EVALUATING THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE (L1) ON THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE (L2): A CASE STUDY OF ASSEMBLIES OF GOD SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN THE KWADASO SUB - METRO OF GHANA.

Authors

  • Asuamah Adade-Yeboah Christian Service University College
  • Festus Okoh Agyemang Christian Service University College
  • George Appiah Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
  • Samuel Osei Poku Valley View University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.421.3806

Keywords:

Mother tongue, cohesion, bilingualism, contact phenomena, interference

Abstract

Studies in contact linguistics have shown that when two languages come in contact, they interfere with each other grammatically and lexically, producing different contact phenomenon. This study sought to test how English and Twi languages manifest such a phenomenon. This was done by looking at how they experience cohesion as well as how they influence each other when they come into contact using the contact phenomenon theories of cohesion and bilingualism as found in Halliday and Hasan’s (1976). In all, 84 students who were reading Ghanaian Language (Twi) as one of their major subjects were purposively selected using the Assemblies of God Senior High School, Kumasi, Ghana, as a case study. The study’s analysis  was purely  qualitative and indicated that both languages; Twi (L1) and English(L2) realize cohesion by means of reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and by lexical cohesion as observed by Halliday and Hasan (1976). However, the study saw differences in the languages’ use of reference and ellipsis. Also, both Twi and English were identified to have influence on each other when they come into contact. Among other recommendations, the study recommended that teachers should come up with teaching methods that are interactive in the English curriculum so as to ensure that students are given an opportunity to interact with each other in English. Also, teachers and translators of Twi and English should be conscious of the differences and similarities in the way the language works to enable them handle teaching and translation with ease and professionalism.

Author Biographies

Asuamah Adade-Yeboah, Christian Service University College

Asuamah Adade-Yeboah

Senior Lecturerer and Head of Department

Department of Communication Studies

 

Festus Okoh Agyemang, Christian Service University College

Department of Planning

Demonstrator

George Appiah, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Department of Modern Languages

Lecturer

Samuel Osei Poku, Valley View University

School of Education

Student

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Published

2017-11-12

How to Cite

Adade-Yeboah, A., Okoh Agyemang, F., Appiah, G., & Poku, S. O. (2017). EVALUATING THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE (L1) ON THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE (L2): A CASE STUDY OF ASSEMBLIES OF GOD SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN THE KWADASO SUB - METRO OF GHANA. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 4(21). https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.421.3806