mother tongue the story of the english language

Every Nigerian has an ethnic language by virtue of the fact that their parents are Nigerians which makes him/her the possessor of an L1 or first language. However, it is necessary to preserve the term in order to maintain the native speaker’s identity (Kim, 2022) and authenticity.

Researchers in different disciplines have highlighted the inimical import of the term (Cheng, Burgess, Vernooij, Solis-Barroso, McDermott & Naboodiripad, 2021). As a consequence, the concept of the native speaker is becoming increasingly blurred and is in danger of becoming lost. Globalisation has taken its toll on different aspects of human life, having both positive and negative effects on the languages spoken around the world in particular. All those actors in the case study have gone beyond the language and move on their lives without being bothered to distinguish English whether it is their mother tongue or their first language. I have three case studies which help me understand the issue of mother tongue and the first language with objectivity.

I found that such requirements have not done justice to those whose first language is English. Some of the advertisement even mentions that the applicant’s mother tongue must be English. In Korea and China, English teachers are often confused by the advertisement which states that only native English speakers need apply and named the five English-speaking country occasionally added South Africa and Ireland as in the recruitment target. I have three case studies to illustrate the boundary between the mother tongue and the first language has slowly blurred or it exists theoretically in linguistics. It is much debate whether the mother tongue concept should be replaced by the first language acquisition under the impact of globalization and this is normally refers to English language. The first language is the language which a child acquires either through schooling or socialization, such as family. Mother tongue is the in-born language, which a baby has already familiarized even in the gestation of mother before it was born. The linguist will tell you there is a difference between the mother tongue and the first language.

Mother tongue the story of the english language