The role of mother tongue in teaching english to the first year students at thai nguyen university of education

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERISTY – HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE
AND INTERNATIONAL STUDY FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
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

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ĐỖ THỊ NGỌC PHƯƠNG

THE ROLE OF MOTHER TONGUE IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO THE

FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS
AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
VAI TRÒ CỦA TIẾNG MẸ ĐẺ TRONG VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH CHO
SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM THÁI NGUYÊN
M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD:

ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

CODE:

601410

SUPERVISOR: Dr. DƯƠNG THI NỤ

HANOI - 2012

TABLE OF CONTENT
Part 1: Introduction
1. Rationale.................................................................................................................................. 1
2. Aim of the research............................................................................................................... 2
3. Scope of the research........................................................................................................... 2
4. Significance of the study.................................................................................................... 2
5. Organization of the thesis.................................................................................................. 2
Part 2: Development
Chapter 1: Literature Review
1.1. Second language use and learning.............................................................................. 4
1.2. Language choice................................................................................................................ 5
1.2.1. Mother tongue or second language?......................................................... 5
1.2.2. Factors in language choice........................................................................... 7
1.3. L1 use in the classroom................................................................................................... 8
1.4. L1 transfer - linguistic theory of the role of the first language...................... 10
1.5. Grammar -translation Teaching versus Communicative Language Teaching
11
1.6. The Monolingual Approach versus the Bilingual Approach..........................13
Summary..................................................................................................................................... 15
Chapter 2: Methodology
2.1. Subjects of the study..................................................................................................... 16
2.2. Data collection instrument.......................................................................................... 16
2.3. Data analysis.................................................................................................................... 17
Summary..................................................................................................................................... 18
Chapter 3: The Result of the Study
3.1. The situation of English Teaching and the Learning at Thai Nguyen
University of Education........................................................................................................ 19

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3.2. Results of the survey questionnaire......................................................................... 21
3.3. Results of teachers' interview.................................................................................... 28
3.4. Results of classroom observation.............................................................................. 32
Summary..................................................................................................................................... 35
Chapter 4: Discussion and Implications
4.1. Discussion.......................................................................................................................... 36
4.2. Implications in teaching............................................................................................... 37
Part 3: Conclusion
1. Conclusions........................................................................................................................... 40
2. Limitations and suggestions for further research.................................................... 41
References
Appendices

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
L1:

First language

L2:

Second language

EFL:

English as Foreign Language

CLT:

Communicative Language Teaching

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LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS
Tables
Table 1: Reasons for the learning of English
Table 2: The use of mother tongue in second language class
Table 3: Situations for the teachers to speak in the first language
Table 4: Situations for the students to speak in the first language
Table 5: Reasons for using mother tongue in the English class
Table 6: Percentage of mother tongue - speaking time to be used by the teachers and
students
Table 7: Teachers' years of experience
Table 8: Teachers' opinion about the situations in which mother tongue should be used
Table 9:Teachers' opinion about the percentage of time per a lesson for the mother
tongue to be used in the language class
Table 10: Results of classroom observation on the purposes of using mother tongue
Table 11:The percentage of mother tongue - speaking time used by used by the
teachers and the students in the class observation
Charts
Chart 1: Students' years of learning English
Chart 2: Frequency of using mother tongue in class
Chart 3: Aspects of second language to be taught in mother tongue
Chart 4: The importance of mother tongue in the English class

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PART 1

INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
In the history of language teaching, while many methods have been created in
order to help learners study a second language (L2). People have started questioning
whether using mother tongue in English classes is useful or not. The attitude towards this
problem has changed dramatically over centuries and has been the subject of much debate
and controversy. It is known that there must be different teaching and learning methods
for different learners of different levels. The way the teachers use to teach the beginners
cannot be the same with the teaching method for the advanced learners.

