Code-switching and mother tongue influence: Analysing teachers’ assessment perspectives of language use among senior high school students in Ashanti Region, Ghana

Abstract

The study investigates how teachers evaluate students within the selected case-study school, Kumasi Senior High Technical School (KSHTS), in Ghana's Ashanti Region with regards to their usage of English (L2) and their mother tongue (L1), notably Twi. Students usually display linguistic influence and interference, which results in grammatical errors, direct translations, and vocabulary constraints that impair fluency, even though English is an essential academic and official language. To determine the magnitude and effects of L1 influence and L1 interference, three data sources (interview, observations, and essays) were examined using a qualitative case study with embedded descriptive quantitative elements. From the findings, teacher-reported data indicate that students frequently use Twi on campus while some teachers engage in code-switching during teaching, creating a sociolinguistic context in which L1 influence may affect English language use. Evidence of interference is further examined through classroom observations and examples of students' English expressions/essays. The study highlights both the drawbacks, like difficulties with transliteration, spelling, sentence structure, and a lack of expressiveness in English, as well as the advantages, including improved comprehension through bilingual instruction. It concludes by attributing students' attitude to L2 acquisition to tension between local linguistic identity and the institutional dominance of English. The recommendations indicate that teachers at KSHTS perceive moderate L1 use as pedagogically helpful; therefore, structured policy should consider conditional bilingual strategies rather than general English-only regulations.