“MOTHER TONGUE IN THE CLASSROOM A POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE

“MOTHER TO SON” MOTHER TO SON – LANGSTON
“MOTHER TONGUE IN THE CLASSROOM A POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE
EDUCATION PHD BAYLOR UNIVERSITY 1999 DISSERTATION “MOTHERING THE SOUTH

L ITERATURA INFANTIL IMAGINACIÓN Y ENAJENACIÓNI FELIPE GARRIDO “MOTHER
WHERE WORDS COME FROM (EXTRACT FROM “MOTHER TONGUE” BY

Mother tongue in the classroom: a positive or negative tool. María Olivares. Revista Lindaraja

Mother tongue in the classroom: a positive or negative tool?” María Olivares. Revista Lindaraja, nº 21

2009


MOTHER TONGUE IN THE L2 CLASSROOM:

A POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE TOOL?


by María Olivares Baños


Abstract

This study investigates the effects that the L1 (first language) has in a L2 (second language) classroom of young learners. For this purpose an experimental study has been carried out in which two groups of four and five year old children have been observed in two different sessions. In one of these lessons the L2 was exclusively used, whereas in the other one, the L1 was used on some specific occasions.

The main findings are that the native language has a facilitating role and is necessary to motivate young children. Concerning the issue of different learning contexts, it has been found that a teacher cannot create an intensive English-speaking environment in the short time that a formal L2 lesson takes place.

Some of the principal conclusions are that the use of the mother tongue is justified as long as it is beneficial for the student. In addition, that the problem of motivation and demotivation can be clearly solved by incorporating the use of the mother tongue in the L2 classroom for beginner levels.


1. Introduction

The use of the mother tongue in the L2 classroom has always been a controversial issue, due to the existence of very diverse opinions. On the one hand researchers that are completely against the use of the L1 in the foreign language classroom can be found, and on the other hand, there are those who consider it beneficial for the learners.

During the late 1970s and the early 1980s the use of the mother tongue in the classroom was considered as a “bad thing”, because the learners should have a maximum exposure to the target language. Therefore, researchers such as Richards and Rogers, who considered that the L1 should be inexistent within the L2 classroom, can be found ( Martín, J.M. 2000:31).

Nowadays, this perspective is changing and more and more professionals are being convinced of the facilitating role of the first language (L1) in the second and foreign language classroom (L2). In my specific case, this conviction comes from personal experience, classes that I have been observing, and books I have read.

Many previous studies have focused on the different uses of the mother tongue in the classroom; its advantages and disadvantages for secondary school students; or even adults. But, what about young learners, that have just started with the acquisition of a second language? All these studies have not taken into account that learning a foreign language at early stages is much more complicated than it appears to be and neither have they used control or comparison groups in order to verify in which way children prefer and are more motivated to learn a second language.

The primary purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the use of the mother tongue in a foreign language classroom is beneficial and even necessary (for young learners) in some learning contexts, as long as it is justified. The differentiation of the diverse learning contexts has to be taken into account and it should not be forgotten that a domestic immersion classroom, which is similar to a study abroad context but takes place in an at home institution, is joined to many other factors, such as the time spend in the classroom, and therefore it is impossible to change a formal classroom to a domestic immersion classroom.


2. Contexts of learning a second language

Learning contexts are those in which input and learners output are fashioned with the assistance of a teacher. There are many kinds of contexts in which L2 can be acquired, but I am going to talk only about two, which are the main focus of my study.


2.1. Formal L2 Classroom

This kind of learning context normally takes place in an at home institution and its main characteristic is the weak contact with the target community. Children attend only on limited occasions (normally two or three hours a week) to their L2 classroom in an environment in which the mother tongue is mostly used. The majority of teachers are fluent in the L2 although, the largest part are non-native speakers of the target language.



