Education Quarterly Reviews
ISSN 2621-5799
Published: 30 April 2021
Examining Secondary School Teachers’ Beliefs and Purposes about the Use of L1 in Foreign Language Classes
Melek Özer Ölmez, Yasemin Kirkgöz
Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University (Turkey), Cukurova University (Turkey)
Download Full-Text Pdf
10.31014/aior.1993.04.02.269
Pages: 596-606
Keywords: First Language (L1) Use, Foreign Language (L2) Teaching, Secondary Schools
Abstract
The present study reports on an investigation of secondary school teachers’ purposes of the first language (L1) use in foreign language (L2) classes and reflects on teaching practices implemented in secondary schools in Turkey. The study also aims to explore the teachers’ beliefs about the use of L1 in L2 teaching. The study utilized ethnography and employed classroom observations, field notes, and interviews. 19 secondary school teachers of English were included in the study. The findings of the study revealed that teachers’ L1 use served the following functions: instructional functions, building up rapport, maintaining discipline, and intellectual functions. The findings also indicated that the reasons behind the teachers’ L1 use in their classrooms were based on students’ affective and cognitive needs.
References
Antón, M., & DiCamilla, F. J. (1999). Socio‐cognitive functions of L1 collaborative interaction in the L2 classroom. The modern language journal, 83(2), 233-247.
Atkinson, D. (1987). The mother tongue in the classroom: A neglected resource? ELT Journal, 41(4), 241-247.
Atkinson, D. (1993). Teaching in the target language: a problem in the current orthodoxy, The Language Learning Journal, 8(1), 2-5.
Auerbach, E. (1993). Reexamining English only in the ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 27(1), 9–32.
Blyth, C. (1995). Redefining the boundaries of language use: The foreign language classroom as a multilingual speech community. In C. Kramsch (ed.), Redefining the boundaries of language study. Boston, MA: Heinle, 145–183.
Bozorgian, H., & Fallahpour, S. (2015). Teachers' and Students' Amount and Purpose of L1 Use: English as Foreign Language (EFL) Classrooms in Iran. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 3(2), 67-81.
Butzkamm, W. (2003). We only learn language once. The role of the mother tongue in FL classrooms: death of a dogma. Language Learning Journal, 28(1), 29-39.
Butzkamm, W., & Caldwell, J. A. (2009). The bilingual reform: A paradigm shift in foreign language teaching. Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
Carless, D. (2007). Student use of the mother tongue in the task-based classroom. ELT Journal, 62(4), 331–338.
Ceo-DiFrancesco, D. (2013). Instructor Target Language Use in Today’s World Language Classrooms. Paper presented at the MultiTasks, MultiSkills, MultiConnections - Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Colombus, Ohio, USA. Retrieved from www.csctfl.org/documents/2013Report/Chapter%201.pdf.
Chambers, F. (1991). Promoting use of the target language in the classroom. Language Learning Journal, 4(1), 27-31.
Chaudron, C. (1988). Second language classrooms: Research on Teaching and Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cook, V. (2001). Using the first language in the class- room. Canadian Modern Language Review, 57(3), 402-423.
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Çelik, S. (2008). Opening the door: An investigation of mother tongue use in foreign language classrooms. Hacettepe University Journal of Education, 34, 75-85.
De la Campa, J. C., & Nassaji, H. (2009). The amount, purpose, and reasons for using L1 in L2 classrooms. Foreign Language Annals, 42(4), 742-759.
Denscombe, M. (2010). The good research guide for small-scale social research projects (4th ed.). Berkshire University Press.
Du, Y. (2016). The use of first and second language in Chinese university EFL classrooms. Singapore: Springer.
Duff, P. A., & Polio, C. G. (1990). How much foreign language is there in the foreign language classroom? The modern language journal, 74(2), 154-166.
Ellis, R. (2005). Principles of instructed language learning. System, 33(2), 209-224.
Hall, G., & Cook, G. (2012). Own-language use in language teaching and learning. Language Teaching, 45(3), 271-308.
Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P.(2007). Ethnography: Principles in practice (3rd ed.). London: Routledge.
Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching. 3rd ed. Oxford: Longman.
Kırkgöz, Y. (2017). Exploring English Teachers’ Uses of First Language in Turkey. In M. Dantas-Whitney & S. Rilling (Eds.), TESOL Voices: Secondary Education (pp. 101-105). Virginia: TESOL Press.
Kohi, M. & Suvarna Lakshmi, G. (2020). Use of L1 in ESL/EFL Classroom: Multinational Teachers’ Perceptions and Attitudes. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 8(3). 88-96.
Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. New York: Pergamon Press.
Lee, J. H., & Macaro, E. (2013). Investigating age in the use of L1 or English‐only instruction: Vocabulary acquisition by Korean EFL learners. The Modern Language Journal, 97(4), 887-901.
Levine, G. S. (2003). Student and instructor beliefs and attitudes about target language use, first language use, and anxiety: Report of a questionnaire study. Modern Language Journal, 87(3), 343– 364.
Littlewood, W., & Yu, B. (2011). First language and target language in the foreign language classroom. Language Teaching, 44(1), 64-77.
Lo, Y. Y. (2015). How much L1 is too much? Teachers' language use in response to students’ abilities and classroom interaction in Content and Language Integrated Learning. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18(3), 270-288.
Ma, L. P. F. (2019). Examining the functions of L1 use through teacher and student interactions in an adult migrant English classroom. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(4), 386-401.
Macaro, E. (2001). Analysing student teachers’ codeswitching in foreign language classrooms: Theories and decision making. The Modern Language Journal, 85(4), 531-548.
Ong, J. W., & Tajuddin, A. J. A. (2020). Towards a Principled Use of L1--Observing an EFL Teacher’s L1 Use in Rural Sabah, Malaysia. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 19(6), 206–222.
Paker, T., & Karaağaç, Ö. (2015). The use and functions of mother tongue in EFL classes. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 199, 111-119.
Sali, P. (2014). An analysis of the teachers' use of L1 in Turkish EFL classrooms. System, 42, 308-318.
Scheffler, P., & Domińska, A. (2018). Own-language use in teaching English to preschool children. ELT Journal, 72(4), 374-383.
Schweers Jr, C. W. (1999). Using L1 in the L2 classroom. English Teaching Forum, 37(2), 6-9.
Shabir, M. (2017). Student-Teachers' Beliefs on the Use of L1 in EFL Classroom: A Global Perspective. English Language Teaching, 10(4), 45-52.
Storch, N., & Wigglesworth, G. (2003). Is there a role for the use of the L1 in an L2 setting? TESOL quarterly, 37(4), 760-770.
Taşçı, S., & Aksu Ataç, B. (2020). L1 use in L2 teaching: The amount, functions, and perception towards the use of L1 in Turkish primary school context. International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET), 7(2), 655-667.
Turnbull, B. (2018). Examining pre-service ESL teacher beliefs: Perspectives on first language use in the second language classroom. Journal of Second Language Teaching & Research, 6(1), 50-76.
Turnbull, M., & Arnett, K. (2002). Teachers' Uses of the Target and First Languages In Second and Foreign Language Classrooms. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 22, 204-218.
Yenice, Z. E. (2018). The use of L1 in EFL classrooms in the context of Turkey. Researchgate. doi:10.13140/RG.2.214476.82563