Telugu-english pronunciation: Impact of negative transfer

The role of the mother tongue (Telugu) influence on English language which is also called negative transfer in monolingual classes is a topic which is often ignored in discussions of methodology and in teacher training. The truism is that you can only learn English by speaking English. For most students who learn English as second language, there are some aspects of the language which present difficulties principally because of the syntactical and phonological difference between Telugu (L1) and English (L2). The English we speak can be termed Indian English and is completely acceptable, then why do we make such a hue and cry and mockery out of it? While learning English has become more compulsory nowadays, many parents encourage the learners to learn English as a second language. However, by acquiring two languages these learners tend to be influenced by their native language or mother tongue in pronouncing sounds. You can never proclaim to know all the words or their correct pronunciation, especially in English. New words keep getting added to it virtually on a daily basis. There are a lot of French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese and even Indian words being added to English, much to the horror of purists! This paper discusses the influence of Telugu on English Pronunciation with Special Reference to the impact of Spelling.