THE SILENT GUIDE: MOTHER TONGUE'S INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH WRITING STYLE AND SYNTAX

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of mother tongue (L1) on English writing style and syntax among 200 secondary-level students from six linguistic backgrounds in India (Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, and Gujarati). Using a mixed-methods approach, the research analyzed writing samples, questionnaires, and interviews to identify error patterns and learner perceptions. Quantitative findings revealed significant correlations between L1 background and specific error types (r = .67, p < .001). Hindi speakers showed higher rates of syntactic transfer, while Tamil speakers exhibited more morphological errors. Proficiency level strongly moderated interference, with errors decreasing from 45.2% in low-proficiency learners to 12.8% in high-proficiency learners. However, discourse-level errors remained persistent across all groups. Qualitative data showed that most learners (78%) relied on mental translation from L1 to English, often transferring cultural and rhetorical conventions into their writing.

Pedagogical interventions showed varied effectiveness: contrastive analysis reduced errors by 23%, compared to 10–11% under traditional grammar or communicative approaches. These results confirm that L1 influence is systematic and shaped by typological distance, proficiency, and home language use. The study contributes to understanding cross-linguistic influence in multilingual contexts and suggests that explicit contrastive instruction and genre-based pedagogy can help learners transform mother tongue interference into a resource for improved English writing competence.