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In my experience, teachers often have quite strong feelings about the use of a pupil’s L1 (first language) in the classroom - it is either encouraged or forbidden. Garcia and Sylvan (2011) describe monolingual education as outdated in our current ‘globalized’ world and discourage the practise of imposing only one language. In fact, they suggest that teachers should support students in developing their awareness of their first language as well as the language of instruction. Although this may not feel entirely practical, as in order to do this, the teacher often feels the need to be competent in all of the languages being used in the classroom. However, it is possible to support L1. Have a look at some strategies recommended by Scott (2016):
The importance of developing the mother tongue is now widely accepted among researchers. Cummins is at the forefront of this discussion as he contends that knowledge in one language helps learners to understand information in another language (2000). Other researchers such as Atkinson (1987) and Kim (2011) advocate the importance of the mother tongue in the classroom and suggest that the L1 is an invaluable tool. In Kim’s (2011) study it was clear that the use of the mother tongue, specifically translation, helped the learners to recognize the importance of accuracy and led them to be more objective about their writing.
The accompanying material devised aims to facilitate vocabulary building through translation. It is considered good practice to provide students with vocabulary lists, and these often come with a definition. However, the definition is often too abstract for the pupils to fully comprehend and they would benefit far more from seeing the word in context. The material combines translation with example sentences.
References:
Atkinson, D. (1987) The mother tongue in the classroom: a neglected resource? ELT Journal, Volume 41, Issue 4, 1 October 1987, Pages 241–247, access here
Cummins, J. (2000) Language, Power and Pedgogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
GARC´IA, O. & SYLVAN, C. (2011) Pedagogies and Practices in Multilingual Classrooms: Singularities in Pluralities, The Modern Language Journal, 95/3
Kim, E. (2011) Using translation exercises in the communicative EFL writing classroom, ELT Journal, Volume 65, Issue 2, 1 April 2011, Pages 154–160
Scott, C (2016) How you can support students’ mother tongue development International School Magazine, Volume 18, Issue 3
Brewster, Ellis and Girard (2012) discuss the idea of playing Bingo or Dominoes as games for connecting various curriculum areas. Brewster (2012) explains that playing games like these can be a support for learning target vocabulary, for example, playing a Dominoes game before or after reading where learners can either match the words or the pictures together as they listen is an excellent way to learn the target language. You may be studying the human skeleton vocabulary in the game and making connections to the class book e.g.
Marking and feedback is a crucial part of any teacher’s workload, and is essential for EAL learners. The importance of good-quality marking and feedback has been evidenced by many academic professionals, notably William & Black (1998) and, more recently, William (2018) and Hattie (2012). Hattie discusses the idea of rigorous approaches to marking and feedback, stating that through assessing learners, teachers themselves learn about their own impact: “As a professional, it is critical to know they impact.
How often do you hear these in the school playground? And actually, not just in the playground… Do you know which language they are from? Have a guess!
(Here is the answer: Mandarin, Ukrainian, Turkish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Urdu, Polish)
When you walk around your school, I bet you can hear words and phrases in different languages whispered or spoken out loud in the corridors, the lunch hall, and lessons too (if you listen really carefully!).