However, many teachers and curriculum designers think that creating
communicative environment for learners is the best choice. It is true that in most
language classes, the teachers always create opportunities to help the students practice
and get familiar with the target language as much as possible. The communicative
environment here may be in the middle of the lecture when the teacher is lecturing or
communicating with their students in English. It will be quite easy for the higher levels
but to the beginners who have a limited range of vocabulary or grammar rules of the
target language, whether this method is useful is a problem. The modern teaching
methods focus on the practice and use of the target language as much as possible,
which will help the learners get familiar with the language they learn as well as
motivate them in the study. It is important to note that at the beginning level, the
learners do not have enough vocabulary and structures to understand and catch up with
the lesson in English. The questions are whether the first language plays an important
part in teaching the second language and how they are applied in teaching.
Being aware of those problems, the researcher would, therefore, like to conduct
this research to explore the impact of the mother tongue on the learning and teaching

of a second language with some hope that both the learners and teachers can find an
easier and more effective teaching and learning method.
Typically, the questions to be answered in this study are as follows:

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1. What are the impacts of mother tongue on the teaching and learning of English?
2. What are the degree and situations for the use of mother tongue in the teaching

and learning of English ?
2. Objectives of the study

From the rationale above, the aims of the study were set out in order to specify the
research as follows:
 Identifying the role of mother tongue in the teaching and learning of English at

Thai Nguyen University of Education
 Investigating the students' attitudes towards the use of mother tongue in

teaching and learning of English
 Suggesting the suitable degree and situations for using mother tongue among

the 1st year students at Thai Nguyen University of Education
3. Scope of the research

The research is confined to language use in classroom, especially the use of mother
tongue in teaching English. However, due to the time constraint, the study only
concentrates on the impact of mother tongue, namely Vietnamese and how to use it to
teach English for the first year non-English major students at Thai Nguyen University.

4.Significance of the study
This study is significant for several reasons. Firstly, it provides an overview of the
use the mother tongue in teaching the second language in general and in teaching English
in particular. Secondly, the author hopes this study can help the teachers to find a suitable
method to teach English as well as change their stereotype on the use of mother tongue.
Finally, this study also provides some suggestions on how to use the first language in an
appropriate way to avoid its negative effects on the students' learning.

5. Organization of the thesis
The graduation paper consists of three parts. Part 1, Introduction, introduces the
rationale, the scope and the ai ms of the study. Part 2, Development, consists of four
chapters: Chapter 1 provides the theoretical basis which supports the study, including
some mother-tongue – related discussions. Chapter 2 presents the issues of
methodology including the subjects of the study, data collection instruments and the

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procedures of data collection. Chapter 3 presents the results of a survey conducted for
the investigation of the use of the mother tongue in teaching English in classrooms at
Thai Nguyen University by means of analyzing the students‟ responses to
questionnaires and interviews with the teachers as well as classroom observations.
Following the results of chapters 2 and 3 is chapter 4, which gives some discussion for
the results and the implications in the teaching and learning English. Part 3 of the
thesis, Conclusion, includes the summary of the main findings of the study,
conclusions, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further study.

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PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter deals with different points of views on the first language and its
use in teaching and learning a second language. Besides, some teaching methods and
some kinds of language classes in which the mother tongue can be used are also
mentioned. It is strongly believed that those different opinions about the use of the
mother tongue in class will make some contributions to this research.
1.1. Second language use and learning
The use and practice of the second language is not that easy to most learners
when the L2 is rarely used in their society. It is generally accepted that that learning a
language without frequent use and practice is not effective. As Lightbown and Spada
(1993) ever noted, the second language learners also have to "pass through sequence of
development". Fortunately, it is the fact that the learners have a little opportunity to use
the second language (L2) outside the classroom. Therefore, it is important to maximize
the use of L2 in the language classroom through different activities in class. However,
it should be remembered that not all students have the same levels and competence in
using the target language. Lightbown and Spada (1993) enlightened that even in the
same classroom setting, there were still be some students that progress more rapidly in
learning a new language It will be impractical if the same amount and level of the
language are used for different types of learners. For the low - level learners, the
requirement of the use and practice of the target language should be suitable and
should not be too difficult. As being mentioned in the introduction section, there
should be different ways of using the language in class for learners with different
levels of English. It is known that advanced learners are good at listening and
interacting with difficult words and phrases in class without the explanation or help of
the teacher. The elementary level learners require a much simpler way of using a
foreign language in teaching.

