The Effects of Mother Tongue Interference among ESL Learners’ Speaking Skills

This study is on the effects of mother tongue interference among ESL learners’ speaking skills. This study investigates mother tongue interference in speaking skills among ESL learners and identifies challenges ESL learners face in acquiring speaking skills. The methodology includes both quantitative and qualitative methods. A questionnaire survey was conducted among the students from a high school in the Kinta valley district. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 23 for statistical analysis. A semi-structured interview was conducted to identify the challenges high school students face. The findings revealed that there is evidence of interference of the mother tongue on their speaking skills. Students faced several challenges, such as a lack of vocabulary knowledge and limited exposure to speaking the language. Hence, these findings will assist ESL instructors in a multilingual environment. The study recommends that future researchers use a bigger sampling size to see if mother tongue interference affects other skills.