The role of mother tongue in english language teaching

participation. 
6.
Pair and group work promote interaction. 
7.
Effectively implementing group work. 
8.
Teaching learners strategies to negotiate meaning.
(2005:6). 

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Acording to Olson, there are several goals in these strategies for example that 
the learner understands his role in communication, conversation can be maintained by 
using these strategies or that learner is responsible for selecting strategies. These 
communicative strategies along with other things help learners in developing 
communicative competence in conversation (2007). 
Brown sums up:
Given that communicative competence is the goal of a language classroom, 
instruction needs to point toward all of its components: organizational, 
pragmatic, strategic, and psychomotoric. Communicative goals are best achieved 
by giving due attention to language use not just usage, to fluency and not just 
accuracy, to authentic language and contexts, and to students´ eventual need to 
apply classroom learning to heretofore unrehearsed contexts in the real world 
(2005:13). 
According to Leloup and Ponterio, the fact is that pupils do not acquire communicative 
competence by learning the elements of the language system first since pupils do not 
learn foreign language by memorizing vocabulary items in isolation and by producing 
limited simple sentences. Not always those pupils who know grammar well may be able 
to understand a foreign language outside the classroom. The study of the language 
system itself does not always result in the development of the ability to produce 
language in real-life situations and to respond meaningfully in appropriate ways (1998). 
The fact is that pupils learn a foreign language well when they are provided 
opportunities to use the target language to communicate in a variety of activities. The 
more learners use the target language in meaningful situations, the more rapidly they 
achieve competence. 

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28 
4. The mother tongue in foreign language classroom
A previous chapter focused on the synchronic view on the role of mother tongue 
proved that so called communicative approach began to prevail. This naturally follows the 
goal of foreign language teaching to use the language for communication and thus develop 
communicative competence. However, communicative competence can not be developed 
without using English in the foreign language classroom as often as possible and without 
establishing English as the main language for communication. This does not mean that the 
mother tongue should be banned altogether, since recent studies indicate that appropriate 
and judicious use of mother tongue can play a significant role in foreign language teaching 
and successful target language acquisition. As mentioned earlier, the question whether or 
not to use the mother tongue in foreign language classroom accompanies this thesis from 
the very beginning. As Krashen presents, exposure to comprehensible input is crutial for 
successful language acquisition. To make input comprehensible, the use of mother tongue 
is generally necessary (1981:51). Also Willis suggests: 
Banning mother-tongue use altogether may not be advisable. A study carried out 
recently in Turkish secondary school classes with 12-year-olds revealed that in 
circumstances when the mother tongue was totally banned in group talk, the 
resulting interaction tended to be shorter, more stilted and less natural. Many 
weaker students gave up after a very short time. If learners realize they are using the 
target language to communicate, they will still use their mother tongue on 
occasions, but they will use it in a way which is systematic, supportive and relevant 
to the task goal (1996:46). 
In connection to Willis´s suggestion, I will bring back Krashen´s Affective Filter 
hypothesis, arguing that when a learner is tense, anxious, bored or angry, the aggective 
filter as a kind of imaginery barrier, blocks out the available input (1981:68). I would stress 
that a minimal use of mother tongue can be a facilitating teaching tool however, things that 
can be done in the target language should be done so. Willis in the introductory unit to her 
book Teaching English through English provides some of the situations for convenient 
target language use:
Gestures and tone of voice are at first more important than the actual words or 
phrases used to tell students what to do and how to do it. But if beginners yet get 
used to hearing nothing but English spoken during their English lesson, they will 
very soon understand and later learn to say words like ‘good’, ‘altogether’ etc. So as 

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well as learning the specific language items that are actually being taught in the 
lesson, they will also be practising unconsciously a number of language skills, 
[
…
]
and beginning to think in English for themselves, thereby reducing the amount of 
interference from L
1
, their mother tongue. (1991:1). 
This means that when teachers teach English merely in the target language, pupils will not 
only become familiar with their foreign language but they will be later able to produce new 
structures themselves since “language is much better learnt through real use that through 
pattern drills and exercises.” (Willis, 1991:1). Willis futher specifyes that also the very first 
lessons of English are possible to teach in English only, but it is very important to persuade 
pupils of the advantages of classroom English, which can be accompanied by a 
demonstration (1991:1). “Whenever a new classroom item is introduced, it should be 
accompanied by gesture or demonstration to make the meaning clear as possible.” (Willis, 
1991:2). Every time pupils say something relevant in their mother tongue, the teacher 
should say the same thing in English and make pupils to repeat it, after some time pupils 
will respond in English naturally (Willis, 1991:3). Sometimes it may be easier to introduce 
the target language in the classroom slowly, in classes that have learnt English for some 
time before, it is good at first to keep mainly to the vocabulary and structures that they have 
came across before. Later, other useful phrases can be introduced (Willis, 1991:xiv). 
However, Willis confirms my opinion that unless teachers teach multi-lingual classes, they 
may not speak English all the time, and sometimes it might be more economical to use 
mother tongue instead of English. This can be done for example when: 
•
Explayining the meaning or use of new words would be time-consuming. 
•
Introducing the aims of the lesson or the next activity to make sure pupils know 
what they are learning. 
•
When checking of pupils´ understanding after the presentation stage. 
•
Discussing the main ideas of a reading passage, but only when the aim is to improve 
the reading skills. 
•
Pupils got teacher´s permission to use their mother tongue, but it is important to 
make clear when pupils must stop using the mother tongue and return to English. 
(1991:xiv).
Auerbuch adds other possibilities: 
•
Classroom management. 
•
Language analysis. 
•
Presenting grammar rules. 

