Mother Tongue Word Order Competence and Second Language Writing Skills: A Case Study of Acoli and English

Abstract

This paper reports the fi ndings of a study that delved into the relati onship between mother tongue (L1) word order competence and second language (L2) writi ng skills, taking the case of Acoli and English respecti vely. It reports that, triggered by concerns that schools that instruct their pupils in L1 before introducing L2 perform worse than those that use L2 from the start, the study involved the administrati on of a test of L1 word order competence and L2 writi ng skills to 177 pupils of primary four, selected from Gulu District of Uganda. Using the Pearson Product Moment Correlati on test, the scores on L1 word order competence were correlated with those on L2 writi ng skills. The fi ndings were that there is a signifi cant relati onship between the variables (r=.813, p.=.000). Therefore, it is recommended that the Ministry of Educati on and Sports, as well as other stakeholders, promote the adopti on of L1 as a medium of instructi on in the early grades.