The Influence of L2 Learners Mother Tongue in the Structure of L2 in Tertiary Level

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Selinker was the first to deal with the term Interlanguage in 1972. Interlanguage evolved from the theory psychological structure latent in the brain. In this theory the latent thing is activated when a second language learner attempts to learn second language. A second language learner may acquire a form of language in the process of learning second language which is in between his or her first language and the target language. This form of language is called Interlanguage. It is widely acknowledged that foreign or second language learning is a process of creating and developing interlanguage in systematic and predictable ways. These five systematic ways are as follows. (a) Language Transfer (b) Overgeneralization (c) Transfer of Training The learner uses his or her own L1 as a resource to acquire L2. This is used to be looked upon as a mistake, but its now recognized that all learners fall back on their mother tongue, particularly in the early stages of second language learning. This language transfer may have both positive and negative transfer. When L1 and L2 have similar structure then this transfer will be regarded as a positive transfer. On the contrary if L1 and L2 have difference in their structure, it will be considered as negative transfer. This kind of transfer of L1 in L2 is also known as interference. Interference is the most common errors among Bangladeshi students because Bangla differs greatly from English in phonetics, morphology, grammar and pragmatics. In this paper I will attempt to make a study from the point of interlanguage and the influences of L1 transfer in the process of second language acquisition. And for this purpose I had some discourses with three students who are doing B.S.S. in Social Work under national university. Lets take a close look in the first, second and third conversation respectively. First Conversation:
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(d) Strategies of L2 Learning (e) Strategies of L2 Communication

Myself:

Hello Shrabon. For the purpose of my assignment I need to do conservation. In which topic would you like to do the conversation? Is it about your higher study or future plan or politics of Bangladesh?

Shrabon: Myself:

Actually I like to speak about society. Society main Oh as you are in Social Work, you want to tell about society. Thats quiet relevant. So will you be a social worker?

Shrabon: Myself:

Yes, it is my hobby. Not only my hobby it is my wish also.1(a) You can work for the society alone or under any NGO. Which one will you choose?

Shrabon: Myself:

NGOs. There are many sectors in our society to be worked such as education, gender discrimination, and health. What will you choose?

Shrabon: Myself:

I would like to work Gender discrimination.1(b) Ok. How will you reduce the gap between male and female? I mean the inequality which is faced by a woman in work or to establish the dignity of women. Please explain in favor of your answer.

Shrabon:

Actually men and women they have divided right but they do not get that.1(c) So I want to try to divide them equally it is my main worker main work.1(d)

Myself:

Do you think even an educated woman get less importance in a working place?

Shrabon:

Women are very important for the society. Because without them we cannot prosper in our life. Not only life although society are detach from the development.1(e)

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Myself:

Okay. Finally do you have any suggestion or recommendation for the NGOs or the government to minimize this discrimination?

Shrabon:

Actually all the when all the NGO take the proper step to develop the woman then this they can took their position 1(f) and they can educated all the woman.1(g) It is the main part for the women

Myself:

Okay. Thats enough. Thanks for doing the conservation with me. Shrabon: Thank you.

Myself: Second Conversation: Myself:

You are welcome.

Hi Rubi. As I have told you earlier, I have to continue conservation in English for few minutes for the purpose of my assignment. So lets begin. Okay?

Rubi: Myself:

Ok. You are doing B.S.S. in Social Work and you are in second year. How many courses do you have in this year?

Rubi: Myself:

Seven. Your answer should not in one word. Please try to elaborate your answer. You could say I am doing seven courses in this year. You have told me earlier that your exam is going on. How many exams were held?

Rubi: Myself: Rubi: Myself:

Three exams are completed.2(a) Then four exams are left to go, isnt it? 11th December. How were your exams?
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Rubi: Myself:

I mean what mark you are expecting in average. Is it above 50 or 60 or 70?

Rubi: Myself: Rubi: Myself: Rubi: Third Conversation: Myself:

60 over. When will your final exam start? May be February or March.2(b) Ok. Thank you. You too.

I need to talk with you in English for the purpose of my assignment. I will use the speech of this discourse. On which topic do you like to speech?

