INVESTIGATING THE IMPACTS OF YORUBA AND TOLI ON BENINESE EFL BEGINNER LEARNERS’ LINGUISTIC PERFORMANCE: A CASE STUDY OF CEG ATCHOUKPA AND CEG 1 AVRANKOU

Abstract

This research work investigates the impacts of Yoruba and Toli mother tongues on Beninese EFL beginner learners’ linguistic performance with a particular focus on CEG Atchoukpa and CEG1 Avrankou in Ouémé region of Benin. These areas are predominated by people speaking these two dialects. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods have been used in this paper. The study reveals that students’ mother tongue impacts negatively learners’ linguistic performance. Indeed, 100% of teachers of English recognize that students’ mother tongue has impact on their pronunciations. Despite this critical situation, teachers do not really take corrective measures to build a solid foundation for students at this critical beginner stage. Only 20% of teachers of English assert that they refer to phonetic transcription to teach pronunciation whereas 80% do not do so. It has thus been contended that learners cannot learn successfully a new language without the fundamental issue of phonetics. They need to be taught the pronunciation of speech sounds in isolation, the combination of the speech sounds into words and words into sentences. In addition, the study reveals that 50% of teachers of English explain some English words in their learners’ mother tongue. This situation also contributes to the negative transfer of mother tongue in English. Considering these statistical results, teachers of English are invited to design specific speaking and listening activities that their students should practise repeatedly so as to improve their linguistic performance.