INFLUENCE OF MOTHER TONGUE INTERFERENCE ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ESSAY WRITING AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN EPE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the influence of mother tongue interference on students’ academic performance in English Language essay writing among selected senior secondary schools in Epe Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria. Two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population comprised senior secondary school students in Epe Local Government Area, while a purposive sampling technique was used to select 240 students for the study. Two instruments were used for data collection: the Influence of Mother Tongue Interference on Students’ Academic Performance in English Language Essay Writing Questionnaire (IMTISAPELEWQ) and the Teacher-Made English Language Achievement Test (TMELAT). The questionnaire consisted of 20 close-ended items structured on a four-point Likert scale, while the achievement test comprised 20 multiple-choice items and an essay-writing section. The instruments were validated by experts in Language Education and Measurement and Evaluation. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire, determined using Cronbach’s Alpha, was 0.896. Data were analysed using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that mother tongue components such as lexicon, morphology, and pragmatics significantly influenced students’ academic performance in English Language essay writing. The study further showed that mother tongue interference significantly affected students’ achievement across both public and private secondary schools. It was concluded that the dominance of mother tongue in students’ linguistic repertoire hinders effective communication in English, particularly in academic writing where coherence, grammar, and style are essential. The study recommended that students should be encouraged to minimize the use of their mother tongue within the school environment and that teachers should adopt effective language teaching strategies to improve students’ proficiency in English.