MULTILINGUALISM AND ITS EFFECTS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS OF WESTERN ODISHA

Abstract

In Odisha, English acts as a second or third language. Here English teaching is that much not beneficial for students in resolving regional accents,incorrect pronunciation, grammatical errors, speaking, etc. Western Odisha’s language is called Sambalpuri or Kosli. This area of Odisha is a multilingual area. Here people speak many mother tongues, like Sambalpuri, Odia, Hindi, Chhattisgarhi, etc. Students speak a different language at home and a different language at school. Most of the students are Sambalpuri speakers. At school, they learned English as a second/third language.This paper finds out the effect of multilingualism on English language learning in some selected high schools in Western Odisha. This paper is based on primary data collection. The data collection tool included a questionnaire, interview, and participant observation. Four high schools were selected for sample size. The participants of the study were 20 students (from each high school 5 students) 2 high schools from Nuapada and 2 from Kalahandi district of Odisha. This study was conducted to find out whether being multilingual really effects Sambalpuri speaking students’ English language learning. If multilingualism has any effect on English language learning, then what are the influences, and how the student will overcome from this consequence.