Abstract:
As an adult, learning a second language is bounded to his or her own strategies and it is
also mostly governed by one’s mother tongue at the initial stage of learning. Tamil speaking
learners of English also symbolize such characters in learning English as a second
language.
This study determined the mother tongue influence on learning English as a second
language and related issues among Tamil speaking students. The sample comprises forty
students from the first year of Faculty of Arts, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka. It
covers Muslim and Tamil students of the Eastern province.
Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used for the purpose of this
research. There are two types of data that include task sheets of errors and the background
of the students.
According to the survey, sentences of errors which had Tamil influence were identified. The
Tamil sentence “MINSARAM POAY WITTATHU.”, “மின்சாரம் போய்விட்டது.” is one of the
examples from the set. It means “There is a power failure.”, Students’ approaches towards
the above sentence symbolize several types of errors and they are mostly influenced by the
mother tongue. Similarly, errors of other sentences in English translated from Tamil also
proved the influence of mother tongue.
The influence of mother tongue in a second language learning process is inevitable. But it
can be minimised considerably with the appropriate guidance. The knowledge on the area
where interference is occurred and alternative measures in teaching a second language will
improve the quality of learning a second language.
