Should I use L1 in my english classes?

[manolo]

I'm a spanish teacher and i want to know the opinions of other colleagues about the use of the mother tongue in my classes.
I will be grateful of reading your answers.
THX

[Lorikeet]

In my opinion, the more you can use of the target language, and the less you use of the native language, the better it is for the students. That said, if it's easy to translate a word quickly without going into a long song and dance with pantomime, it can be a time saver to use the native language for that, depending on the level. Language teachers who speak the native language of their students well have more challenges in this area. I'd say it depends on the level of the class, the confusion of the students, and the goal of the lesson.

[Stephen Jones]

I find that you least need L1 when the students are near beginners, and it is most useful when the students are upper-intermediate to advanced.

[lolwhites]

Some teachers feel guilty if they can't get through a class without using the students' L1. I'd say a lot depends on your students. I find that lazier students can get into the habit of playing dumb and expecting you to tell them everything in L1 if you're not careful.

I would use L1 for the odd word or complex explanation but insist on English when I know the students should be able to understand. Other things you might do is have a fixed number of times you'll speak L1 in a lesson. Another gambit is some sort of reward/penalty system e.g. if your students play a board game in English, make them go back a space or two if they use L1; that way the students regulate each other.

I now teach multinational groups in the UK and no longer have the option of using L1. I'm always surprised how much you can get across to beginners in English if you try, but the then again my students are more mature and cooperative, and understand that everything has to be done in English.

[Andrew Patterson]

It should be remembered that the origins of EFL began with Christian missionaries who frankly wanted to teach what they felt was a civilised tongue believing that the students native tongue was barbaric.

Later "Methods" were introduced and still exist today. Some of these can feel a little cult-like. Some of the more bizare ones may actually be cults.

One thing about the methods is that you had to do it exactly as the method said, you are often told to "believe" in the method. Many methods proscribe the use of L1.

We usually use "approaches" now. This is far more sensible. I acknowelege that it is possible to teach a language without using the students second language, but I do believe that it is useful to teach beginners using some of their own L1. Adult learners are no nonger babies and should not be taught like them. I only rarely use L1 in my classes mainly because I don't know it, but I sometimes find it useful to point out false friends: I often say, The Polish word "nerwoy" does not mean "nervous."

When I taught Turks, I was actually repremanded for saying "çok" does not mean "very" in a school that believed that you should never speak L1. It doesn't but Turks often think it does. The situation is not helped when many dictionaries actually translate it as such. I still think that I was right to say that.

Otherwise, what is the use of translation. One of the skills of becoming a fluent speaker of any language is the skill of defining things in terms of the same language. Even native speakers have to do this to become fluent in their own language.

It is also useful to translate for the days of the week, because it may not be clear if you are starting on Sunday or Monday.

[metal56]

I'm a spanish teacher and i want to know the opinions of other colleagues about the use of the mother tongue in my classes.
I will be grateful of reading your answers.
THX

Yes.

[Sally Olsen]

In all my teaching in other countries (I am Canadian), I found that it was enormously useful for the students to have grammar explained in their own language. I always found that if I didn't translate words that students found difficult, the other students would. If a student looks blank, some other student will translate. In emergency situations it was absolutely necessary. In situations where feelings were involved or personal problems in a student's life, it worked better if someone was able to translate. I also tried the reverse and tried to get student's to translate what a student was saying in their L1 if they couldn't. I often guess the translation and they correct me if I am off base (you can tell a lot by body language). I have always found that at the beginning of learning another language, I stick words to words in my own language and translate word for word. It seems as if "Bi" in Mongolian is next to "I" in my brain and so on, so I imagine that some students do this as well. I think it is very vital to learn the student's language - at least the basics of "How are you?" and so on no matter how many languages you have in the classroom.

The trick for a teacher who speaks their L1 is getting the students to view you as a person who can speak English and wants to during English class - sometimes if you wear a certain sweater or shirt when you teach English you can establish an English personality and they know that you are going to speak English when you are wearing that item. When I know the language, I often say, "Oh, did you mean to say ... " and translate what they said to English. It doesn't take long for them to do the same. Sometime the brain just sticks and until you get it out in your own language, the other language won't come. One of the biggest complaints I hear is that the L1 teacher doesn't speak enough English in the class so they are glad for a native English speaker because I can't speak their language. (That doesn't last long when they find out that my English teaching comes along with things they are not used to or don't agree with, but it is an advantage at the start and in the end.)

But a great L1 speaking English teacher is a terrific role model, more attuned with teaching culture, better at teaching grammar, better at translation, better at working with other teachers, better in emergencies, better at pointing out differences in the culture that comes with the language and many other things.

