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Iwona Rybak

Iwona Rybak

Iwona is a teacher of English and methodology and an author of textbooks published by Wydawnictwo Szkolne PWN. She has been designing and running training sessions and courses, eg INSETT courses, TEFL training for native speakers, Young Learner courses for Bell Teacher Campus in Cambridge. She has worked as a teacher trainer in Malaysia, participating in an upskilling program for English teachers organized by the Malaysian government and the British Council. She is a Cambridge Young Learners examiner.

common answer to this question from many teachers will be: ‘We should use English all the time’. Some might say:

‘English should be spoken most of the time’, or perhaps: ‘It must be used as much as it is only possible’. Others will answer: ‘It depends. I speak English to my intermediate students but I have to use Polish with the beginner groups’. Still others will say: ‘I cannot speak English with the first grade. They wouldn’t understand’.

?How would you answer the question?

The mother tongue in the foreign language classroom - a brief history

The title question has been discussed for a very long time. The debate whether the first language (L1) should be allowed in the foreign language classroom started at the end of the 19th century with the Reform Movement, which initiated a scientific approach to the study of language and introduced phonology and the phonetic alphabet. At that time public education was dominated by the Grammar Translation Method, which made extensive use of the mother tongue. The foreign language (L21) was studied in texts, translated and analyzed, the aim being for the learners to be able to understand it but not to speak it. Consequently, 1 For the sake of simplicity the abbreviation L2 is used

here for both a foreign language and a second language.

How much English in an English lesson?

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all the instruction was conducted in the mother tongue. The teacher had to know both L1 and L2 but spoken fluency in L2 was not necessary as the foreign language was studied but hardly ever spoken.

The Reform Movement proclaimed the primacy of the spoken language over the written language and recommended concentrating on speaking in the classroom. The new way of teaching in the form of the Direct Method banned L1 as well as overt teaching of grammar. The lessons were conducted in L2 and meaning was clarified by context and use of visuals. The learners had to speak from the very start and correct pronunciation was expected. As this method required the teacher to be very fluent in L2, while no knowledge of L1 was necessary, native speaking teachers were naturally recommended to teach foreign languages.

In the 20th century many new methods supported the monolingual or intra-lingual approach to foreign language teaching. The Audio-lingual Method, Total Physical Response, the Silent Way, Krashen’s Natural Approach and finally the Communicative Approach, all recommended teaching the foreign language through the language itself, without the medium of the language of the student. There were a few less known methods in which the native language played a very important role, like Community Language Learning or Suggestopedia, and Grammar Translation still stood strong, but overall the bilingual

or cross-lingual approach was not popular. The 20th century foreign language teaching methodology was officially anti-L1. At the beginning of the 21st century mainstream methods and prestigious institutions still ban the mother tongue in the foreign language classroom and the native speaker is still the epitome of the perfect language teacher in most places. Teacher trainers, methodology textbooks and teacher’s books advise avoiding L1 as much as possible and as a result language teachers discourage or completely forbid the use of L1 in their classrooms.

In Poland a version of Grammar Translation dominated in schools until the 1990s, when the Communicative Approach was introduced together with textbooks published by foreign publishers. The most ardent proponents of the new approach banned L1 completely, stopped teaching about the language and replaced grammar exercises with pair work and group work, where learners were encouraged to communicate without paying any attention to correctness.

Nowadays most teachers take the middle ground by mixing language analysis and controlled practice with freer practice, language games and other learner-centered activities. They try to use English most of the time but they also use Polish, and when they do, they often feel guilty of doing something unprofessional. However, they have strong reasons to use L1. It seems like the principles of what should be and the reality of the classroom are sometimes at odds.

Classroom interaction research shows that non-native teachers limit their use of L2 to direct teaching and practicing of it and use L1 for other purposes. Many language teachers admit they use L1 while

giving instructions for tasks explaining the meaning of words explaining grammar dealing with discipline or organization checking comprehension

?When do you use Polish in your lessons?

This limits the functions in which L2 is used and learners have the impression that English is only for controlled classroom practice and

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nothing else. Teachers justify using L1 by the efficiency and ease. They believe preparation and explanation should be done quickly in L1 to give learners more time for practicing L2. Proponents of using L1 give many more arguments.

