Whether Teachers And Students Should Use the L2 RatherThan the L1 In The ClassroomWord格式文档下载.docx

Whether Teachers And Students Should Use the L2 RatherThan the L1 In The ClassroomWord格式文档下载.docx

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StudentMythbyFengXiaoinTianjinN0.25MiddleSchool；

GettingAroundbyXuYaninQingdaoVocationalSchoolforForeignAffairs&

Service.ThesevideosofrealclassesinChinawereplacedontheinternetasexcellentexamplesforEnglishteaching.Onecommonthingthatworthnotingisallclasses，nomatterclassesinprimaryschoolsormiddleschools，nomatterclassesinnorthpartofChinaorthesouth，theonlylanguageisEnglish.Usingtargetlanguageinclassbecomesaself-evidentprincipleinlanguageclasses.However，thisprinciplehasarousedadebateinrecentyears.Thisessaybelievesmothertonguehelpsthelearningoftargetlanguageonlyifitisusedproperly.

　　Theessaycanbedividedintofivesections.Firstly，abackgroundisofferedtogiveanintroductionofwhenandtowhatextentmothertongueisavoidedinlanguageclassrooms.Secondly，theadvantagesofusingmothertonguearestated.Followingthat，strategiesofusingmothertongueproperlyandsystematicallyaregiven.Thoughfirstlanguagecanbebeneficialinclass，overuseofitisdangerousanditisdiscussedinthenextsection.Finally，aconclusionofthewholeessaywillbestated.

　　Background

　　Inlatenineteenth-century，thepublicationofWelhelmVi?

tor’sleafletDerSprachunterrichtmussumkehren（Languageteachingmuststartafresh！

）markedthebeginningoftheReformMovement（Howatt1984：

170）.Asmostoftheleadingexperts（WelhelmVi?

torinGermany，PaulPassyinFranceandJesperseninDenmark）wereteachersatthattime，theMovementshowedspecialinterestintheclassroom.ThreeprincipleswereproposedintheMovement：

‘theprimacyofspeech，thecentralityoftheconnectedtextasthekerneloftheteaching-learningprocess，andtheabsolutepriorityofanoralmethodologyintheclassroom’（ibid：

171）.Basedonthethreeprinciples，especiallythelastone，translationshouldbeavoided.Teacherswereexpectedtospeakthetargetlanguagewhilethenativelanguagecouldonlybeusedforexplaininglinguisticpointsandclassroominstruction（RichardsandRodgers1986：

10）.ThishadultimatelyledtothedevelopmentofDirectMethod.

　　DirectMethod，alsoknownasnaturalmethod，attemptstoteachforeignlanguageinthewayoffirstlanguagelearningnaturallyasthenamesuggests.BelieversofDirectMethodarguethat‘aforeignlanguagecouldbetaughtwithouttranslationortheuseofthelearner’snativelanguageifmeaningwasconveyeddirectlythroughdemonstrationandaction’（RichardsandRodgers1986：

11）.Sincethen，mostteachingmethodbegantoavoidusingfirstlanguageinclasses.Mothertonguehasbecome‘ataboosubject，asourceofembarrassment’（Prodromou2002，citedbyButzkamm2003）.TeachersevenfeelguiltybecausetheirEnglishproficiencyisnotasgoodasnativespeakers.Thisdiscouragementofusingthefirstlanguagecanbeinterpretedinstrongerorweakerforms（Cook2001）.Itsstrongestformis‘bantheL1fromtheclassroom’，whichcanbeonlyachievedwhenteachersdonotspeakstudents’firstlanguagesorstudentshavedifferentones（ibid）.Onthecontrary，theweakestformis‘minimizetheL1intheclassroom’.Anotherwayofsayingthatis‘maximizetheL2intheclassroom’whichfocusontheuseoftargetlanguageratherthantheshortcomingoffirstlanguage.　　Eventilltoday，thoughmothertongueisnotforbidden，governmentsinmanycountriesstillrecommendthatteachersinclassesshouldusetargetlanguageasmuchaspossiblewhileusingmothertongueonlywhendifficultiesarise（Butzkamm2003）.Discouragementofusingfirstlanguagecanbeseeneasily.Satchwell（1997：

1）claimsthattoomuchuseofnativelanguagecandistractstudents’attentionandtheirmemories.Heevengivesalistofwordsandphrasesintargetlanguageforclassroominteractiontohelpnon-nativeteachers.EventhoughWillis（1996：

127）admitsthatitisunnaturalandunrealistictobanfirstlanguagetotally，heinsistsitisbettertousetargetlanguagewhenteachchildrenwithtask-basedlanguageteachingmethod.