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In many situations in which the learners share the same first language, there is a
tendency that the tasks which should be done in L2 (e.g. conversation preparation,
discussion, preparation for writing.) can be done in L1. Many teachers may disapprove
of the use of the first language in the language classroom. However, according to Paul
Nation (2003) there are some reasons for the use of the first language. Firstly, it is
easier and more communicatively effective to use L1 because some of the learners do
not have enough knowledge of the language they are learning to express their ideas.
Secondly, that the teacher‟s frequent use of L2 in class may be incomprehensible for
shy and low-level learners, thus they become inactive in discussions.
1.2. Language choice
1.2.1. Mother tongue or second language?
Basically, the mother tongue is learnt first and the second language is learnt
after a period of time in human beings' life. A child often learns a language naturally.
However, those who learn a second language later in their life are often influenced by
many other factors outside the classroom. One of those is the prior knowledge of the
language which they have learnt. In other words, it is widely believed that someone
who has a good knowledge of their prior language can learn another language more
easily. Or, as we can say, the way babies learn a language (mother tongue) is natural
but the way that school children or adults who have different or developed cognitive,
mental and conceptual capacities pick up their a language is not as natural as babies
do. It is generally argued that what a person has learnt from their previous language
will have great influence on their current target language. Therefore, when we talk
about second language teaching we should take into account the knowledge and skills
of their first language that the learners bring into their target language. It is what we
call the switching or transform from L1 to L2. In the past, most methods in L2
teaching pedagogy dictated that L1 should be minimized or prohibited in the
classroom. However, in the real practice of English language teaching, it proves that
this attitude is not totally effective. Lynn Cameron (2001) stated the gap between that

theory and practice. According to the researcher, those approaches seem to "ignore the
possibility that certain use of a common mother tongue might also contribute to

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foreign language learning". The question of whether students' first language should be
used in the teaching of foreign language has been debated for many years. Many
people support the idea that mother tongue should be used in class in order to help the
learners to understand the lesson better. In a monolingual classroom, the target
language is supposed to be the only language used in class which can offer the learner
opportunity and learning environment to study the language. However, it is
misjudgment to say that the L2 learners will not think in their mother tongue.
Otherwise, there are many controversial points of view that mother tongue should not
be used in language class. Those people who agree with this stated that mother tongue
can prevent the students from the frequent use of the target language. In other words,
the rationale for the use of L2 in class is that the more the students use the target
language in class, the more quickly they can learn and also it can help them to think in
English. Therefore, teachers are told not to use L1 for the benefits of their learners.
Douglas Brown, admitted that "the facilitating effects of the native language are surely
powerful in the process or more so, even though they are less observable." And to
avoid the "first language crutch syndrome", he somehow agreed with the idea of the
"direct use of the second language in class. However, in practice, this approach seems
practical and true only for the advanced learners and those who have a good
knowledge of the target language they are learning. The non-native teachers of lowlevel students find that L2 only is rather ideological than pedagogical. There are many
situations in which even the EFL teachers and learners, in practice, cannot handle the
situation in teaching and learning without the help of mother tongue. To those people,
first language is said to be the switching or transference from mother tongue to foreign
language use. When learners study a second language, it is necessary for them to have
a certain experience and knowledge of the communication in their mother tongue. The

reference to the mother tongue is necessary and useful in the learning of another
language so that it can help the learners not to feel unfamiliar with the new language
and handle the situation in communication more easily. In the course book " Practical
techniques for Language teaching", Lewis once stated that despite the danger of word -

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to -word translation in using English, there are also situations in which first language
is of great importance in learning and teaching second language.
1.2.2. Factors in language choice
The level of the learners: It is the most important factor that decides whether to
use first language or target language in the classroom. According to Lynn Cameron, the
amount of the first language to be used in class depends on the learners' ability rather than
the teachers' proficiency. For instance, with the learners who have a low level of language,
it is impractical for the teachers to use the target language all the time. For many years,
learners - centered approach has been considered important to all educators. Hence, the
amount of knowledge that the learners can pick up is really of great importance. In this
case, students with different levels of English will have different levels of competence in
comprehending what is being said during the lesson. Whether the learners with a low level
of English can understand English only lesson is a big question.