ARGUMENTS FOR USING L1

Using the first language saves time. Giving instructions, organizing tasks and explaining grammar is much faster when done in Polish.

A translation of a word makes the meaning clear and it takes less time than explaining it in the foreign language.

Being allowed to use the mother tongue reduces learners’ anxiety, makes them feel safe and more confident.

Learners use L1 as a learning and communicative tool when they explain language problems to each other or when they plan how to do a task in English.

The knowledge of one language helps in learning another (positive transfer). For example, learners know that their language can express plurality or the past tense and they expect the same in L2.

The native language exists in the learner’s mind and the fact must be acknowledged by allowing references to it, using comparison between L1 and L2 or translation. The two languages are interwoven in the learner’s mind anyway as proved by code-switching (using both languages in the same utterance).

It feels unnatural to avoid using L1 at all costs when both the learners and the teacher speak it.

On the other hand, all language teachers know the long list of arguments against using L1, which is the source of the guilt they sometimes feel when doing so.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST USING L1

Using the mother tongue decreases exposure to the foreign language. The more the learners practice, the more they learn.

L1 and L2 should be kept separate to avoid L1 interference and limit the

number of errors caused by the influence of the native language.

The classroom should imitate the conditions of natural second language acquisition (SLA), when the learners are surrounded by native speakers and have to communicate in L2 all the time.

L2 should be used in all parts of the lesson to demonstrate how it can be used for different purposes and in different functions.

When the learners do not understand everything that is said in L2, they have to guess the meaning from context, which is a useful strategy to learn.

If learners are not encouraged to use L2 enough they tend to switch to L1 whenever they encounter difficulty.

As we can see, there are as many arguments for as against using L1. There is no scientific evidence that L1 used sporadically disturbs the learning process. In fact, there is evidence that allowing students to use their mother tongue in the preparatory parts of the task gives better results (Lameta- Tufuga 1994; Friedlander, 1990).

Is faster and easier always better?

The use of L1 is not always a bad thing and teachers should not be afraid to do so. A problem arises when teachers are inconsistent in their use of L1, which can confuse and demotivate the learners. Systematic and judicious use of L1 can be useful if the teacher is clear when and why she uses it. The efficiency argument may not always apply, though, as sometimes faster and easier is not better. It may be faster and easier to use Polish for the teacher in some situations but using it deprives the students of an opportunity to practice their listening skills in L2.

The decision whether to use L1 or L2 should be based on clear principles. Using Polish to deal with discipline issues seems to be well justified. A clear and brief message that everybody understands can be sent. Yet, even for his purpose the teacher can compromise between using L1 and L2. Some teachers use English to control students’ behaviour with phrases like: ‘Be quiet, please’, ‘Listen carefully’, ‘Attention, please’, ‘Don’t start yet’, ‘Don’t shout’, ‘Put up your hands’. They only use Polish when

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the behaviour starts to interfere with the flow of the lesson. When students hear the teacher switch to Polish, they see it as a signal that something is seriously wrong and react quickly.

In each lesson there are important things that the teacher wants all the students to understand. English may be used to communicate the message but Polish seems to be the most efficient way of checking comprehension of the message. Some teachers ask the students to summarise the message in Polish. There should be also moments when students feel free to ask questions in the mother tongue and some teachers have a question time at the end of each lesson. However, most of the time students do not have to understand all the language they are exposed. During reading, listening or speaking practice there is space for ambiguity and guessing, both natural to users of L2 in real life.

Another occasion when checking comprehension in Polish is often used is the last stage of vocabulary presentation. The new vocabulary is presented in texts and the meaning is guessed from context, or the teacher explains the meaning by using English synonyms, paraphrase or description. Visuals are used to show the meaning of simpler vocabulary. All these techniques explain the meaning, show the use of the new words in context and give students valuable practice in listening or reading comprehension. However, giving the Polish translation, or eliciting it from the students, clarifies the meaning and confirms the students’ guesses. Most of them usually try to find a Polish equivalent to the new word anyway. The Polish translation should be only a very brief ending of a much longer activity conducted in English, in which students work hard to discover the meaning on their own, using the knowledge they already have and looking at the way the word is used in meaningful sentences or texts.

