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Should the mother tongue be used in language teaching?

asked 2015-04-25 02:45:45 -0400

Anonymous

Hi!

I teach English as a second language to high school students and I have always thought that I should use the English language only whenever I'm inside the classroom. However, I have recently read a study that says explanations should be in the mother tongue. I suppose this is true for beginners but how about for those who already have a basic knowledge on grammar?

Thank you very much for responding to this.

~ John Lour Flores :)

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answered 2015-04-25 03:45:38 -0400

MaBo
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Hi! This is not an easy one to answer. Not everybody in the class will have the same degree of grammatical understanding. I, personally, would explain new grammatical phenomena or vocabulary in simple L2 terms but summarise (or ask a student to summarise) them in the L1, too. This is an aide to weaker students and a reassurance for the better ones. I found this work by Ernesto Macaro very helpful: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307...

Regards, MaBo

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Asked: 2015-04-25 02:45:45 -0400

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Last updated: Dec 11 '15

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Should the mother tongue be used in language teaching?