2.2. Domestic Immersion Classroom

This type of learning context is more similar to the study abroad context with the relevant difference that it takes place in an at home institution. Students speak and hear mostly the L2 in a normal day, because it is the language used in their school surroundings, where they spend approximately 8 hours per day. The majority of teachers are native speakers of the target language and in this environment; the L2 is used not only to acquire the foreign language but also to talk about many other issues, as for instance, geography; history; maths; etc.

The Domestic Immersion Classroom can be very advantageous for children that start to learn an L2 in early stages, because of the benefice of being a long time of the day in an environment in which the target language is used.

The present study focuses on the acquisition of a second language in a Formal L2 Classroom in which some attempts have been carried out in order to convert this context of learning into a domestic immersion classroom.


3. The importance of motivation in the acquisition of a L2

Motivation is a very complex construct because not everybody agrees with its relevance and therefore, it is very complicated to arrive to its components. But it is a construct that has to be analysed carefully due to its capital importance in foreign language learning. Dörnyei (1998) defines motivation as follows:


A process whereby a certain amount of instigation force arises, initiates action, and persists as long as no other force comes into play to weaken it and thereby terminate action, or until the planned outcome has been reached.


It is not easy to encourage young children to speak or listen in a foreign language for a whole lesson, as some can be quieter or less confident than others. Therefore, teachers need to provide a comfortable atmosphere where the children feel motivated and secure about making efforts to listen or communicate in the L2. In order to feel motivated, young children may need to be exposed to their mother tongue, for a long time before they feel confident enough, because ignoring the L1 can lead to low self-esteem and demotivation, and this can lead at the same time to the refusal of learning another language.


4. The experimental study

4.1. Research questions

a) Is it possible to substitute the formal L2 classroom by a Language immersion classroom?

b) Is the use of the mother tongue beneficial in an L2 classroom ?

c) When is the use of the L1 justified in an L2 classroom?

d) To what extent can the use of the mother tongue motivate young students in an L2 classroom?


4.2. Method

a) Participants

The 18 participants in this study consisted of two groups. The first group, were 11 four-year old children, and the second group were 7 five-year old children. I will call the first group “group A” and the second one “group B”. The mother tongue of both groups is Spanish and they have been attending classes for one hour twice a week since they were 3 years old, at a private Academy of Elche, Spain, in order to acquire their second language, which in this case is English.

The method used by this Academy is called “Funlanguages” and it is characterized by the teachers’ exclusive use of the L2 in the classroom. Therefore, the majority of professionals working there are native speakers of English and some of them have difficulties in speaking or understanding Spanish. On the other hand, the teacher that carried out this experiment, was a native speaker of Spanish, who had a good domain of the target language.

Offering instruction in the L2 has been construed simply as a change in the tool for instruction. Content remained the same; only the vehicle for its transfer and acquisition changes. It is an attempt to produce bilingual students, and at the age of seven years, these children will take the “Cambridge Young Learners” examination.


b) Procedure

This study was conducted in December 2004 in two different afternoons after the children had finished school, in a comfortable classroom of the Academy which was used exclusively for teaching English to young learners. The decoration played an important role because all the pictures, as well as games, that could be found around the classroom helped to motivate the learners, although no Spanish word could be seen on them.

I decided to use an audio-recorder in this experimental study, because the children were used to seeing it, due to the fact that they normally sing many English songs during their lessons. Therefore, I considered that an audio-recorder would be less influential than a video recorder.

In group B, I decided to ignore some data, because the general background of one of the learners was different to the rest of the class, having a broader knowledge of the target language.

In the first afternoon recorded, I taught both groups some food items using Flash- cards and the question “Do you like….?”, later we saw the vocabulary of some feelings. For this purpose I used again Flash-cards and we played mime, in which each child had to show a feeling in its face and the rest of the class had to guess how she/he was feeling. At the end of the lesson they got a sheet to complete with different pictures of food and empty faces in which they had to draw a happy face if they liked the food item besides or a sad face if they did not like the food item besides.

In group A all the instructions were given in the target language although the students responded in Spanish due to their early ages and their incapacity to produce English. On the other hand, in group B the same lesson was given, but this time I used the mother tongue in some justified occasions, as for instance, to clarify or to explain some terms.

