Vol. 4, Issue 10, Part D (2018)

Abstract
This study explored the Behaviorists’ assumption that the difficulty of learning a second language is basically the result of the interference between the mother tongue and the second language. The focus is basically to establish the phonological differences and the influence of Aŋlɔ Eυe on spoken English among Eυe graduate teachers from the Aŋlɔland. The problem identified is that the spoken English of most educated Eυes, particularly the Aŋlɔ, is laboured in phonology and there is peculiar pronunciation in the speech of most Eυe speakers` English. The study aimed at identifying the dominant sounds in the English language, both vowels and consonants that pose learning problem to the Eυe learner of English. In order to achieve this, a sample size of one hundred (100) participants was selected to respond to the instruments in this study. Purposive sampling design which is a non-probability sampling procedure was later employed to arrive at the final sample size of eighty (80). The linguistic community of the Aŋlɔ Eυe was explored to sample native Aŋlɔ graduates in the secondary schools and the training colleges. Samples of the English vocabulary items that contain the problem sounds identified were gathered and used to test pronunciation skills of the participants. The instruments included an audio tape for recording the oral pronunciation test, questionnaires for the graduate teachers and an interview. Simple percentage and frequencies were also used to tabulate the data. The study revealed that mother tongue interference on the learning and teaching of second language is one of the many causes of pronunciation differences in spoken English of most educated Aŋlɔ Eυes.