Shanta: Myself:

Which topic I dont know. Whatever you like? You are doing B.S.S. in Social Work. So how will you change the irregularities of your society? Or how will you contribute your society?

Shanta:

It could be difficult to answer that3(a) Easy question 3(b)

Myself: Shanta: Myself: Shanta:

Ok. What will you want to be in future? I like teaching. Why do like teaching profession? Of course, teaching is the most Teaching is a great profession. Reason is I like it very most. 3(c) My aim is the teaching.3(d)

Myself:

You can be a teacher of primary level or secondary level or tertiary level. What do you like most?
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Shanta:

I like to be a university teacher. Because it is very prestigious and economical valuable also.3(e) It improves my experience and it gave me very valuable opportunity also.3(f) I can many other people.3(g)

Myself: Shanta: Myself:

Ok. That will be enough. Thanks a lot for doing this conversation. My pleasure to talk to you.3(h) Thank you. Bye Bye.

As it has already mentioned that interference of L1 cause a learner from having the native like competence. For this interference a learner makes mistakes in pronouncing, in constructing sentences, in morphology and in pragmatics. Phonetic System English and Bangla belong to different phonetic system. English has 36 phonemes while Bangla has 37. Of the 36 English phonemes, 12 are vowels1 and 24 are consonants. On the other hand, of 37 Bangla phonemes, 7 are vowels2 and 30 are consonants. The difference of the tone between English and Bangla reflects in the following aspects, such as phoneme, the place of articulation, tone and rhythm etc. In IPA (International Phonetic Association) Bengali students can easily pronounce two vowel sounds /e/ //. If the length of vowel is ignored, // / i/ /u/ // will also be found similar. But /i:/ // // /:/ // and many more sounds do not exist in Bangla sounds. If the sounds do not exist in Bangla then how can they produce these sounds without hearing from a native English speaker? Thats why most of the Bengali speaking students failed to produce these sounds. It is found from the above discourse that they produce prosper, proper, prestigious and so on incorrectly. Morphological System With the language transfer and development of interlanguage in the learning process, there exists a complicated difference between English and Bangla, which determines that none can achieve success in language learning in a short time. Comparing English with Bangla, the latter paid less attention to the following features: such as, parts of speech, flexible semantic collocation and SVO order. Sometimes the positive transfer works in such a case, when both of them have the
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same structural form meaning. For example: compound noun (e.g. playboy), compound verb (e.g. babysit), compound adjective (e.g. man eating) and compound preposition (e.g. into). Whereas involving in derivation, conversion, English has flexible changes, which took on the form of suffix, prefix and infix. Grammatical System Bangla grammar greatly differs from English Grammar. English follows the SVO order whereas Bangla follows SOV. And sometimes in Bengali spoken form we use a sentence without subject. For this reason a learner may produce this kind of sentence without any subject. This kind of sentence will be found in 1(a), 1(e), 3(c) and 3(g). English uses auxiliary and modal verbs. They are used in sentences according some certain rules. But in Bangla auxiliary and modal verbs do not exist. Learners makes mistake in using them. It can be seen in 1(f) and 1(g). Again Bangla grammar does not bother with first, second and third person while in English for third person it is mandatory to use s or es after verb if the tense is present simple. As for example we can find this kind of error in 3(e). Pragmatic System Pragmatic transfer is a kind of complex psychological process, which was formed during second language acquisition unconsciously. According to cognitive linguists view, the errors caused by the interference of L1 do not really come from the negative transfer, but from the borrowing of mother tongue. When the learners have difficulties in communicating in L2, they turn to their L1 to make up for the insufficiency of their L2. The strategy of turning to L1 does always appear in the learners oral expression. It is found in 3(b).

References:
Xi, Tang. April, 2005. The Research on the Influence of Native Language to the Process of Interlanguage in SLA & Dealing Strategies. Chengdu University of Technology, CELEA Journal (Bimonthly) Vol.28 No.2 Barman, Binoy. August, 2009. A contrastive analysis of English and Bangla phonemics. The Dhaka University Journal of Linguistics: Vol. 2 No.4 Page: 19-42, Published on August 2010 by the Registrar, Dhaka University ISSN-2075-3098

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