In the second afternoon I did the same experiment, but this time I used in some circumstances the mother tongue in group A, whereas in group B, English was the exclusive language used for instruction.

That afternoon I started with a brief review of the feelings learnt the previous day and continued telling them a story of a book in which each child had to open one window in order to find a wolf. After that, we listened to a song in which the children, depending on the sound, had to guess the name of the animal. And finally I introduced with a brief story and pictures, models of transport. At the end of the lesson, we elaborated a paper plane and they also constructed a kind of mask in which some cutting had to be done to see a “happy face” or a “sad face” on it. These activities were carried out in the same way by both groups.

Instead of analysing the whole lessons, I have only chosen some outstanding features that I have found in each session and that could be interesting for this study. Some of these prominent aspects that I found were for instance, the resolution of conflicts; story-telling; comprehension difficulties; explanation of games or tasks; motivation and demotivation.

The main aim of this investigation has been the demonstration of the positive features of the mother tongue in an L2 classroom of young learners, and for this purpose an attempt has been done in realizing a comparative study of the development of a lesson with, and without the use of the L1.


4.3. Results

The data collected show that the problem of motivation and demotivation can be clearly solved by incorporating the use of the mother tongue in the L2 classroom. In the first afternoon, in group A some commentaries as “Estoy aburrida” or “Si yo no sé hablar en inglés” could be found, whereas in group B the class was much more attentive, due to the fact that they could follow everything easier.

In the second afternoon we find the same problem of demotivation in group B, whereas in group A everybody was much more attentive and interested. Therefore it is a clear demonstration that this difficulty is due to the use or non-use of the mother tongue.

In the story-telling activity it was found that all the children in group A were very interested and expecting to arrive to the end, whereas in group B one child shouted “En español” and not much time after this the children were completely decontrolled, obliging me to finish the story quicker. This is probably due to the fact that, from the very beginning, they were lost and had comprehension difficulties.

These comprehension difficulties appeared very frequently during the different lessons, especially when introducing the question “Do you like…?”. In group A children kept on repeating the question because they did not understand the meaning, and after my fourth explanation one child gave a wrong translation saying “¿Tomas café?”. In group B I introduced this question with its translation (“Do you like orange juice? ¿Te gusta?”), because I consider that sometimes it is more important for students to understand a concept than it is for that concept to be explained. A lot of time was saved in this group and they had the opportunity to practice much more than the others, due to the fact that they got the correct meaning from the beginning.

The same case happened in the second afternoon with group A, when I asked one child to “Ask the wolf of the story, what is your name wolf?”. After repeating it for several times she continued answering “My name is Olga” because she did not understand what I was demanding. Therefore, I used the mother tongue in order to solve this comprehension difficulty (“Preguntale como se llama”). In group B the same problem appeared and the child answered three times “My name is Francisco”, but finally another child guessed the meaning of my demand and translated it into Spanish.

The resolution of conflicts is another point in which, from my perspective, the use of the L1 is completely justified. In group B I solved behavioural problems using the mother tongue (“A ver, Francisco tiene ganas de irse con Mary. Ya te he avisado una vez, y no te voy a avisar más”). The child understood everything clearly and due to the fright to be sent with another teacher he behaved appropriately for the rest of the session. On the other hand I had difficulties in resolving a problem using exclusively the L2 in group A, because the child that was misbehaving did not understand the punishment.

Concerning the explanation and instructions of tasks, the results were as expected. When using only the foreign tongue the children felt completely insecure asking me constantly “Seño ¿así?”, it is also important to point out their lack of motivation while explaining the tasks they had to carry out. In contrast, in group B everybody was much more interested due to the fact that I started saying “A ver, teneis que estar atentos que esto es dificil”.

