An Investigation of the Influence of Foreign Language Teaching on Mother Language Learning in 1st and in 3rd Grade Students from the Perception of Teachers in Nablus and Tulkarm Districts

The present study aims at investigating the influence of foreign language teaching on the mother language in 1st and in 3rd grades from the teachers' perceptions in Nablus and Tulkarm Districts. The research attempts to answer the following question: What is the influence of foreign language teaching on mother language in 1st and in 3rd grades from the teachers' perception in Nablus and Tulkarm Districts? After conducting an extensive literature review on the influence of foreign language (FL) teaching on mother language (ML), data was collected via a structured questionnaire developed in English which consisted of (70) items classified in four parts to measure the influence of FL teaching on ML in 1st and in 3rd grades from the teachers' perceptions. The participants of the study consisted of teachers in elementary schools in Tulkarm and Nablus Districts, particularly, the English teachers who teach 1st and 3rd Grades in the academic year 2010\2011. The study was conducted on sample of (305) English teachers, which represent (34.15%) of the total study population. The sample was selected on the stratified random sample. The researcher managed to get a list of the public schools in both districts arranged in alphabetical order and assigned them numbers and selected schools with dual number in each district. Different statistical techniques were used to find out the result of the study. Statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 17 was used for data analysis. Various statistical tests and procedures were used including (means, frequencies, standard deviation, cross-tabulation, t-test for independent samples, ANOVAs, Post hoc Scheffe's test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov z to test the normality of distribution). P-value of less than or equal to 0.05 was used to test the significance in testing the study hypothesis. The results show that there is a positive influence of second language learning (L2) on first language learning (L1) in the study area. Teachers have positive attitudes towards teaching English in early ages: they enjoy teaching it. The claim, which indicates that L2 negatively influence L1 from the perceptive of students` development and cultural values are not valid according to the finding of the study. It can be said that introducing English in early ages will have neither cultural nor linguistic effects on Arabic acquisition.