Frequency and Purpose of Teachers’ L1 Use in EFL Classroom: A Case of Boditti Preparatory Schoolwith Particular Reference to Wolaitigna (Wolaita Language)

Temesgen Tora Kacho

doi:10.7176/jlll/61-04

Abstract

The question whether or not the mother tongue (L1) should be used in the EFL classroom has been an important issue for a long time. However, there seems to be no consensus on the issue as yet. Supporters of the Monolingual Approach claim that L2 can be learnt only through L2, where as the proponents of the Bilingual Approach believe that L1 has a facilitating role in many aspects of language instruction. Thus, a revival of interest to use a mother tongue frequently in EFL classroom is stipulated by the necessity to improve learners’ understanding of certain issues, teacher-students classroom interactions and minimizing the communication barrier occurred between teacher and students. This study aims at examining frequency and purpose of teachers’ L1 use in EFL classrooms. The researcher employed both qualitative and quantitative data in order to enrich the objective of the study. 75 students and 12 teachers of the preparatory school involved in the study to gather the appropriate data. Data were gathered through classroom observations, questionnaires, and interview. The data gathered through the questionnaire and the observations were analyzed using frequency and percentage, while those collected through interview and open-ended questions were analyzed in integration with others. The study showed that majority of both the teachers and students reflected positively on the judicious use of mother tongue in EFL classrooms. It also indicated that 6 teachers (50%) and 25 students (33.3%) chose to use wolaitigna (“Sometimes). At the end, it was recommended limited use of L1 to explain vocabularies, grammar items, and difficult concepts when necessary in EFL classrooms. Keywords: frequency,purpose, L1 DOI : 10.7176/JLLL/61-04 Publication date :October 31 st 2019

Highlights

Background of the study Based on the history of the development of English language teaching methods and the idea of using L1 in the L2 classroom was a view during the era of the Grammar Translation Method (Howatt 1984).On the other hand, historically the use of students’ L1 has been looked upon negatively or even somewhat frowned upon due to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) or even the Audio-Lingual Method (Stern, 1991).In addition, the role and use of mother tongue in a foreign language-learning classroom and its use by both language teachers and learners have always been a vexed question of much debate among linguists, methodologists, language teachers, and learners
Using L1 in English language classrooms is discouraged by advocates of target language only position
In response to item 3, 29.3% of the respondents said wolaitigna should be used to explain difficult grammar items, 40% of the respondents believed that mother tongue is essential to define new words, 54.7% of the subjects said wolaitigna needs to be used to explain difficult concepts

Summary

Introduction

Background of the studyBased on the history of the development of English language teaching methods and the idea of using L1 in the L2 classroom was a view during the era of the Grammar Translation Method (Howatt 1984).On the other hand, historically the use of students’ L1 has been looked upon negatively or even somewhat frowned upon due to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) or even the Audio-Lingual Method (Stern, 1991).In addition, the role and use of mother tongue in a foreign language-learning classroom and its use by both language teachers and learners have always been a vexed question of much debate among linguists, methodologists, language teachers, and learners (kafes 2001). Everyone concerned with language teaching engrossed by the argument. A number of studies which either support or oppose the use of L1 in EFL classrooms have been conducted. The studies focused on two approaches of ELT methods like monolingual and bilingual approaches of English language teaching. Using L1 in English language classrooms is discouraged by advocates of target language only position. According to Krashen (1982), students must be exposed to a significant amount of target language input to help them develop better target language proficiency, so using L1 in the classroom deprives students of that valuable input. Cook (2001) points out three grounds to be used the only target language in the language classrooms; Learning of L2 should model the learning of an L1 (through maximum exposure to L2) According to Krashen (1982), students must be exposed to a significant amount of target language input to help them develop better target language proficiency, so using L1 in the classroom deprives students of that valuable input. Cook (2001) points out three grounds to be used the only target language in the language classrooms; Learning of L2 should model the learning of an L1 (through maximum exposure to L2)

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Discussion

Conclusion