Teachers often fall back on Polish when they have to explain grammar. It is certainly the easiest way for the teacher. Unfortunately, when teachers feel that L2 is no longer the barrier, they often talk too much. And when teachers talk too much, students stop listening. Most teachers will agree that grammatical rules are best taught by giving good examples and a lot of practice. Some linguists believe talking

about grammatical rules is an unnecessary waste of time, which can be better spent on practicing the language. Many teachers must admit that even very simple rules that learners know by heart do not prevent them from making errors like ‘She sleep 8 hours’, ‘He don’t understand’, ‘Where are you go?’ or ‘We coming tomorrow’. That is why, some of them decide not to talk about grammar at all. It works very well with children but adult learners often demand grammar explanations. The teacher must take learners’ needs into account and let them talk about grammar in Polish. Grammar rules can be also discovered by learners themselves, which works particularly well with teenagers. Rules learned in this way are remembered much better.

Long and complex instructions are difficult to understand in any language. Instead of talking in Polish, the teacher can demonstrate the activity. It is much easier to understand instructions in English when they are broken into small manageable parts with one short sentence describing each part and illustrated by a demonstration. After the activity has been demonstrated by the teacher, it can be demonstrated by two students for the whole class. With a particularly complex task, a student may be asked to give the instructions again in Polish.

GUIDING RULES FOR LIMITING THE USE OF L1 IN THE CLASSROOM

Use Polish only when it is absolutely necessary for the message to be understood by everybody.

Use Polish after you have tried to convey the meaning in English.

Elicit Polish translation and explanations from students instead of giving it yourself.

Replace translation with visuals and paraphrase.

Use demonstration instead of oral instructions.

Talk less. Make explanations short and simple.

Make students discover things for themselves.

Respect learners’ needs but don’t make life too easy for them.

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?Do you remember the last time you tried to speak English in the classroom but gave

up? Why did you do it?

The role of interaction in L2 learning

Nowadays nobody questions the need to practice speaking the foreign language in the classroom. However, it is not only the amount of time spent speaking that matters. According to the Interaction Hypothesis (Allwright, 1984) learning a language takes place through natural communication in that language. Analysis of the language or controlled practice are not enough. Although the hypothesis is based on studies of second language acquisition conducted in natural conditions, which are different from classroom language learning, some of them can be imitated in the classroom. Natural L2 learning is so successful because

the learners are highly motivated the focus is always on meaning the topics are interesting and relevant

The learners in the Polish classroom, especially the younger ones, will never be as strongly motivated as immigrants in a foreign country and the textbook material is not always relevant to the learners’ needs and interests, so the teacher can only hope to make the learners involved by making the lessons interesting and challenging. Even more important than the interest and motivation of the learners is the quality of the communication. The successful learner learns by taking part in conversations in which he or she tries to communicate and understand messages in English.

Typical interaction in the language classroom rarely resembles real life conversations. Very often the students are only practising particular structures or words, expressing ideas which are not their own and sometimes are not completely understood. They manipulate forms in grammar exercises and answer the teacher’s questions. The questions are asked to elicit the correct language from the student and not, like in real life, to learn something from the answer. The teacher’s feedback is often focused on the form and ignores the content of the answer, like in the two classroom exchanges.

①Teacher: What is your favourite colour?Student: My favourite colour is blue.Teacher: Good.

②Teacher: How many legs have a cat got?Student: Cat have four legs.Teacher: No. A cat has four legs.

The teacher in 1) wants the student to produce the correct sentence and is not interested in the answer. When the teacher says ‘Good’, she comments on the form of the sentence. This comment would be inappropriate in real life. The teacher’s reaction to the student’s answer in 2) is very confusing as what the student says is true, although grammatically incorrect. Compare the reactions of the teacher with the reaction of the native speaker below.

③Native speaker: What is your favourite colour?Learner: My colour, my colour… mmm, .. the

colour sky ..Native speaker: Blue? Your favourite colour is blue?Learner: Yes. My colour is blue.Native speaker: Yes. I like blue, too.

