Wolfgang Butzkamm

http://www.fremdsprachendidaktik.rwth-aachen.de/Ww/programmatisches/pachl.html

Wolfgang Butzkamm

We only learn language once. The role of the mother tongue in FL classrooms: death of a dogma.

(Published in: Language Learning Journal, Winter 2003, No 28, 29-39)

All the praise that is heaped on the classical languages as an

educational tool is due in double measure to the mother tongue, which
should more justly be called the ‘Mother of Languages'; every new language can only be established by comparison with it... (Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, 1806)
”If there is another ’language teaching revolution’ round the corner, it will have to assemble a convincing set of arguments to support some alternative (bilingual?) principle of equal power”. (Howatt, 1984: 298)

Abstract. Using the mother tongue, we have (1) learnt to think, (2) learnt to communicate and (3) acquired an intuitive understanding of grammar. The mother tongue is therefore the greatest asset people bring to the task of foreign language learning and provides a Language Acquisition Support System. This theory, which is an alternative to prevailing thought, is presented, explained and put into a historical perspective. The paper does not only redress an imbalance but concludes that drastic re-thinking of FL methodology is called for.

Background: A red card for the mother tongue

Since the Great Reform at the end of the 19^th century, the role of the mother tongue has been second only to grammar as the most discussed methodological problem. At present, the official guidelines in many countries recommend that lessons be planned to be as monolingual as possible, drawing on the mother tongue only when difficulties arise. A consensus has been reached in favour of a kind of monolingualism with small concessions: “There is little point in trying to stamp it out completely” (Harmer, 2001: 132). The mother tongue is generally regarded as being an evasive manoeuvre which is only to be used in emergencies. Effective bilingual teaching techniques are, therefore, as good as unknown in schools. It looks as though the so-called direct method, now operating under the new banner of the communicative approach, has triumphed.