Classroom discourse in lower secondary French-as-a-foreign-language classes in Norway: Amounts and contexts of first and target language use

Eva Thue Vold,Altijana Brkan

doi:10.1016/j.system.2020.102309

Abstract

This article investigates amounts and contexts of target language (TL) use by teachers and pupils in French-as-a-foreign-language classrooms in Norway, an educational context in which a communicative approach to language teaching is prescribed but target-language-only teaching has not been the prevailing idea. A total of 45 video-recorded French lessons from the last two years of lower secondary school were analyzed for language use and instructional activities. In most classrooms, the L1 was the language of instruction. TL use was restricted to speaking exercises, greetings, and vocabulary instruction and did not seem to increase with class level. The findings diverge in many respects from those in previous research conducted in other educational contexts. By adding data from an under-researched context to the existing body of knowledge, the present study nuances the debate on L1 use in second and foreign language learning and thus the recommendations for classroom practice commonly found in the literature. It also outlines a detailed methodological framework that can be adopted in future studies to obtain data that are comparable across contexts.

Highlights

The balance between target language (TL) and first language (L1) use in second and foreign language classrooms is a debated issue (Butzkamm, 2003; Ellis & Shintani, 2014; Turnbull & Dailey-O’Cain, 2009)
Following the rise of communicative language teaching (CLT) and immersion techniques in the 1970s, the TL-only approachdwhich excludes pupils’ L1 from the classroomdwas long considered the ideal in many contexts and even prescribed in the 1990s by official policies in several countries, especially English-speaking ones like England and Wales (Macaro, 2001), and Canada (McMillian & Turnbull, 2009)
L1 use is not prohibited in the context of the present study, TL use is surprisingly low considering the fact that CLT is the framework in force

Summary

Introduction

The balance between target language (TL) and first language (L1) use in second and foreign language classrooms is a debated issue (Butzkamm, 2003; Ellis & Shintani, 2014; Turnbull & Dailey-O’Cain, 2009). The recommendations for classroom practice currently found in the literature are based primarily on findings from classrooms in which the TL is the main language medium (Shin et al, 2019). These recommendations include what is often called ‘judicious use of L1’, which most current researchers believe can facilitate TL learning and fulfil important functions in second and foreign language learning (Cook, 2001; Ellis & Shintani, 2014; Shin et al, 2019; Swain & Lapkin, 2000)

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