There is no reason why classroom interaction should not resemble real life interaction, where all questions are real questions (referential questions) and the feedback is given on the content of the answer and not its form. Referential questions are more natural and they have been proved to elicit more and more

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complex language from students than display questions (questions with one correct answer that the teacher knows). Compare the examples.

④Teacher: What colour are the walls in our

classroom? (a display question)Student: White.

⑤Teacher: What colour are the walls in your

room, Ania? (a referential question)Ania: Blue. Teacher: And in your room, Tomek?Tomek: Yellow.Teacher: Aha. What colour are the walls in your

room, Ewa?Ewa: My walls is white.Teacher: I see. Your walls are white. What about

you, Arek? Arek: In my room the walls are black.Teacher: Really? Black?Arek: Yes. Black (pointing to his black backpack).Teacher: Hmm. Interesting. I’d like to see your

room.

In 4) the teacher asks a display question and gets only one answer from one student. In 5) the same referential question is used to elicit different answers from many different students. By using more referential questions and focusing more on meaning, the teacher can create opportunities for real life interaction in the classroom.

?When did you last ask a referential question? What was it?

Another feature of natural interaction which helps L2 learning is the way native speakers adjust their language to communicate with non-native speakers. Research identified features of the so called ‘foreigner talk’ as:

slower and more careful pronunciation simpler, more common vocabulary simpler and shorter sentences repeating, paraphrasing and rephrasing

the message expanding the non-native speaker’s

short or incomplete utterances rephrasing the non-native speaker’s

incorrect utterances focus on meaning and ignoring errors

which don’t lead to misunderstanding

This list can serve as a set of instructions that the foreign language teacher can use to modify her language with lower level students. In fact, many experienced language teachers do it and their modified language is called ‘teacher talk’.

The interactionist view also stresses the active role of the learner in natural interaction. The learner initiates conversation, asks questions, checks if he is understood, asks for clarification (negotiation of meaning) and uses a lot of communication strategies to get the meaning across when his language is inadequate. The foreign language learner in the classroom does very few of the things because very few classroom activities encourage natural interaction. Some of these do they take place when students work on communicative tasks in pairs and groups.

Increasing the amount and quality of English in the classroom

The main tenets of the Interactionist Hypothesis discussed above can be used as a basis for introducing more informal interaction in the classroom.

WHY?Informal communication is strongly focused on the situation, related to here and now, and because of that relevant to the students’ needs. Increasing the amount of social communication like this in the classroom will increase exposure to natural spoken English, which is the aim of foreign language teaching. Using English for informal talk will demonstrate to the students that English is not just another subject to study, but a tool which can be used for real communication in real life.

HOW?The teacher must serve as a model. She must establish herself as a speaker of both L1 and L2. There should be situations when she uses L2 naturally in informal situations. It can be done by the use of certain routines with the begginners like greeting the class or giving praise in English.

Hello, class. Good morning, everybody.How are you today?

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Not bad. Quite good. Good. Very good. Excellent. Brilliant. Fantastic. Well done. Good job.That was amazing.

Some teachers of younger learners use a puppet when they want to speak in English. They pretend the puppet is speaking or, which is easier and more natural, they display the puppet and then start speaking English ‘so that the puppet can understand’. Some teachers take students to designated areas of the classroom for ‘English- only sessions’.

Students can also listen to recorded informal dialogues, memorise and practice such dialogues in pairs. Finally, when they know enough L2, they can role play dialogues or take part in activities which require genuine communication between them.

WHO?At the beginning it will be only the teacher using L2 informally. After some time students will certainly greet the teacher back or say ‘Thank you’ after being praised. To encourage the students to use more English, the teacher can teach them some simple and useful classroom language including questions that they can ask the teacher.

I’m sorry I’m late. I don’t understand. Can you repeat, please?What is ‘glue’? How do I say ‘klej’?Can I go to the toilet, please? Can I borrow a pen?

Spontaneous use of English by Polish learners among themselves is very unlikely, although it does happen. When it happens, learners usually start by using single words or set phrases mixed up with Polish. Students are much more willing to speak English when they are given communicative tasks or interesting role plays. The tasks should not be too difficult, or too exciting either, and learners should be well prepared for them. Sometimes learners’ reluctance to use English results from negative attitudes to the foreign language or to the usefulness and relevance of the task itself. In cases like that, the teacher must first explain the importance of oral practice.