Emphasis: Another important factor that may influence the way of choosing
the language in language classes is the emphasis of the lesson. In other words, as Lynn
Cameron said, the choice of the language in the lesson depends on the importance of
what is being said. Additionally, she also emphasized that the use of the first language
may reflect the seriousness of the problems in order to help the learners have clear
understanding of the problem. As being mentioned, this way proves to be the most
suitable for the low-level learners who have a poor knowledge of the target language.
In order to avoid the misunderstanding in the process of study, the teachers sometimes

can use the mother tongue to explain.
Alignment: It is necessary to create the feeling of being aligned with the
students. It is the fact that most beginners of English often feel shy and unconfident in
class when they are forced to speak in the target language. It is natural when a student
with a poor knowledge of the language is lazy in participating in class activities. The
passiveness in the class can cause the demotivation in learning. On the other hand,
there is a fact that most teachers appreciate the English only policy in class and try to
speak in the target language all the time. It will be suitable for the learners who are at
advanced levels or have a good knowledge of English in order to comprehend the

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whole lesson. The English only policy sometimes will make the learners feel
unfamiliar and unconnected to the class. Lynn Cameron has shown that the choice of
language can reflect the teachers' alignment to the students, or, in other words. how
much the teacher is "on their side".
1.3. L1 use in the classroom
It cannot be denied that in order to master a language, the practice and frequent
use of the language play an important part. However, to the beginners ò language,
using a second language in the initial stage is difficult. According to Brian McMillan
(2009), the use of the mother tongue is considered as "contravening the basic premises
of immersion". Each teacher has her own way of teaching the ESL learners in order to
help them pick up the target language effectively. It is widely believed that the most
usual way of starting from the easiest thing to the most difficult one will be suitable for
learners with certain levels. By this means, the use of L1 in the classroom is the same.
"The amount used was not dependent on teacher's proficiency since they could
all use English fluently and confidently. Rather, the different seems to come from the
teachers' perception of their pupils' ability and the status of the school"
(Lynn Cameron, p.201)

It is the student's ability, as Lynn Cameron ever stated, that decides the amount
of the first language to be used. It means that in the process of preparation for the
lesson, the teacher should investigate and change the way of using the language in the
classroom so as to help the students anticipate in the lesson. With high-level or
academic students, first language should be less used. On the contrary, to those who
have a poor knowledge of English and low levels, the amount of the mother tongue is
certain to be bigger. However, it is not recommended that the first language is always
used in the whole lesson. According to Lynn Cameron, despite the low level of the
students, "the core of language content" remains in the target language.
However, as being said above, the use of the first language can bring negative
influence. There are reasons for the teachers to be cautious of the use of the first
language. In fact, the beginners of English often rely on their previous language
knowledge to help them understand the structure, organization and principles behind

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the target language. First language in the classroom should be used with care because
its wrong use can lead to a wrong direction and bad result in the learning process.
"When to use", "where to use" and "how to use" should be questioned exactly and
carefully before the decision on the amount of the first language is made.
According to Lewis (1985), there are some situations in which the first
language is useful. In class, if the students have a difficult problem, it will be natural
for both the teacher and students to speak in the first language. He also emphasized
that the teacher does not need to make the situation become more difficult to the
students just by insisting them to talk in English.
What will happen in the classroom cannot be predicted. The teacher
himself/herself should prepare for each difficult situation to happen. Although there
are some techniques that can reinforce the students' motivation in learning, it is not
recommended to use the mother tongue all the time in class. However, "ignore the

mother tongue in the monolingual classroom is almost certainly to teach with less than
maximum efficiency" (Atkinson, 1987, p243-244). So, in which situation should the
mother tongue be used?
 Giving suggestions: Using students' native language to elicit language can be

really helpful in some ways. For example, when the teacher wants to give
suggestions to the students to say something or ask about the vocabulary like
"How do you say X in English?". In stead of using any kind of illustration or
pictures, there is some kind that takes less time and less ambiguity.
 Checking comprehension: According to David Atkinson, mother tongue can be

used to check comprehension of the concept behind the structure or
comprehension of the listening or reading text.
 Giving instruction: Atkinson's reason for using mother tongue in this case is "

Give the instruction in the target language and ask for their repetition in the
students' language to ensure that everyone fully understands what to do."
 Group discussion: Atkinson suggested that both the languages should be used in

group discussion for the early level because in the foreign language there may be
some aspects that are "unfamiliar or initially unacceptable to some students."

