CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background to the Study

Writing a composition is a complex activity that includes the mechanics of writing, including handwriting (or keyboarding, using an adaptive device, etc) spelling and the basics of language knowledge (i.e. word morphology, syntax and vocabulary).

Grammar is the study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed, morphology and syntax. Human are the only animals with true language including grammar and syntax. Grammar serves as a set of rules guiding English language (English Language is a world language). The coming of the British colonialist brought about the introduction of English language in Nigeria, therefore English occupies the status of a second language in Nigeria. English language has not only gain prominence in the country, it has also become the “lingua franca” in the country.

It becomes obvious that with the realization of the functions and purpose of English language, it has been observed that the mother tongue interferes tremendously in the use of the language (www.blogspot.com).

We can admit, as a theoretical ideal, the possibility of perfect bilingualism, defined as the full range of competence in both languages that a native monolingual speaker has is one. Perfect bilingualism, if it exists at all, is extremely rare because ‘it is rare for individuals to be in a position to use each language in a full range of situations and thus to acquire the requested competence. In case of far from perfect bilingualism, one language will be dominant and the other subordinate and it has been suggested that the use of the subordinate languages involves a process of translation from the dominant language at a fairly superficial, though not necessarily conscious, level of the psychological programming of utterances.

Dulay (1982), says “A constractive analysis hypothesis occurs where structure in the first language which are different from those in the second language produce errors reflecting the structure of first language”.

A situational change in the value of one of the variables that define interference may result in code-switching. For example two people conducting business in English in Nigeria might suddenly switch to Yoruba language or if they are fellow-members of the same ethnic group to a local language, when the topic of conversation changes from business proper to more personal matters (John Lyons, 1981).

Richard (1967), states “Errors are the result of interference in learning a second language from the habits of the first language”. Learners of English language as a second language in schools tends to face a lot of challenges because most of them transfer the rules of their first language to the second language which may not be applicable to learning. For example: A Yoruba man who says “I am here since Thursday” is imposing a Yoruba grammatical usage on Neighs. Children who come to school speaking a dialect that differs significantly from the standard, face a problem that speakers of the standard do not have. Much of the vocabulary and grammatical structure of the materials used to teach writing may be unfamiliar to them.

Mother tongue may interfere with the composition writing of the learners, if the learners of English language as a second language find it difficult to put into practice the rules of the language when constructing sentences.

Most schools are faced with the problems of training learners of English language to become competent in the language because of the early exposure to their first language which is their mother tongue. Some learners cannot deviate from the rules of their mother tongue, that is, why they transfer or mixing the rules when constructing sentences in their language.

John Lyons (1981) states that “the problems are particularly acute for the children of immigrants and other ethnic minorities. Torn between two culture, they may be imperfectly bilingual in two non-standard dialect”.

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