Abstract:
This study aims to explore the difficulties faced by Grade 10 students at Bir Secondary School in
learning English, particularly in their speaking skills and performance. The research employed a
mixed-methods approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative data, and used a
descriptive research design. Data were collected through classroom observations and close
ended questionnaires, and analyzed using SPSS version 20, with techniques such as percentile
analysis, data reduction, presentation, and conclusion. The findings reveal that the mother
tongue significantly interferes with students’ ability to learn and speak English. Specifically,
mother tongue influence affects students psychologically, making them feel afraid, shy, and
lacking in confidence when speaking English. It also impacts their grammatical understanding
and vocabulary acquisition, as the structure and rules of English differ from their native
language, Bench Non. Environmental factors further reinforce this challenge, as students often
face criticism or correction from peers and others when they make mistakes in English. The
study concludes that mother tongue interference affects English speaking practice and
performance in multiple dimensions, including psychological, grammatical, pronunciation,
phonological, morphological, syntactical, lexical, orthographic, and environmental aspects.
Psychologically, students become shy and lack confidence; grammatically, their sentence
structures and word choices are influenced by their native language; and environmentally, their
fear of criticism discourages active participation in English conversations. The results suggest
that students learning English as a second language tend to transfer patterns from their mother
tongue, leading to issues such as code-switching, direct translation, and localization in
pronunciation and usage. This interference arises from differences in language systems,
misspellings, and cultural nuances. Overall, the study highlights the importance of addressing
mother tongue influence in order to improve students’ fluency and confidence in speaking
English.
