a hindrance to a child’s fluent acquisition of a second language. Some schools have teachers who speak Hausa English, pidgin and even Hausa while teaching. This questionnaire is not limited to only Arabic teachers but also other teachers of the research population.
The second questionnaire, meant for the students, was to find out their linguistic background. The test items given to the students included dictation of five pairs of words, each pair very near in sound but different in spellings. The other test item was on translation which was to find out the effect of transliteration on English language thereby discovering the possible interference or otherwise of, mother tongue and English language. There were five sentences in mother tongue for the students to translate into Arabic language.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION, INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSSION 0F FINDINGS
Introduction
This chapter presents, interprets and discusses the findings in relation to research questions under the following themes: questionnaire return rates, background information of participants and prevalence of use of mother tongue. It also discusses the findings on perception of teachers and students on the influence of mother tongue on performance of Arabic measures taken to curb use of mother tongue and challenges brought about by use of mother tongue. The chapter finally presents findings on strategies to improve performance of Arabic among University students in Nigeria.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary of the Study
This study is an analysis of the influence of mother tongue on second language acquisition using Universities in Bauchi as case study. It provided a background on the influence of mother tongue on the acquisition of Arabic language in Nigerian students. In the background to the problem, the researcher has pointed from other studies that consider factors that influence performance of Arabic that use of mother tongue as a factor that influence performance of Arabic has been identified by various scholars. This study precisely analyzed the influence of mother tongue on performance of Arabic in Bauchi. The researcher used five research questions to guide the study and came up with data on the influence of mother tongue on performance of Arabic among University students in Nigeria
The significance of the study is that it would provide useful information to all education stakeholders on how to improve performance of Arabic among University students. For example the University principals would use the findings to come up with feasible and informed language policies. The study was conducted among University students in Nigeria and was delimited to students and Arabic teachers. Review of the related literature was done on influence of mother tongue on performance of Arabic. It addressed the issue of code switching. transfer or interference, perception of mother tongue and influence on performance of Arabic. However, literature review did not show an analysis of use of mother tongue and its influence on the performance of Arabic. Thus this study analyzed the use of mother tongue and its influence on performance of Arabic.
The researcher used a survey design. Universities in Bauchi State were studied. Arabic teachers and students were sampled to participate in this study. Information was obtained from students through questionnaires focusing on Arabic teachers. Both quantitative and qualitative data were obtained. Research experts from the Department of Post Graduate studies were consulted which ensured content validity of the instruments. Reliability was also ensured through test retesting of the instrument where Pearson product moment correlation co-efficient was calculated and a value of 0.87 was obtained for the students questionnaires while a value of 0.79 was obtained for the teachers questionnaires.
Quantitative data were analyzed with help of SPSS version 17.0 while qualitative data was analyzed through arranging responses into themes and summarized using descriptive reports. Analyzed data was presented in frequency tables.
The essence of this research was to identify the effect of mother tongue interference on the students while acquiring Arabic as a second language. The findings in the research justify the followings:
It is not uncommon, as table 1 justifies, to find graduates whose subject specialisation is not Arabic teaching English in the upper classes. For instance; only 45% of the respondents (30% graduates and 15% N.C.E. holders) had the relevant teaching qualification to handle Arabic language. It is not unlikely that the knowledge being imparted Ey the remaining 55%, Who had no teaching qualifications, might affect adversely students’ mastery of L2. This is what Tiffen (1969) meant when he said: … those who are not relatively low educationally have had little or no training in teaching English.
It was discovered during the research that there were vocabulary and grammatical differences between L1 and L2. This is evident from the results on tables 3 and 7 where 100% of the Ss indicated that there were traces of direct translation from Hausa to Arabic in the students works. No doubt, these linguistic differences had effect on students’ mastery and acquisition of L2. Moreover, it was discovered that though majority of the students were from literate homes, (40% from graduate and N.C.E. holders and 43% from Grd II/WASC and Primary Six Certificate holders) which should give the students opportunity for good linguistic and home background. However, test items given to the SS (Appendix II and IV) showed that some of them performed relatively poor. It should be noted that the home and linguistic background had some positive effect on some of these students. See Tables 6 and 7. In the same test on translation, which was to cater for vocabulary and grammatical differences, it was discovered that we had some students whose parents were illiterate and yet scoring high marks than those from literate homes who scored low marks.
Recommendations
In order to enhance understanding and acquisition of Arabic as a second language, and to reduce linguistic interference, the researcher suggests the followings:
Students should be made aware of the differences in the phonological, orthographical, vocabulary and grammatical patterns in Arabic and Hausa.
Also, more written and practical discussions involving students should be encouraged. Such discussions could be in the form of debate, symposium and quiz. The written and practical work could also be in the form of introduction of oral English in the school curriculum and more oral work like Speech drills.
The government should strive to introduce adult education and compulsory mass literacy program. This will help improve home and linguistic backgrounds of the students. Also, only qualified teachers should be engaged to handle the subject as this will help a lot.
Teachers should cultivate a positive perception towards the use of Arabic in school. They should be role models to the students and encourage them to converse in Arabic.
Schools should come up with a reward punishment system to encourage use of Arabic and discourage use of mother tongue.
Teachers should come up with teaching methods that are interactive to ensure that students are given an opportunity to interact with each other in Arabic so that students can have good communication skills.
Conclusion
The study established students use of mother tongue is prevalent among students of the Universities of Nigeria using Bauchi as case study. Students and teachers code switched for various reasons. Thus it was concluded that the prevalent use of mother tongue adversely influenced performance of Arabic.
The perception of teachers and students regarding influence of mother tongue on performance of Arabic is equally important. Teachers and students hold the perception that use of mother tongue has a negative influence on performance of Arabic. The perception that use of mother tongue influence negatively performance of Arabic was the general conclusion drawn from both the Arabic teachers and students.
To curb use of mother tongue, proper measures need to be put in place; language policies can reduce the use of mother tongue if they are implemented in the right way. An established mechanism that ensures students are rewarded and punished in equal measure can help to deter use of mother tongue and encourage use of Arabic. It was thus concluded that teachers reward for students who use Arabic and punishment for those who use mother tongue is important to encourage students to converse in Arabic and deter those who intend to converse in mother tongue.
Challenges that are as a result of use of mother tongue are varied. Use of mother tongue brings about challenge in pronunciation and writing in Arabic. Students also exhibit a challenge of lack of confidence and poor communication skills as a result of use of mother tongue. The challenges that can arise can be eliminated by provision of a conducive environment for learners to use Arabic. Therefore, it was deduced that use of mother tongue influences writing and pronunciation of Arabic worth and this performance of Arabic.
Finally, strategies to be used to improve the performance of Arabic are of importance. Consequently, the general conclusion was that teachers have to provide students with an environment to cultivate their reading skills and spoken English. It was also deduced that using Arabic as the language of interaction through debates and discussions in class was important.
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