As I have mentioned before, motivation is a very important factor in the acquisition of a L2 and, from my point of view, as long as the use of the L1 helps to motivate the children, it is justified. A very interesting way of motivating young learners is creating a sense of competition and if they are beginners this is very difficult with the L2. I realized this the second afternoon with group B and the animals’ song. Before starting with the song I said “El otro grupo se los sabía todo, a ver si ganais vosotros también”. Saying only these words I discovered that all the children were doing its best in order to win, whereas in the other group I was not able to create this sense of competition and therefore many of them misbehaved.

4.4. Discussion

In spite of the position I have put forth in this paper, I am aware that not everybody would agree with me. Some would consider that by using exclusively the L2, you force your students to try to communicate with you in that language. Others would say that especially foreign language learners should be in contact as much as possible the L2 input during limited class time.

With this study an attempt has been done to show the difficulty of transforming a formal L2 classroom into a Domestic Immersion program in a context where English is not the predominant native tongue of the community. It is impossible for a teacher to create an intensive English-speaking environment in the short time that a formal L2 lesson takes place, especially for young learners.

It is not easy to predict how long it will take to work without the L1, but what is certain is the fact that the mother tongue is necessary for beginners of an L2 classroom. It is a positive tool because it has a facilitating role and it is the only way in which the teacher can ensure the correct comprehension of the students.

Referring to the advantages and disadvantages of using the L1 in the L2 classroom, I have arrived to the conclusion that whenever its use is justified and helpful for the students, the mother tongue should be used. In young learners I have found that the use of their native language is beneficial because as Atkinson (1993) suggests “a careful, limited use of L1”in order to help students get the maximum benefit from activities which in other respects will be carried out in the target language, is not negative but positive.

There are many circumstances in which the use of the mother tongue is justified as for instance, to provide a quick and accurate translation of an English word that might take several minutes for the teacher to explain and even then there would be no guarantee that the explanation had been understood correctly. The L1 is especially effective with young learners at beginner levels to check instructions, to ensure that some notions have been correctly understood and for general classroom management. It is helpful in establishing the general rules or reviewing behavioural problems of previous classes.

I have also touched upon the importance of creating and maintaining a pleasant but workmanlike attitude in the English classroom and for this purpose I have emphasised the relevant role of motivation and the mother tongue. Therefore, it has been demonstrated that motivation is a highly complex phenomenon whose importance is crucial in the classroom, whether learners arrive with it or whether they acquire it through classroom experiences ( Hedge, T. 2000: 23).

The issue of learning a language is already complicated and when it is associated with demotivation it is even more salient, because as Dörnyei (1998:117) considers:


Motivation provides the primary impetus to initiate learning the L2 and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process; indeed, all other factors involved in L2 acquisition presuppose motivation to some extent.


In conclusion I can say that some learners need the security of the mother tongue in order to be motivated. They may also feel that having a mother tongue equivalent is a far more efficient way of arriving at meaning than a constant process of working things out. Finally to close this study I would like to quote Piasecka (in Hopkins, 1988: 18) who considers that:


One’s sense of identity as an individual is inextricably bound up within one’s native language… If the learner of a second language is encouraged to ignore his/her native language, he/she might well feel his/her identity threatened.


4.5. Directions for future research

Due to the scarce time I had to carry out this investigation, I had no opportunity to complete a more detailed study, including graphs and numbers. It would have been a good idea to do the same experiment but analysing the acquisition of the vocabulary and the general comprehension individually.

It would have also been very interesting to analyse the lesson of a native speaker of English that has difficulties in talking the students’ mother tongue, with the aim of establishing a comparative study with the lesson of a non native speaker of English.

Future research should address the issue of the use of the mother tongue in students of different levels, in order to see until what age and what degree the utilization of the L1 in the L2 classroom can be beneficial for the learners. For this purpose it would be a good idea to distribute a questionnaire to different teachers, in order to know more about their attitudes toward the use of the mother tongue in the L2 classroom.

Another area for future research is the issue of acquisition of a second language in different contexts of learning, to facilitate the advantages and disadvantages of each context.






5. References




Language Teaching 31; 117-35.











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