mother tongue use
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mother tongue use
I'm teaching English to a class of beginners. They are children aged from 6 to 8.They only know a few English words and daily expressions such as greetings and saying goodbye. So I use our mother tongue a lot to ensure that they could understand me. But I am not sure whether it is right to use so much mother tongue in a second language teaching class.
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Senorita Daniels
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:11 pm
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Mister Dean
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2006 7:07 pm
Hello,
I raised the question before and Señorita Daniels was kind enough to answer my question too.
As she says, I am sure that it is OK to use ther mother tongue initially.
I personally am against using mother tongue- you learned your mother tongue effortlessly because you were constantly hearing it and so therefore I think that it is of immense benefit if the teacher is using
I think that if you can the kids benefit by hands on and hearing it directly.
I know that if someone turned up on your doorstep speaking Chinese you would have trouble initially but after a few weeks the results are quite spectacular. I mean that the kids "associate" you with English and I mean speaking English to the kids as a first option. In the break period I see a kid and say hello and ask a question or two in English. The kids respond, especially younger kids to this approach. Most can speak fluently in Spanish in my school but I think that when they have a teacher who asks every day "what day it is?" and who is constantly looking for methods to speak in English to the kids then they will mirror and imitate what they are hearing.
I wanted to teach the parts of they body- I bought a Mr Potato and got the kids to take it apart and then instructed several to put the nose back. They didn't know what nose was, so I just pointed to it.
Obviously the question is "how far can you go with this?"
I mean that I need a girl to go to the office and ask for 25 photocopies and I need it now" then the 6 year old is going to look at me and just stare but generally there are usually always other kids who have more knowledge and help out. I really believe that usage of mother tongue is a barrier. the kids know that they can always speak in Spanish. I actively promote English speaking and give little prizes for it. I also tell the kids to point out when I slip into mother tongue language. I notice that the kids even sing the song with my accent from "up north" in England and this for me is absolutely priceless that I could have had that effect- little old me!
Well I have been going on for long enough sorry for that and best of luck!!!!
Dean
I raised the question before and Señorita Daniels was kind enough to answer my question too.
As she says, I am sure that it is OK to use ther mother tongue initially.
I personally am against using mother tongue- you learned your mother tongue effortlessly because you were constantly hearing it and so therefore I think that it is of immense benefit if the teacher is using
I think that if you can the kids benefit by hands on and hearing it directly.
I know that if someone turned up on your doorstep speaking Chinese you would have trouble initially but after a few weeks the results are quite spectacular. I mean that the kids "associate" you with English and I mean speaking English to the kids as a first option. In the break period I see a kid and say hello and ask a question or two in English. The kids respond, especially younger kids to this approach. Most can speak fluently in Spanish in my school but I think that when they have a teacher who asks every day "what day it is?" and who is constantly looking for methods to speak in English to the kids then they will mirror and imitate what they are hearing.
I wanted to teach the parts of they body- I bought a Mr Potato and got the kids to take it apart and then instructed several to put the nose back. They didn't know what nose was, so I just pointed to it.
Obviously the question is "how far can you go with this?"
I mean that I need a girl to go to the office and ask for 25 photocopies and I need it now" then the 6 year old is going to look at me and just stare but generally there are usually always other kids who have more knowledge and help out. I really believe that usage of mother tongue is a barrier. the kids know that they can always speak in Spanish. I actively promote English speaking and give little prizes for it. I also tell the kids to point out when I slip into mother tongue language. I notice that the kids even sing the song with my accent from "up north" in England and this for me is absolutely priceless that I could have had that effect- little old me!
Well I have been going on for long enough sorry for that and best of luck!!!!
Dean
Thank you.
Thank you all. I benefit a lot from you.