CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
    The theme of this study aims at finding out the effects of mother tongue interference in the learning of English language in some selected secondary schools in Ilorin west local government of Kwara State.
    English is an international, global and a universal language. It is generally refers to as second language (English). It is the official and native language of Britain, Ireland, North America, Australia, and most of the British Colonies especially Nigeria which makes it our second language.
    Mother tongue is one’s native language and we have many native languages in Nigeria. Everyone has mother tongue influence (MTI) in the use of sounds when speaking or interacting.
    Hence, our respective mother tongue exists before colonization. This has necessitated the teaching and learning of the English language and its consequent inference of our mother tongue in various schools in Nigeria. It is therefore, glaring to state that, Nigeria is a linguistically complex nation by the mere fact of the history of its creation. It is estimated that there are about over 400 languages spoken in Nigeria.
    This linguistic heterogeneity promotes the continued use of English language in Nigeria since the role of English language in Nigeria is diverse and ubiquitous, especially as a means of intra and international communication. It is as a result of the negative effects which the mother tongue has caused in the learning of English language in the educational structure and the attempt to determine the effect of the use of mother tongue in the teaching and learning process in secondary schools.
    English words used must be simple so that it can be reached to people easily as well as easily understood by everyone. Nowadays English is being taught to students in secondary schools. Students are strictly made to speak in English when they are in the school premises. English is a trade language between various tribes in Nigeria.
    Mother tongue disrupts the smoothness of communication as students with no confidence tend to use mother tongue instead of English. Many students from different tribes cannot pronounce many words correctly as an English native speaker will do e.g. measure, pleasure, treasure, support, college, bus, school etc.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
    Before the advent of British traders, missionaries and colonialists, indigenous Nigerian language defined every aspect of speech within the community from religious, cultural, political, economic and social function effectively to deal with everything relating to the day existence of the people.
    New sets of ideas, concepts and values were introduced to the system where indigenous local language had previously been self-sufficient rendering them inadequate to deal with the new concepts introduced by the British, particularly in our secondary schools.
    The effect of mother tongue interference in the learning of English language in schools.
 The following problems are identified when teaching English as a second language.
•    Problems of mother-tongue interference arise the second language learner use the mother tongue (native language) speaker’s acquisition of the English articles.
•    Encounter problems in sentence and word stresses, vowel sounds, and English supra segmental of pitch.
•    Problem of pronunciation.
•    When a learner makes use of some linguistic items in the mother tongue to replace difficult words in the target language.