WHEN?The best time for a small informal chat is the start and the end of the lesson. At the beginning the teacher greets the students,

takes attendance and asks questions about absent students.

Who is absent today? Is she ill? How many students are absent? Nice to see you back. Are you ok?

The teacher can comment on the weather or any events that take place on that day, such as Mother’s Day, football championships or somebody’s birthday.

A nice day today, isn’t it? It’s very cold today. Winter is coming.It’s the first day of spring today.

When the students learn the past tense, the teacher can start asking questions about what happened the day before, during the previous lesson or on the way to school. Did you watch the match last night? Who won?What did we read last time? What do you remember from the story?

The end of the lesson is a good time for talking about students’ plans and any future local or school events.

What are going to do tonight? Are you going to watch the match?When is the school performance? Are you ready for that?

The repetitive nature of some classroom procedures helps to teach a lot of useful language.

Let’s do some exercises. Let’s listen. Please, open the books on page 6. Now work in pairs. Write in your notebooks.

When the students work in groups or pairs, the teacher has a chance to speak to individuals, which may encourage students to say something in English to the teacher, too.

?Do your students try to use English in informal way with you or their classmates?

L1 versus L2 and the young learner

Using L1 with Young Learners receives less resentment because of their low level of English and their need for the teacher’s support and

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safety in the classroom. A bilingual approach is often recommended, with the teacher giving instructions in English first and then repeating them in Polish. It is believed that the need for the Polish translation will slowly disappear, the learners will understand the English instructions and the teacher will be able to stop using Polish completely. To help in the process, the teacher uses a louder and stronger voice when speaking English and much softer one when repeating the message in Polish. Later, students are asked to provide the Polish translation, which motivates them to listen more carefully to the English version. As a result, at some point, students themselves might stop asking for translation.

On the other hand, Young Learners are much better suited for a monolingual, English-only approach. They are wonderful listeners with good ambiguity tolerance and great learning and communication strategies. They naturally infer meaning from the context, the teacher’s gestures, facial expression and intonation. They respond to the teacher’s language by following her orders and participating in activities. Although their speaking must be initially limited to reciting memorized rhymes, songs and set phrases in routine exchanges or short role plays, they are happy to make any sounds in the foreign language. They do feel they ‘speak’ English because they understand the gist of the teacher’s message and they say English words. In this respect, they are much happier and less frustrated learners than adults. Teachers should use this strength of Young Learners and use L2 a lot in some parts of the lesson, while still remaining users of L1 who understand their learners when they speak in their mother tongue.

The amount of English can be further increased by displaying English texts on the walls of the classroom and linking the classroom with the outside world through pop culture, computer games or the internet. Learners may be encouraged to extend their contact with English outside classroom time. The teacher can also draw students’ attention to English that is used on products, billboards, or mobile phones.

Summary

Coming back to the question asked in the title, we could safely say that English should be used as much as possible, although without banning Polish completely. Polish should be used in a systematic, consistent and principled way, when it is necessary, while English should be used in all kinds of functions with a strong emphasis on informal interaction which demonstrates how it can be used in real life. As often as possible, teachers should behave towards students like native speakers towards non-native speakers, focusing on real communication and creating a non-threatening, positive atmosphere.

Teacher: Are you ready to have a little chat in English now?

Students: Tak.Teacher: So you are ready. Great.

References:

Allwright, R. (1984). The Importance of Interaction In Classroom Language Learning. Applied Linguistics 5: 156-71.Allwright, Dick, & Bailey, Kathleen M. (1991). Focus on the language classroom: An introduction to classroom research for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Cook, V.J. (2001). Using the foreign language in the classroom. Canadian Modern Language Review, 57 (3), 402-423.Friedlander, A. (1990). Composing In English: Effects of a first language on writing in Englishas a second language. In B. Kroll (Ed.), Second language writing: research insight for the classroom. (pp. 109-25). New York: CUP.Gass, S. M. & Selinker, L. (2001). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course 2nd edition, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. New Jersey.Lameta-Tufuga, E. 1994. Using the Samoan Language for Academic Learning Tasks. Unpublished MA thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.