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1.4. L1 transfer - linguistic theory of the role of the first language
There are many researches on the relationship between mother tongue and second
language learning. The aim of those studies is to find out the influence of the mother
tongue on the process of second language teaching and learning. It is important to
remember that the students do not step into the classroom with empty heads but they

have lived and communicated in their mother tongue for a long period of time. Also, it
is not a coat that can be taken off easily and thrown away before a student enters a
foreign classroom. What the learners have learnt from their mother tongue is firmly
printed in their minds. Consequently, it is not easy to ignore the transfer of their
mother tongue and only use English to think. It is natural for them to consider the
mother tongue as a medium to link the foreign language and their thinking together. In
order to have a clear look at the previous points of views of the L1 effects on L2
learning, it is important to clarify its effects on L2 learning in terms of linguistic views.
According to Ellis (1998), L1 transfer refers to the "influence that the learners'
L1 exerts over the acquisition of a L2". It is known that the first language has great
effect on the way a person picks up a new language. To the beginners of L2 who are
not familiar with the rules of the target language, it is natural to bring the rule of their
first language into the target language in the process of learning. Therefore, the content
of the mother tongue is very easy to influence the use of the foreign language.
However, it is not a best solution to force the beginners to speak the target language
and follow those unfamiliar rules. The pedagogical experts suggested a "L1 transfer"
period for the L2 learners which can help them to get used to a new language.
According to Ellis, L1 transfer can have both positive and negative effects.
When the relevant units or structures of the two languages are the same, the L1
transfer can lead to a correct language production. It is called positive transfer. In other
words, it is likely to occur when learners recognize common features among concepts,
principles, skills, structures of the two languages. Then the theory which is applied to this
language learning can also exist in the other. One common feeling and thoughts of all
language learners is that they have tendency to be shy and afraid of taking part in the
lesson if they do not know anything about what they are learning. By this means, those

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similarities among different languages in the world and the first language, or what we

call "language transfer", can facilitate learning. Many teachers' explanation of the
reason for using language transfer in the classroom is that the ESL learners tend to feel
more confident and motivated if they know "something" about the target language.
Positive transfer is very helpful to foreign language teachers and learners. That is to
say, the learners‟ mother tongue can facilitate their foreign language learning.
On the other hand, when the language characteristics of the two languages are not
completely similar, the mother tongue will not help the students to learn well. It can
even result in their big errors in the process of learning which is called negative
transfer. The negative transfer is most likely to occur when the learner incorrectly
believes that these are common features and improperly links the information while
encoding it, or incorrectly sees some value in using information from one setting to
another. It is also known as negative interference. When there are differences in a
structure between two languages, the different points will always be the difficulty for
the learners. Rob Ellis, in his "second language acquisition", stated that in the early
day of second language teaching, negative transfer was considered "the result of
interference". That is why first language was "supposed to prevent the learners from
learning the habits of second language." (Ellis, 1997)
However, in fact, the result of positive transfer seems to be unnoticed. According
to Ellis (1997), "the differences between the target and native languages do not always
result in learning difficulty". Generally speaking, the more similar the two languages
are, the more the learners will be aware of the relation between their structures,
vocabulary, linguistics, the more input the learners can have.
1.5. Grammar -translation Teaching versus Communicative Language Teaching:
In the era of technology and communication nowadays, each person is required
to know at least a foreign language in order to communicate with other people from
many countries. That demands from the society has given the learners many new
challenges. The change in the world of work also makes all schools change their ways
of teaching. For centuries, the foreign language has been taught with Grammar translation method, which was first called the classical method (Douglass

