Using Mother Tongue teaching foreign languages

Using Mother Tongue teaching foreign languages.

Reported by: Bahodirova.M

What is mother tongue?

Definition of the Mother Tongue

It is any language that the learners have learned during childhood.

Researches say:

The majority of EFL teachers use the learners’ mother tongue in class and the learners themselves use their mother tongue frequently in class. However, most teachers know little about how, when and why to use the mother tongue in their teaching English as a foreign language.

Two Key Questions to Discuss

When should and when shouldn’t you use the mother tongue and why?

How can you use it?

You Shouldn’t Use the Mother Tongue

1. Giving instructions.

2. Use classroom language, e.g. Good morning, Sit down, etc.

3. Teaching new vocabulary.

4. Teaching speaking practice activities.

5. Allowing the learners to do grammar exercises in pairs.

6. Doing a translation activity with students from the mother tongue to English.

You Should Use the Mother Tongue

1. Giving instructions to do a complex or a new activity.

2. Checking students understood your explanation when teaching new vocabulary.

3. Teaching very difficult words, especially abstract words and can’t find a picture or ask a CCQ to check the meaning.

4. Telling the students a difference between the mother tongue and English.

5. Explaining a grammatical item that has no equivalent in the mother tongue.

6. Allowing the learners to take notes about a grammatical or a vocabulary item especially when they are comfortable about that or when the item is difficult.

Thank You for

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