　　Reasonsofusingfirstlanguage

　　Cook（2001）listsfourfactorstobeconsideredwhenusemothertongue：

（1）efficiency―islearningforeignlanguageefficientthroughmothertongue？

（2）Learning―doesusingthemothertonguehelpthelearningoftargetlanguage？

（3）Naturalness―dolearnersfeelmorecomfortableandmorenaturalusingthemothertongueratherthanthetargetlanguage？

（4）Externalrelevance―doesithelpinthespecialneedsoflearnersintherealworldwithbothlanguages？

　　1.Learners’preference

　　Atkinson（1987）claimsthattranslationtechniquesarepartofthepreferredlearningstrategiesformostlearners.Butzkamm（2003）givesanexampleofanEnglishteacherwhoislearningGreek.Herexperienceindicatesthatwhenlearnersmeetanewlanguage，theywanttoknowitdirectlysothattheycanmakeusewithitimmediately.Burden（2000）surveysthat73%of290studentsbelieveteachersshouldusemothertongueinlanguageclassrooms.Nomatterconsciouslyorunconsciously，learnersalwaystrytoassociateanewwordorsentencewithasimilaroneintheirmothertongue（Danchev1982，citedbyHarbord1992）.Sincethisisanaturalwayoflanguageacquisition，languageteachingshouldworkwithitratherthanagainstit.

　　2.Efficiency

　　Languageteachingcanbemoreefficientwiththehelpofmothertongue.Bothteachersandstudentsaremuchmorefamiliarwithit.Thusinformationtransmittingtakesteacherslesstimeandstudentscanunderstandmorequickly.

　　Usingmothertongueismoreefficientnotonlyintimeconsuming，butalsoininformationdelivering.Butzkamm（2003）pointsoutthat‘a“foreignlanguagefriendly”atmosphereisbestachievedthroughselectiveuseofthemothertongue’.Inaddition，usingthemothertonguegivesstudentsconfidence.Theywillunderstandthemeaningsoclearlythattheystopbeingshyandbelievetheycanexpressthemselvesintargetlanguagecorrectly.Whenlearnersmeetdifficulttexts，usingmothertongueallowsthemtounderstandbetter.Forexample，storiesintargetlanguagesometimesaredifficultforbeginners.Abilingualeditionofastory，orastoryinmothertonguefirstandtargetlanguagesecondlycanstimulatestheirinterestsandhelpstheirunderstanding.Thesetwopointsareespeciallyimportantfornoviceteacherssinceitmaybehardforthemtocontrolthewholeclassortogothroughthelessonintargetlanguagetotally.　　3.Foundationofotherlanguages

　　Butzkamm（2003）liststhreeadvantagesbyusingmothertongueinlanguageclassroom―ithelpstothink，tocommunicateandtoacquireanintuitiveunderstandingofgrammar.Hecomparesusingmothertonguetoopeningadoor，notonlytothegrammarofmothertongue，butalllanguageslikeafoundation.Wegaintheabilityofreading，writingandotherskillsthroughmothertongueandcanalsobeappliedinforeignlanguages.Noonecandenythatthemothertongueexistsallthetimeinlearners’mindeveninmonolingualclass.Inaddition，createlinkswithmothertonguecanhelplearnersremembernewwords.Whenwelearnnewthings，itisnormaltolinkthemwithknownknowledge.Yetthemothertongue，themostusefulresourceforunderstandingwhichoneknowsbestisalwaysdeliberatelyavoided.

　　Strategiesofusingfirstlanguage

　　Aswehavediscussed，itishelpfulonlyifthefirstlanguageisusedproperlyandsystematicallyratherthanabandonedblindly.Cook（2001）explainsseveralmethodsasexamplesthatcombinetwolanguagestogether：

　　Alternatinglanguageapproaches―students‘areatonemomentlearningtheirL2，atanotherusingtheirL1’（ibid）.Bothlanguagesareincludedandofsameimportance.Itrequiresthepresenceofstudentswithdifferentmothertongue.Keyschooltwo-waymodelisavariationofitinwhichtwolanguagesareswitchedatcertainmomentatschooltime.Similarly，alternatedaysapproachswitcheslanguageseveryotherday.Anothervariationisduallanguageprogramstryingtobalancethetwolanguagesinschoolcurriculum.ReciprocallanguageteachingisproposedinEuropeinwhichstudentslearnfromeachother.

　　Othermethods―NewConcurrentMethodrequiresteacherstoswitchlanguagesatcertainpointsaccordingtouniquerules.Incommunitylanguagelearning，studentstalktoeachotherwillinglywiththehelpofmothertongue.ThelastoneisDodson’sbilingualmethod.Itrequirestheteachertoreadasentenceintargetlangueseveraltimesandexplainitsmeaningintargetlanguage.

　　Ifwegothroughalltheseapproaches，firstlanguageismainlyusedincertainfunctions.Burden（2000）madeasurveytoexaminewhatthestudentsthinkteachersshouldusemothertonguefor.Theresultsshowthat61%of211studentsagreemothertongueshouldbeusedtorelaxstudents.53%believeitshouldbeusedtoexplainthedifferencesbetweenmothertongueandtargetlanguage.Explainingnewwordsandtalkingabouttestshavethesameamountofsupportersof50%.　　Wills（1996）listsseveralrulesonmothertongueuseinclassroomswhicharesetbystudentsandteacherstogether：

　　?

ifastudenthasaquestiontoasktheteacherthattheycannotexplaininEnglish；

iftheteacheraskstheclasshowtheywouldsayawordorphraseintheirlanguage，tocheckthatithasbeenunderstoodcorrectly；

iftheteacherneedstoexplainsomethingquickly；

ifstudentsarecomparingtargetlanguagewithmother-tongueuse；

ifstudentsaredoingtasksinvolvingtranslationor