Abstract
Although exclusive use of the second language has long been considered as an important principle of second language teaching and the learners’ first language has been suggested to have very limited role to play, recent studies have shown a different view that the L1 should be used as a tool to facilitate learners’ second language learning. The present study investigated L1 use in the area of English vocabulary teaching by examining nine Chinese EFL learners who were at different proficiency levels. The findings showed that the use of Mandarin Chinese led to better immediate and lasting retention of the vocabulary they have learnt and that it benefited both lower-proficiency and higher-proficiency learners. The study also offers some implications for Chinese EFL teachers and suggests that the implementation of the English-only policy in the EFL classroom should be reexamined.
Highlights
While there is well-established literature on the role of the learners’ L1 in English language teaching, it should be pointed out that whether L1 use should be allowed in the EFL/ESL classroom remains a hotly debated issue in English language teaching
The study examined the effectiveness of L1 use and its possibility of benefiting different proficiency English learners, and found the discrepancy between learners’ expectation and the learning strategy they used, which showed that it was very necessary for EFL teachers to arouse learners’ awareness of the value of L1 translations in addition to using it in their vocabulary teaching
EFL teachers should choose the teaching method on the basis of their own teaching experience and judgment instead of following the method suggested by empirical studies. 6.1 Pedagogical Implications As we can see, using the learners’ L1 is an effective way for English teachers to convey the meaning of new vocabulary and an effective learning strategy for both high-proficiency and low-proficiency learners to understand and remember those words
Summary
While there is well-established literature on the role of the learners’ L1 in English language teaching, it should be pointed out that whether L1 use should be allowed in the EFL/ESL classroom remains a hotly debated issue in English language teaching. Not surprisingly, the L1 seems to have no role to play in English foreign language teaching for a long time, which can be reflected by the views in support of either forbidding L1 use or minimizing L1 use in the language classroom. With regard to the total prohibition of L1 use, Mattioli (2004) pointed out that for many years, research had suggested that EFL teachers only used English in their classrooms and many English language teaching professionals believed the use of the L1 should never happen in modern communicative www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/selt. The role of the L1 in English language teaching is an issue worthy of further exploration
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