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Brown,1994). To put it more simply, this method was used to teach foreign language
for the sake of being scholar in that language, not for oral competence. This classical
method, which was first used before the nineteenth century is still in practice in many
schools nowadays under the name of grammar -translation teaching method. In
Grammar translation method, the influence of the mother tongue on second language
learning and teaching is partly an important factor. It is known that the first language is
formed first and, to some extent, affects the way of thinking and use of the foreign
language. The language transfer, according to many experts, has great influence on the
way of learning a foreign language. On the one hand, it can help us understand the
influence of one language on the other; for example, how the errors appear in the
process of learning because of language transfer. By this means, understanding those
influences, the students will be able to avoid such errors in producing and performing
second language. In other words, first language transfer can have some positive
influences on the learning of the second language. So, how is the Grammar Translation
method used? Douglas Brown (1994) once agreed with the characteristics listed by the
two experts Prator and Celce-Murcia before that classes should be taught in mother
tongue with the little use of the second language. Richards (2001) also agreed with the
contribution of the mother tongue in teaching second language in Grammar translation
method but he considered the use of first language as "the medium of instruction". He
also emphasized that mother tongue is only used to " explain new items and to enable
comparisons to be made between the foreign language and student's native language".
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is the learner-centered method
and it emphasizes communication and real-life situations. The role of the teacher in
CLT is quite different from traditional teaching methods. In the traditional classroom,
the teacher is in charge and “controls” the students. In CLT, the teacher serves as more
of a facilitator, allowing students to be in charge of their own learning. The main
difference is that In CLT classroom, the students are required to use the second
language all the time in order to practice using the target language. It is considered as

"English only" classes. However, Lewis (1985) said that although using mother tongue
in class can bring a lot of danger in the process of learning a foreign language, the

14


teacher should not be afraid of students' mother tongue. As being mentioned above, the
use of second language must depend on the student's level. Lewis also thought that the
best way is to use both the languages in class. For example, in a discussion activity,
some students may not have enough English vocabulary to express their ideas while
the others can be good at it. Both of those kinds of students can share ideas, help and
learn from each other. He emphasized that the students' native language should be used
in some "clearly defined areas" to make the activities in class more interesting and to
achieve "a higher standard of English". Mother tongue can be regarded as the bridge or
the means for the students of low level of English to express what they want to say.
According to Atkinson (1987), after knowing what the learners want to say. the teacher
then can "encourage them to find a way of expressing their meaning in English, or, if
necessary, help out"
1.6. The Monolingual Approach versus The Bilingual Approach
Communicative language teaching is becoming the most effective teaching
method nowadays. Many people have realized its benefits when using CLT in teaching
and learning second language.
In the previous section, the opposite views of the use of L1 in L2 classroom have
been stated as a current problem in teaching methodology. In many English classrooms,
mother tongue is becoming useless. Native teachers are considered better than the EFL
teachers. The English only policy is the best choice in language classes. Those who
support the monolingual approach in language classroom state that L1 can give the
hindrance to the students in the process of learning L2. However, as mentioned, the
support for the use of L1 in language classroom has been increasing which indicates that
the appropriate use of L1 can lead to a significant success of teaching and learning

language. So, what are Monolingual approach and Bilingual approach?
In many Asian countries where English is considered the second language and a
compulsory subject in many universities, the teachers are encouraged to use "English
only" policy in the classroom. This English only policy is what we call monolingual
approach. As discussed in the previous section, this approach is supported by those who
consider L1 as a hindrance in teaching and learning second language. Krashen (1982)

15


Fsuggested the "first language interference" as the "major source of syntactic errors in
adult second language performance" or the "indication of low acquisition" In other
words, in monolingual classes, the target language is the only language that is allowed
to be used. This approach is often conducted by the native-speaker teachers who
believe that it can provide the best language environment for students to learn the
target language. Students in monolingual classes are assumed to be able to learn
English faster and to have better performance.
In contrast, according to Phillipson (1992), monolingual approach seems to be
"impractical" and "seldom carried out through" in practice and "its very existence puts
the teacher into false position". The low-level students have a small vocabulary,
limited to a narrow range of topics, with a limited knowledge of colloquial use, and
confused about the word orders. None of these situations are rare in English-only
classrooms, but the important is the level of the language here; for example, a
vocabulary of 500-1500 words in the target language compared to 2500-4000 in
English. The teacher in a monolingual classroom can assume that students have a good
knowledge of English and can make use of that knowledge. In many cases, EFL
teachers of the monolingual class at lower levels of English can find prohibition of the
mother tongue to be practically impossible in teaching. Instead of looking at the
students' native language and cultural background as inferior or a source of errors, they
accept the native language to be used as a tool to maximize foreign language learning.

