The use of mother tongue in a FLE class. Case of the Department of French at the University of Mosul

Abstract

This research takes the use of the mother tongue in the French language classroom as a foreign language and the role that this language plays. This work consist of two parts: theoretical and practical. The theoretical part presents this concepts that lie at the hearts of this study, such as defining the field of the art of education in general, and teaching and learning the French language as a foreign language in particular. This part also sheds light on the language class, then the concept of language, and the definition of the mother tongue and the foreign language and what is the relationship between them. Then it deals with the uses of the mother tongue, and ends with the mother language according to the curricula. While the practical part includes a questionnaire addressed to the professors of the Department of French Language at University of Mosul. According to the answers received from the questionnaire, the research concludes that the use of the mother language with students in the first and second grades plays an important positive role in teaching FLE. While it hinders the learning of the French language for third and fourth grade students in the Department of French Language at the University of Mosul.