SPEAK ENGLISH PLEASE!
Before saying ‘Speak English!!!’ to our students, we should think about why they use their mother tongue in class. There are some reasons for doing so; here you have 5 reasons to take into account:
- A principal cause of this L1 use is the language required by the activity. Their only possible course of action, if they really want to say anything about the topic, is to use their own language. In other words, the choice of task has made the use of L1 almost inevitable: students can hardly be blamed for this.
- It is an entirely natural thing to do; when we learn a foreign language we use translation almost without thinking about it, particularly at elementary and intermediate levels. This is because we try to make sense of anew linguistic world through the linguistic world we are already familiar with.
- Students use their L1 when performing pedagogical tasks, especially when one student is explaining something to another. This is a habit ‘that in most cases will occur without encouragement form the teacher’ (Harbord 1992:354)
- Another reason can be teachers themselves. If, they frequently use the students’ language then the students will feel comfortable doing it too. Teachers need, therefore, to be aware of the kind of example they themselves are providing.
- Finally, it is worth pointing out that the amount of L1 use by particular students may well have to do with differing learner styles and abilities. Some use mostly English form the very beginning, whereas others seem to need to use their L1 more frequently.
Having these reasons in mind, we should now focus on the attitudes to mother tongue in the classroom.
We teachers tend to have the idea that ALL use of mother tongue should be avoided. This comes from the Direct Method (at the beginning of the 20th century) where the language itself was talked and taught rather than being talked about in the students’ L1. It also comes from the training of native-English speaker teacher who either had to deal with multilingual classes and/or teach in countries before they were themselves competent in the language of their students.
More recently, however, attitudes to the use of the students’ mother tongue have undergone a significant change. David Atkinson suggested that such activities as grammar explanations, checking comprehension, giving instructions, discussing classroom methodology and checking for sense fell into this category. If teachers can use the students’ language, he claims, these tasks will be expedited more efficiently.
No one is in any doubt that students will use their L1 n class, whatever the teachers say or do; the question is whether we should try and stop it. John Eldridge thinks not, suggesting that there is no evidence to suggest that this would improve learning efficiently. He claims that most of the code-switching he has observed is ‘highly purposeful, and related to purposeful goals’ (Eldridge 1996:303).
Two issues to tackle: students are likely to use their L1 anyway; there is little point in trying to stamp it out completely. Such an approach will not work, and may only discourage the students who feel the need for it at some stages.
A little piece of advice: as teachers we will want to promote as much English use as possible. So we will try and insist on the use of English in language study and oral production activities, but be more relaxed about it on other pedagogic situations, though we will continue to encourage students to try to use it as often as possible.
As for teachers, they are a principal source of comprehensible input. It therefore makes sense for us to speak English a much as possible in class, especially since if we do not, students will not see the need to speak too much English either. However there are times, especially at lower levels, where the use of L1 may help both teacher and students such as in an explanation or discussion of methodology, or the giving of announcements which would be impossibly difficult in English.
As a conclusion, here you have some clues about how to deal with L1:
- Set clear guidelines: students need to know when mother tongue use is permissible and when it is not.
- Choose appropriate tasks: we should choose tasks which the students, at their level, are capable of doing in English.
- Create an English atmosphere: if we create an English environment, making English the classroom language as well as the language to be learnt, and perhaps even anglicizing our students’ names, then there will be more chance of the students making the classroom truly English themselves.
- Use persuasion and other inducements: if students are taking in their L1 when the activity needs to be in English, we can stop the activity and tell students there is a problem. This sometimes changes the atmosphere so that they go back to the activity with a new determination. The art of persuading students to have a go in English depends on the guidelines that were set, the agreement we made with them and the friendly encouragement and persuasion we use while activities are taking place.
Bibliography: Harmer, Jeremy (2001); The Practice of English Language Teaching, Chapter 9 section D 'Please speak English!', pp. 131,132
Further reading:
Alistair (2009); "Keeping it in English"; available at: http://developingteachers.com/tips/pasttips150.htm
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