[LarryLatham]

This is a good and very revealing discussion of a poorly understood mantra in language education. I cannot add much to what's already been well said by everyone here, except to say that I too believe that the use of L1 can be, if used wisely (and therein lies the rub, perhaps), a useful and efficient tool in the classroom. To totally proscribe it seems suspiciously like dogma, and unexamined, as most dogma is. The fact that students of English, if they are to gain any semblance of fluency, eventually have to speak it, does not logically lead to the assumption that only English should be heard in the classroom...and if the students are adults, that suggests to me even more that L1 can sometimes be useful. The same is true concerning hearing only English to gain comprehension skill. If teachers were automatons, totally lacking in judgment or 'street smarts', a rigid exclusion of L1 could perhaps be justified. But let's hope the majority of us are thinking beings, able to evaluate the classroom situation in real time, and wisely consider whether use of L1 would be appropriate and utilitarian at that moment. Let's hope no English teacher would imagine that vast stretches of L1 without apparent direct connection to a particular English learning objective are pertinent to his lesson plan. Let's hope administrators in language schools and public school systems around the world will be gracious enough to allow their teachers some lattitude here.

Larry Latham

[Metamorfose]

Like Manolo I have the same "problem"; a L1 Portuguese speaker who teaches English to others L1 Portuguese speakers. the advantages is that some terms or grammatical issues can be automatically converted and/or translated into English in no time avoiding confusion or misundertanding. Yet some pupils tend to get lazy because when trying to express their ideas in English they resort to L1 (Portuguese) whenever fluency breakdown and they lose their train of thought and it may get quite tiring for the teacher to stick back as countless time as it would be demanded to keep the students on.

Here in Brazil Grammar (and the expections, I wonder why people here are so fascinated with exceptions! They can't simply teach the comparative the simple way for a foreigner, no they have to stick on the exceptions!!!!) is given so much importance to the detriment of communication and fluency.

As the knowledge and the level of my puplis improve I (try to) improve the English speaking time within class, but as I said, some pupils will simply lean on the old and safe Portuguese when they feel they will not be able to carry on with their English, even though that they are told that here, their English will be limited as a foreign language and it would be too demanding and time consuming to have the same command of English as they have in Portuguese.

José

[Sally Olsen]

I suppose there are lazy students but I have rarely run into a real one. There is usually some good reason for them not to speak English in class. In some countries it is just not their job to speak out. That is the job of the best speakers and they wouldn't presume to take over this role. In some classes there are students who make fun of the others (sometimes not within the teacher's hearing) so they don't want to speak out. Some people don't talk much in their own language and it is just not their personal style. I always try to get these students off by themselves, talking to them in the hall on the way to class or quietly during group activities and find out what is going on and how we can accomplish my goal of wanting to hear them use English and their goals. Sometimes it means them talking on a tape and giving that to me. I carry on the conversation and let them add more. Sometimes it means having a talk with the more forward students privately and getting them to hold back to let others talk. Sometimes it means practicing something that is first written so they don't have to do two skills at once - thinking up the ideas and talking. I think it depends on what your dreams for the students are at the end of the class and what the expectations are for your class by outside forces - bosses, parents, work requirements. If they are never going to have to give a speech why spend time on that? But if your class is for workers who have to give presentations, then there are different goals and it requires different steps to the goal. Luckily many of our students are so caught up in the English music, movie and CD scene that we don't have to worry about them hearing English and we just have to work on the other skills.

[LarryLatham]

Just so! And let's not forget that the process of learning a new language goes throught several natural stages. One of them, a rather long and tenacious one, I'm afraid--the one described above by Jose in Brazil, is code-switching. Literally every student passes through this stage in the acquisition of a new language. It is normal. It is not harmful to their eventual success, should they care to pursue English that far. And we teachers should remember not to criticize our students too much for their problems with fluency when they are in the midst of a process, seeking a goal they have not yet mastered.

Larry Latham

[Sally Olsen]

As I remember, we called this "Interlanguage" in our Master courses and I always thought it was useful term. A place where you are between learning the language and knowing the language. It makes sense in parenting. You wouldn't expect your child to speak perfectly and just know they are going to say, "Me go store" and so on and even think it is cute. Why should we be upset then when a student writes "her's purse" when the possessive is the last thing that students usually master? There is a even a rough roadmap of how students progress through learning and then overgenerlize and learn again. Maybe we need to make this more explicit to our students and show them they are progessing in a typical pattern so not to worry?

[Andrew Patterson]

It would be nice if someone published such a roadmap based on rigorous statistical analysis. Then we'd know what to expect and not expect of our students.

[Sally Olsen]

I found this from my notes from my Master's courses and will look for the rough guide.


Stages - there seems to be a progression to second language acquisition. People learn A before B even if the teacher teaches them B first. It seems to be across the board, with every student, not just some. It is pretty robust irrespective of the learner's first language. Instruction won't influence its order so we might as well learn to teach in the order it is learned.
There seems to be some internal syllabus that overrides instructional factors.

[Sally Olsen]

Sorry - guess it is in my notes at home in Canada. I found this though.

Michael Long talked about an Interlanguage , that you needed to speak in groups where you had your present level of language and were challenged just enough to stretch to another level or as he called it I + 1 and you got that best by being with fellow speakers of the same level. There was a problem with noticing, perhaps with fossilisation of errors, but interaction was valuable to individual students because they were always negotiating. So they set up groups but there were many problems and a lot more research. It was emotionally complex - shyness, talkativeness, cultural norms - lots of differences in how the groups worked.
French Immersion, a program in Canada, began to show that this method was more successful and ESL adults seemed to be more successful when using group work.