EVALUATING THE USE OF L1 IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

EVALUATING THE USE OF L1 IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

The debate over whether English language classrooms should include or exclude students’ native language has been a contentious issue for a long time , but as of yet the research findings have not been entirely persuasive either way. Those advocating an English-only policy have tended to base their claims on theoretical arguments such as the idea of learning being heavily determined by the quantity of exposure to the language. They have also based their teaching methods on the Direct Method. Meanwhile opponents of an English-only policy have often focused only on the fact that students usually support the idea of using L1 in the classroom , and have tended to ignore pedagogical evidence. This paper will attempt to demonstrate two points. Firstly, that using L1 in the classroom does not hinder learning, and secondly, that L1 has a facilitating role to play in the classroom and can actually help learning. Two experiments were carried out in an attempt to substantiate these theories. In the first, three classes were observed over a period of five months, during which time one class was English-only, one permitted the use of Japanese by the students only, and in the other, both teacher and students utilized Japanese. The progress of these three classes is compared and then discussed. In the second experiment, four separate lessons given to one class are compared (two where Japanese was used, and two where it was not permitted). Despite problems with causality and perhaps the inability to generalize the findings, overall findings do indicate possible support for both our theories, and thereby for the use of L1 in the classroom.