mother+tongue+in+language+teaching

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 * Brainstorming**

Mother Tongue Inside of the Second Language Classroom - Self-confidence Difficulties - Use of mother tongue - Comfortable atmosphere - Skills positive transfer - Vocabulary explanations - L1 as a teaching resource

Because students face self-confidence difficulties when learning a second language (L2), the teacher is asked to allow the moderated use of the mother tongue (L1) inside of the classroom; by using the mother tongue to create an atmosphere of confidence for the students to participate, transferring the reading skills they already know about L1 to L2 to make learning easier, and making explanations about vocabulary clearer and less confusing by using the mother tongue.
 * Outline**

1.Introduction.

2.The use of the first language creates an atmosphere of self-confidence in the student. a. Classroom Environment b.Language Anxiety

3.The reading skill transference from L1 to L2 facilitates language learning a. Application of Skills b. Reading Skill

4.The mother tongue serves to clarify confusing vocabulary. a. Misunderstanding of concepts b. Clearer explanations.

5.Conclusion.


 * Essay**

**Mother Tongue as a Helpful Resource: The Use of the Mother Tongue Inside of the Second Language Classroom** By José Armando Collazo García

"When I hear the hypercritical quarreling about grammar and style, the position of the particles, etc., etc., stretching or contracting every speaker to certain rules of theirs. I see that they forget that the first requisite and rule is that expression shall be vital and natural, as much as the voice of a brute or an interjection: first of all, mother tongue, and last of all, artificial or father tongue. Essentially your truest poetic sentence is as free and lawless as a lamb's bleat". - Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862). In classrooms where English is taught as a second language, communication must be produced by only using the English language but sometimes students are too shy to participate because they do not master the foreign language (L2). Is at this point when teachers realize that the restriction of the mother tongue (L1) represents a barrier for students to learn a second language. Because students face self-confidence difficulties when learning a second language (L2), the teacher is asked to allow the moderated use of the mother tongue (L1) inside of the classroom; by using the mother tongue to create an atmosphere of confidence for the students to participate, transferring the reading skills they already know about L1 to L2 to make learning easier, and making explanations about vocabulary clearer and less confusing by using the mother tongue.

The use of the mother tongue inside of the classroom creates an atmosphere of self-confidence in the student. “Fear of negative social evaluation can be reduced, because students are able to communicate directly with each other and have the opportunity to make a positive social impression” (Meyer, 2008, p.151). For some reason students are afraid of using the second language especially when they are in a basic level. This is why the use of mother tongue contributes to eliminate language anxiety. Meyer (2008) mentions that, the social evaluation weights more for most of people than their own learning, up to the point that they prefer to remain in silence than to participate taking the risk of producing speaking errors and being judged by classmates and their own teacher. For this situation, the use of the mother tongue does not attempt to replace the second language inside the classroom but it provides students the opportunity to use it for specific situations such as “clearing doubts”. In this way the classroom environment that used to be under the fear of social evaluation, changes into an atmosphere where students feel the freedom of asking questions by using the mother tongue, expecting the teacher to answer using that very language. In addition, teachers are encouraged to promote the use of L1 skills for the second language.

The reading skill transference from L1 to L2 facilitates language learning. Krashen (2004) notes that many skills that have been acquired in the first language can be successfully transferred to the second language. If student's attention is focused on how they use their knowledge regarding the reading skill in the mother tongue, the way in which they get used to the second language will be faster. The application of this transfer will help students to feel more comfortable learning L2, knowing that the language they are learning is not so different to their mother tongue. Reading is a skill that leads to the development of vocabulary. When reading in the mother tongue, students decide which new words in a text are important to look up in a dictionary and which words can be ignored even when their meaning is not clear. This helps students to get a more meaningful acquisition of vocabulary, which is another issue in the second language learning.

The mother tongue serves to clarify confusing vocabulary. According to Butzkamm (2002) the mother tongue can be used for many different purposes regarding vocabulary such as: to convey the meaning of an unknown word, clarify it, and explain any difficult concept. This idea of Butzkamm regarding the use of the mother tongue as a resource, tries to show that sometimes vocabulary cannot be explained through the use of flashcards or mimic, and trying to explain a word or concept in that way may get students confused and in some cases this leads to the misunderstanding of that vocabulary. As Krashen (2004) states, for students who are learning English as a Second Language, it is more effective and less time-consuming if they maintain and develop their proficiency in the mother tongue . Regarding the less time-consumption idea, the use of the mother tongue makes an easier technique for the teacher to use and students to understand, besides it works faster. When teaching vocabulary, teachers recognize that the use of mother tongue is better than explaining students by using the second language or visuals, which do not assure to clarify the meaning of a word or concept, and moreover, students are motivated to discuss the meaning of words in a wider way by using the mother tongue. This is why confidence inside of the classroom plays an important role in the students’ learning, not only as the atmosphere itself but as an attitude as well.

As a conclusion, the use of the mother tongue inside of the classroom helps students to create an atmosphere in which they feel with enough self-confidence to participate and ask for important information that can make second language learning easier and more meaningful. The use of the first language can be seen as both, a teaching and a learning technique. It is a teaching technique because of two reasons. The teacher uses the mother tongue to explain complex vocabulary that cannot be explained with visuals or the use of the second language itself, and besides that, this technique helps him/her to understand what students are really having problems with, since they can expose their doubts in a clearer way. It is also a learning technique, because the use of mother tongue helps students to compare the similarities found in the reading skill in both languages, and then they are likely to come up with many different strategies to make second language learning easier, all this just from transferring their knowledge about L1 to L2. The mother tongue is a helpful tool to learn a second language, but it becomes a barrier if it is overused by the teacher.This is why the moderated use of the mother tongue is recommended, so students do not lose the contact with the L2.

References

Meyer, H. (2008). The pedagogical implications of L1 use in the L2 classroom. //Mother Language Journal 85//(4), pp. 150-151.

Butzkamm, W. (2002). Code-switching in a bilingual history lesson: The mother tongue as a conversational lubricant. //International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 1//(2), pp. 81-99.

Krashen, S.D. (2004). The power of reading: Insights from the research. //Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 50//(2), pp. 90-106.

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Feedback

 * Collazo, I have underlined the phrases that appear to be the three solutions to your problem. Leave the subordinate clause at the beginning of your thesis statement the way it is, but take out the words that are not underlined (after the first comma) and try rewording your last solution, checking your grammar. You've got the idea, so go ahead and begin developing your outline and body paragraphs. 1345675569
 * Thanks for the corrections teacher. I feel ashamed right now since I have changed my problem a little bit; now it is not about grammar problems anymore, it is about self-confidence difficulties. Hope there's no problem.
 * No need to feel ashamed. Enjoy the learning process as we all work together to become better writers. Writing is a process that requires being persistent. Continue to look for ways to improve your writing and do not take feedback (from anyone) personally. My job is to guide you to become the best writer that you can be. I look forward to seeing your essay develop. 1345763899
 * No problem teacher, I was not offended by feedback, I was just apologizing because I changed the problem in my essay. Thanks for your support, I really like writing and I would love to improve, so I'm going to follow all of your instructions.
 * Go ahead and delete sections that are left over from the template (e.g., the outline below your essay), but do make sure you keep the following three headings (text in bold): Brainstorming, Outline, and Essay. 1346356332
 * Delete extraneous information; remove punctuation after headings; remove bullets in your reference section; see editorial artifacts; follow the MEAL plan and make sure you distinguish between evidence and analysis-type sentences - in general, you need more specific evidence or details that provide better support for each main idea. 1346941763
 * Headings are in bold and there are no punctuation marks after any of the headings. 1347463632