Vol. 7, Issue 9, Part D (2021)

Abstract
Language learning involves learning the four skills – Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing (LSRW). In the mode of teaching pedagogy prevalent in the educational institutions of Tripura the first two are ignored in English language learning to the utter detriment of the learners. This jeopardizes the acquisition of communicative proficiency in English as a second language (L2) by the vernacular medium students of the state. Listening and Speaking are crucially dependent on exposure to target language (TL). Students having different linguistic backgrounds have different perception on English sounds in the classroom. Phonemic inventory of a student’s L1 must be a prerequisite to carry out mother tongue-based education, to teach second language or English language teaching (ELT). Through this, a teacher can detect the areas of problem and cause of errors a student makes in an ELT class. The phonemic inventory of student’s L1 helps to overcome the difficulties in student’s perception on learning sounds of TL. The teacher should be aware of distinction of phonemic systems of students’ first language (L1) with L2 or TL that affects language learning. This article attempts to analyse this issue by making Phonemic Inventory for Tripura Bangla, one of the L1s of students in ELT classroom in Tripura.