The mother tongue represents a powerful resource that can be used in a number of
ways to enhance learning but it must always be used in a principled way.
To put it more simply, bilingualism is about two languages or the ability to speak
and write in both languages (productive competence). According to Baker (2006), many
teachers see bilingual "as two monolinguals in one person". It means the ability to use two
languages at the same time. First language has long been considered as a lower language
and a source of errors in teaching and learning. This view is now being criticized because
EFL teachers have become more aware of the significance of L1. Richards (1994) agreed
that in bilingual classrooms, the bilingual approach can help the teachers to" successfully

16


communicate his or her intensions, maintain student's engagement in instructional
tasks and monitor students' performance on class".
In fact, most language classes consist of a large amount of non-native speaker
students who have a low level of English, so most of them often have limited
understanding of what is being said in "English-only" class. The teacher in the
bilingual classroom can be reasonably sure that the learners' knowledge in the target
language is not good enough to understand the difficult English structure.
Summary
In the foreign language teaching, it has been suggested that we should create a
"pure foreign language environment. It is no doubt that it is helpful to make the
students improve their foreign language level. However, is it suitable for the students
who only have a poor knowledge of the target language or just start learning it? The
differences of the language ability between low-level and advanced learners cannot be
denied. In this cases, the mother tongue can be helpful to motivate or play as a
"language transfer" in the second language learning. The debate on whether it is
helpful to use mother tongue in English class is still fierce. The ESL teacher should be
careful in choosing language and the amount of using the first language in class. There

is always two sides of one thing, but there is no doubt that the first language is quite
essential for low-level non-native students of English.

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CHAPTER 2

METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the issues of methodology, which provides the audience with the
methods that the researcher used to collect and analyze data, including the subjects of the
study and the instrument for data collection. The explanations of how the work was conducted
as well as the reasons for the choice of the methods are also given in this chapter.

2.1. Subjects of the study
The subjects of this study will be about 110 first-year students of Thai Nguyen
University of Education and the teachers of the Foreign Language Faculty of Thai
Nguyen University of Education. These 110 students have different levels of English
because they are from different areas of the country. Some (coming from city) have
learnt English for 9 years, while others(coming from mountainous areas where English
is not considered very important) are just the beginners of English. The teachers of this
study are those who have been teaching English for a long time and have much
experience in teaching methodology.
2.2. Data collection instrument
The study will consist of three parts with different subjects. One part will
involve a survey questionnaire and the other parts will be an interview and a classroom
observation.
The questionnaire consists of a number of open-ended and closed-ended
questions printed and typed in a definite order and form and submitted to a sampling
population. The responses of the questionnaire are elicited and used for the study of

the research. The purpose of the survey questionnaire is to examine the role of the
mother tongue and the students' attitudes towards the use of the mother tongue in the
teaching and the learning of English. One of the advantages of the survey
questionnaire is that the writer can collect the opinions in the fastest way but it still
guarantees the accuracy and honesty of the results. Griffee (2012) agreed that
questionnaire can be used to gather the data in a short period of time and also help to
collect data in a group which is too large to observe directly.. The persuasive numbers

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of the results will assist exactly the role of the first language in teaching second
language. It is often a good way of collecting a large number of quantitative data. The
questionnaire consists of 8 questions with different contents about the learners' use and
attitudes towards the use of the mother tongue in the language classroom. the questions
range from ticking (√) to multiple choice. For each question, the participants are
suggested to give their thought or explain their answer if necessary.
The interview will aim at finding the teachers' opinions about the use of the mother
tongue in teaching English and how they use it in their lessons. Many researcher
considered interviewing as a friendly method in research because it does not require
any statistical analysis (Griffee, 2012). The interview is conducted in English since all
of the teachers are specialists in English while the survey questionnaire was in the
mother tongue (Vietnamese). The reason for this is that most of the teachers in this
study have been teaching for at least 10 years; therefore, their opinions are useful for
my research in evaluating the effectiveness of using the first language in the teaching
of the second language. Collecting data from the learners' point of view and the
teacher's point of view, who are the participants of the language lessons, can provide
the researcher a full picture of the fact in using native language in the classroom.
The last part will focus on classroom observation in order to experience the fact of the
use of the mother tongue in English classes. It will be able to help avoid the subjective

elements in collecting data. The observation is carried out in 10 English classes of Thai
Nguyen University of Education. The students' use and attitude in the language class will
be counted as well as the teachers' use of the mother tongue. An observation sheet was
prepared in order to have the exact categories that the researcher needs to observe. In
addition, to make sure of the reliability of the result, no participant is announced about the
content of the observation beforehand. In this way, the researcher can identify the way the
teachers use the mother tongue and the fact of using it in class.

