The Use of L1 in English Teaching:

No clear guidelines

The situation today is that there are no clear guidelines on the use of the mother tongue (L1) in English lessons. Most teachers feel vaguely that use of the L1 should be minimalized, and feel guilty if they use it a lot, but if challenged find it difficult to say why.

For and against

Against the use of L1 is the general assumption that English should be learnt through English, like you learn your mother tongue. But the idea that the learner should learn English like a native speaker does, or try to ‘think in English’, is an inappropriate and unachievable aim. English is a world ‘lingua franca’, and what we should be aiming for today is to make our learners into speakers of their own language (Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, whatever) who are also fully competent speakers of English. And a dangerous side-effect of banishing L1 from the English classroom is the implication that somehow the learners’ mother tongue is inferior, or ‘doesn’t count’, thus discriminating against the learners’ linguistic identity as their own mother-tongue speakers.

The only really valid argument, in my opinion, in favour of minimizing (not banishing) L1 use is that over-use of L1 lessens the time available for English use in the classroom. Obviously we want our students to have maximum exposure to English in our lessons. But this means limiting L1 use, not banishing it altogether. Insisting on keeping to English even when students don’t understand what is being said may lead to the message ‘it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand’, or the morale-lowering assumption by learners ‘I don’t understand English’.

Where does that leave us?

My own general conclusion would be: use English as long as the students understand it well enough to get the message, and insist on their using it as long as they can get their message across. Otherwise, allow L1 use. Some purposes of L1 use might be: for explaining difficult grammar, for giving instructions which might not be understood in English, for checking comprehension, for saving time which can then be used for communicative work in English.

How do I decide when to use English and when to use L1?

It’s essentially a question of professional judgement. Many times during a lesson we need to ask ourselves: should I insist on English here, or should I use mother tongue? It’s necessarily a split-second decision. The answer will depend essentially on how easy or difficult the message will be to convey and understand in English.

L2 and then L1? No.

The ‘solution’ of saying things in English and then translating into L1, incidentally, is not a solution at all. Students learn very quickly that they don’t need to listen to the English as the mother-tongue version is coming up, and this strategy simply gets them used to ignoring the English. The decision as to which language to use in any specific case has to be made, you can’t sidestep it.

This is not to say there is no place for translation: I think there is, and maybe we’ll get on to discussing it during this week (see question below).

Conclusion:

There is no rule that you should ‘never’ use L1 in lessons; nor, on the other hand, is there any excuse for using L1 most of the time. Like many other teaching strategies, the use of L1 involves rapid on-your-feet decision-making: is it worth switching to L1 at this point? Or would it be better to stay with English?

Some possible further questions for discussion:

1. Can mother-tongue(s) be used in a multi-lingual classroom?
2. When, if ever, can translation be useful in the English classroom?
3. What is the place of L1 in explaining vocabulary?
4. Is it useful to compare/contrast L1 and English?
5. Can L1 help error-correction?
6. Can/should L1 be used in classroom management?