MT Influence
From TEFL World Wiki
MT Influence or Mother Tongue Influence is when the grammar or vocabulary of a student's Mother Tongue influence the way in which they use their Target Language or TL.
For example, in Greek and some other languages people say "open" or "close" a light instead of turn on and turn off. Thus when a student says
I closed the light and went to sleep.
this is an example of their MT influencing the TL.
It is sometimes useful to have a working knowledge of the students' MT in order to be able to understand why certain mistakes are being made.