2.3. Data analysis
After being collected, the data will be further interpreted and analyzed. The data
consisted of both quantitative and qualitative questionnaires with 110 students and an
interview with 10 teachers. The respondents provide the information using standard

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closed and open-ended questions about their perception and reaction towards the use of
the mother tongue in the language class. After all the data are collected, they are analyzed
to have the best overview on the use of the native language in English lessons.

Then the data will be categorized and the number of the answers will be counted.
The statistic result will be counted with the following formula:
N1
P=

N2 x100 %
In which:
P = percentage
N1 = the number of the participants choose an item
N2 = The total number of the participants

The result and data are shown in numbers of tables and charts in order to have the
best view on the fact of using L1 in the L2 classroom and to compare variables in each
question. In the interview part, the data is collected and analyzed basing on the teachers'
opinion about several interview questions. The responses for the interview questions will
be sorted out and analyzed in terms of the similarity in the content of the response.

The result of the classroom observation will be counted by the number of times
that the teachers use Vietnamese for a single purpose on the observation sheets. These
data are then analyzed and compared to find out in which situations the teachers often
use the mother tongue most in reality. Also, the recorded time of the use of mother
tongue in class by both the teachers and students is counted approximately only. This
data is then compared with the results of survey questionnaire and interviews.
Summary
This chapter provides a detailed description of the methodology employed in
this study. The first-year students of K46 course and the English teachers of the
foreign language faculty at Thai Nguyen University of Education are chosen to
participate in this study.

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CHAPTER 3

THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY
The previous theoretical part focuses on the general aspects of using the mother
tongue and the target language in foreign language classes. The following part
concentrates more on the practical use of the mother tongue in the classroom as well
as the learners' responses and attitudes towards the use of the native language. The
teachers' points of view and the class observation are also considered as an important
data collection instrument to support the hypothesis of the study.

3.1. The situation of English Teaching

and the Learning at Thai Nguyen

University of Education
In order to understand the study and support the research, it is important to
identify the teaching and learning condition of Thai Nguyen University.
Thai Nguyen University has more than ten thousand students learning in different
faculties, which all have the need to equip their students with certain knowledge of English
for their majors. However, many of the students are the beginners of English. Some have
learnt English for 3 years at high school. Others have never learnt it before. This really leads
to some difficulties for the teachers in their teaching because of the differences in the
students‟ level. Additionally, for the students from mountainous areas who do not have many
chances to use English in everyday life like those in the big city, English is a difficult subject
to master. The lack of knowledge as well as some important skills in English is an obstacle to
most students to understand the whole lesson in English. Furthermore, the number of students
per class is too big for the teachers to control the whole class during the lesson. With the
number of more than 50 students per class, it is impossible for the teacher to take care of each
student and observe how t hey learn during the semester. In those conditions, the question is
whether using monolingual method can bring effectiveness in the lesson.
Before the fact in using the mother tongue in the class and its contribution to the study
of the second language in the student's points of view was found out, the reasons for learning
English were given to all the participants.

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Table 1: Reasons for the learning of English
Reasons to learn English
1. English is a compulsory subject

2.English is an international language, so it's useful for communicative
purposes
3. Both
It is known that English is a compulsory subject at most high school. Therefore,
many of the students have been familiar with English and learnt some basic English
grammar at school. However, according to the survey, many students (56%) tended to
learn English for the reason that it is a subject that is required at school. This purpose
will have great effect on the students' attitudes as well as the way they gain knowledge
in class. In other words, to promote and stimulate those students in class, besides
interesting activities, it is necessary to make them feel more confident and know what
they are studying. 26% of the students chose to learn English for communicative
purposes, while the number of the students who learn English for both reasons is 18%.
It means that although most of the learners do not realize the importance of English in
their life, there are still a number of students who want to learn it for the
communicative purpose or for their future jobs.
Chart 1: Students' years of learning English
23%

45%

12%