Reflections

I am an Early Years Autism Tutor which means I work with children between the ages of 3-5 who have autism. Currently, I work with a child who is East Indian and has grown up in a home that speaks Hindi. We are beginning the process of teaching the child English. Because of this circumstance, I looked up the influence of Hindi when learning English. Hindi has half as many vowels and doubles the number of consonants, dramatically changing the span of sounds used. Word stress in Hindi is weak but predictable also bringing a challenge to Hindi speakers learning the correct stresses to put in different words. One article I read called “Mother Tongue Influence and Its Impact on Spoken English,” emphasized the importance of listening when Hindi speakers are learning English. Hearing the correct pronunciation is essential. As I consider the child I work with, I believe I need to avoid repeating their incorrect pronunciation when they attempt to say something in English but pronounce it wrong. This reinforces the incorrect pronunciation and most likely confuses the child.