Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Studies in Linguistics and Language Teaching, Gül Koçsoy, Editör, Bidge Yayınları, Ankara, ss.51-93, 2024
L1 use in foreign language classes has been the subject of much debate and discussion and exposed to harsh criticism for its detrimental interfering effect on the target language for quite a long time. Very few studies though have aspired to investigate the potential uses of the first language. It’s been treated as a ‘taboo’ subject, and a source of embarrassment on the part of non-native speaker teachers. The MT has been used surreptitiously by those teachers who believe MT is the womb from which the second language is born. This issue is still discussed among many teachers and researchers and the dilemma of whether to include mother tongue in the foreign language classroom or not has remained unsolved. While Orthodox thinking excludes L1 use; new empirical evidence supports its presence. In view of limited research this case study aimed to examine the L1 practices of five Main Course instructors at Tertiary Level EFL setting through 3-weeks long observation to identify the functions of L1; ways which L1 assists L2 learning and the students’ attitudes towards L1 use. It focused on occasions of and reasons for L1 use. The data was collected in an illuminative/heuristic technique through classroom observations, observation checklists, audio recordings and qualitative student questionnaires. Based on the analysis of the data it was concluded that the instructors and the students used Turkish on similar occasions. Students’ limited knowledge in English was the most influential factor beneath L1 use. It was also found that if L1 is used in a judicious and systematic way, it can play a facilitating role as an invaluable resource and can have positive effects on Tertiary Level students’ integrated-skills based foreign language instruction.
Keywords: L1 use, mother tongue (MT), foreign language, target language (TL), input.