INFLUENCE OF MOTHER TONGUE AND REGIONAL EFFECT ON ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN INDIA: A CRITICAL STUDY.

In this age of Science and Technology, English has become the ‘Lingua Franca’ where managing without the knowledge of this language has become unimaginable in India, especially in professional circumstances. Acquiring proficiency in English Language for students coming from the different parts of the country is a trial. Each scholar is an individual with a unique mother tongue which turns into a hindrance to learning the accurate diction of English which is a second language for them. English, not only helps the people of our country to remain united by acting as a linguistic tool, but also, it serves as a language of wider communication. Unfortunately and unknowingly, it overlaps with the local dialects and an individual’s mother tongue in certain sphere of influence and public domains due to which, the students coming from different regions of our country, particularly studying around Delhi feel a kind of an inferiority and subordination among their peer groups. This leads to unproductive and ineffective communication in our day to day lives. Language is a system and is made up of habits that solve the purpose of giving expressions to ideas and feelings. Pronunciation defines how the speaker will be understood by others not only in terms of the personality but also in the socio-cultural, educational, and regional backgrounds. The acquisition of the first language or mother tongue is different from learning any foreign or second language in many ways. It is a natural process learnt in natural environment in a clean state of mind. When a native speaker learns second language, the habit of his mother tongue continuously conflicts with the foreign language in all areas viz. sounds, structures, vocabulary, speech habits, grammar, pragmatics and anatomy of the organs of speech.