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30 
•
Discussing cros-cultural issues. 
•
Giving instructions, prompts. 
•
Explaining errors. 
•
Checking comprehension. 
(cited in Tang, 2002). 
As stated above, the reasonable use of mother tongue can play its role in some cases, but 
the target language should remain the main language. It may sometimes happen that pupils 
keep using their mother tongue rather than a target language in the foreign language 
classroom. In that case Willis proposes reassuring whether pupils are not eventually bored 
or whether they are unsure about something (1991:xiv), which is once again related to 
Krashen´s Affective Filter hypothesis. It might indicate that something is wrong with the 
lesson, and a change of activity would be needed. Harmer suggests that this may happen 
because pupils want to say something important, and the easier way how to do it is to use 
their native language (2004:129). Nonetheless, Harmer also proposes a number of things 
that teacher can do when these situations occur: 
•
Talking to pupils about the issue: teachers can discuss with pupils how they feel 
about using English and their mother tongue in the classroom. 
•
Encouraging pupils to use English appropriately. 
•
Responding only to English use: teachers can ignore what pupils say in their mother 
tongue. 
•
Creating an English environment: teachers themselves should use the target 
language for the majority of time, so that pupils are constantly exposed to English. 
•
Keeping reminding pupils: teachers should going on in encouraging pupils to use 
English. 
(2004:129-130).
These Harmer´s suggestions how to deal with oversing the mother tongue can be labelled 
as strategies for encouraging more target language use in the classroom. Concerning his 
point about creating an English environment, I would add that teachers should also 
establish rules of conduct in the classroom, so that pupils know about the expectation to use 
the target language. In addition, pupils must believe that the target language is important 
throughout their lives. 
Since there are several factors influencing teacher´s choice of mother tongue or 
target language, teacher should be able to find the best way how to involve mother tongue, 

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31 
if necessary, but with respect to current communicative approach and its demand for
increasing amount of target language in the foreign language classroom.
4.1. Teaching skills 
As well as the methods and approaches in ELT have changed throughout the history 
the same happened to the status of the four skills. Target language use in the foreign 
language classroom must be used as much as possible. It is not the level of the pupils which 
is important, but there are four basic things that students need to do with their foreign 
language. They need to be exposed to their foreign language, understand its meaning, 
understand its form and of course, practise it. This part deals with these issues that are 
incorporated into the nature of each four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in 
some detail relevant to the topic of my thesis. According to Nation, there are roughly four 
equal opportunities for learning through these skills: 
1.
meaning focused input – learning through listening and reading. 
2.
meaning focused output – learning through speaking and writing. 
3.
language focused learning – learning through deliberate attention to language 
features. 
4.
fluency development –learning through working with known material across the 
four skills at a higher level than usual level of performance. 
(2003). 
4.1.1. The nature of listening 
From the period when listening was a kind of a neglected skill, nowadays listening 
plays a more central role in foreign language teaching. “We cannot expect our learners to 
speak English without first hearing of English.” (Hechavarría and Sánchez, Internet 10). 
This cannot be done without using the target language as the main language. According to 
Anderson and Lynch, “Krashen has claimed that comprehension plays a central - and 
possibly predominant part - in the whole process of language learning.” (1988:33). “The 
changed status of listening in recent years was partly prompted by Krashen´s emphasis on 
the role of comprehension and comprehensible input.” (Richards, 2005:ix). Listeners were 
finally seen as actively involved in constructing meaning, based on expectations, and 
selective processing of input. Listening became an interpretive process and authentisity in 

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materials an important part in foreign language teaching (Richards, 2005:ix). Current views 
on teaching listening argues upon the following assumptions: 
•
Listening serves the goal of extracting meaning from messages. 
•
In order to do this learners have to be taught how to use both bottom-up
7
and top-
down processes
8
in arriving at an understanding of messages. 
•
The languages of utterances, that is, the precise word, syntax, expressions used by 
speakers are temporary carriers of meaning. Once meaning has been identified there 
is no further need to attend to the form of messages.
(Richards, 2005:86). 
Richards continues and lists a variety of teaching strategies and techniques to practice 
listening: 
•
Predicting the meaning of messages. 
•
Identifying key words and ignoring others while listening. 
•
Using background knowledge to facilitate selective listening. 
•
Keeping the broad meaning of a text in mind while listening
(2005:86). 
The current position involves three-part lesson sequence, which consists of pre-
listening, listening and post-listening. The pre-listening part should motivate pupils and 
prepare them for practice in listening part through activities involving making suggestions, 
predictions and reviewing key vocabulary. The listening part focuses on comprehension 
through exercises, which require for example selective listening or sequencing, and the 
post-listening part usually involves a response to comprehension and may require pupils to 
give opinions about the topic (Richards, 2005:87). 
In the case of listening, communicative language teaching means producing pupils 
who are able to use their listening strategies to maximize their comprehension of input, 
identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate less than word-by-word 
comprehension. It is essential for the teachers to help pupils become effective listeners. In 
7
In the bottom-up design, first the individual parts of the system are specified in great detail. The parts are 
then linked together to form larger components, which are in turn linked until a complete system is formed. 
This strategy often resembles a ‘seed’ model, whereby the beginnings are small, but eventually grow in 
complexity and completeness (Internet 8). 
8
In the top-down model an overview of the systém is formulated, without going into detail for any part of it. 
Each part of the system is then refined by designing it in more detail. Each new part may then be refined 
again, defining it in yet more detail until the entire specification is detailed enough to validate the model 
(Internet 8).

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33 
the communicative approach, this means modeling listening strategies and providing 
listening practice in authentic situations, which are pupils likely to use outside the 
classroom. Willis on the classroom language suggests that teacher should use all the time 
the same phrases and structures to refer to specific listening materials. For example: 
•
Introducing the topic: We´ll be listening to a part of… and then complete a