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Teachers’ beliefs of the use of the students’ mother tongue: A

survey of tertiary English teachers in Indonesia.

Article · January 2004

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Nugrahenny Zacharias
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 Teachers’ beliefs about the use of the students’
mother tongue:
A survey of Tertiary English Teachers in Indonesia

NUGRAHENNY T ZACHARIAS
Faculty of Language and Literature,
Satya Wacana Christian University, Indonesia.

This study investigated the beliefs of tertiary teachers in Indonesia about

the use of the students’ mother tongue in learning English. In addition,
it explored whether there were discrepancies between the teachers’ beliefs
and what they claimed to be their classroom practices. This study found
out that the participants believed in the judicious use of L1 in the
classroom. Most teachers agreed that the use of L1 had potential benefits,
although many of them felt unsure as to how much the students’ mother
tongue should be used when teaching English. This study learned that
the potential use of the students’ mother tongue in the classroom needs
further exploration. This is crucial since virtually all literature on
communicative language teaching has advocated L2-only methods for
decades, and is therefore partly responsible for the unease which many
teachers, experienced and inexperienced, feel about permitting the use of
the L1 in the classroom.

Introduction
The idea of avoiding the mother tongue in language teaching dates back from the
direct method era (Harbord 1992). The subsequent growth of a British-based teacher
training movement out of the need to provide training for teachers working with
multilingual classes served to reinforce the strategy of mother tongue avoidance
(Harbord 1992). Traditionally, the use of the L1 is perceived to hinder the learning
of L2 even though the reasons for such avoidance are rarely stated (Cook 2001). Thus,
it is safe to assume that the avoidance of the students’ mother tongue is based solely
on a belief rather than research.
In recent years, ELT professionals have suggested examining the English-only approach
and providing more opportunities for the students’ mother tongue (see Prodomou
2001, Atkinson 1987, and Deller and Rinvolucri 2002). This is especially because
English is commonally taught in classes where the students and teachers share the
same mother tongue. In this situation, the students’ mother tongue could be used as
a resource for the teaching and learning of English.

44 EA JOURNAL VOLUME 22 NO 1
Despite the strong recommendations from ELT professionals and experts from the
Inner Circle, to my knowledge, little research has been conducted on how the teachers
in the Expanding Circle, particularly in Indonesia, perceive such a recommendation.
This article reports on one small study in Indonesia.

The Study
PARTICIPANTS
One hundred teachers participated in the study. Ninety four percent of these teachers
were non-native teachers of English. The majority of these teachers (seventy percent)
came from five universities in Central Java, Indonesia. The remaining thirty percent of
the respondents were teachers who attended the International Seminar on Language,
Literature and World Peace held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on 5-6 May 2003. Sixty
percent of the subjects were female and forty percent were male. All of the teachers
taught English at tertiary level. The majority held either a BA (52%) as their highest
degree, or an MA degree (42%), while the remaining 6% had a doctorate degree. The
teachers varied greatly in terms of age and the length of their teaching experience.

INSTRUMENTS
The data was collected through the use of questionnaire, interviews and classroom
observation. The aim of the questionnaire (see Appendix 1) was to identify the teachers’
beliefs in relation to the use of the students’ mother tongue for teaching English, and
the extent to which their beliefs were evident in their actual classroom practice. The
interviews and classroom observation were conducted on thirteen teachers teaching
in five universities in Central Java, Indonesia. They were selected on the basis of their
availability and willingness to be interviewed.

A number of classroom observations were conducted to cross check the extent to

which the teachers’ beliefs stated in the questionnaire were actually present in their
classroom practice. Due to time constraints, each teacher was observed only once. Each
class lasted for 100 minutes. A structured-checklist was used during the observation
and field notes were also taken.

The aim of the interview was to give the participants an opportunity to elaborate their
views about and their experiences in using the students’ mother tongue in teaching
English. The interview lasted between 15 and 20 minutes and was conducted both in
Bahasa Indonesia and English, although most respondents preferred to use English.

EA JOURNAL VOLUME 22 NO 1 45
Results and Discussion
Figure 1 presents the relevant data from the questionnaire about the use of the students’
mother tongue when teaching English.

To explain the meaning of new words

To explain grammatical concepts
To explain the content of reading texts
To check the students' understanding
To give feedback to individual students
To give instructions

80
70 62%
60 55%
50%
50
40 33%
30
20 13% 11%
10
0
Figure 1: Teachers’ beliefs about the use of the students’ mother tongue

The data shows that most respondents (80%) agreed that the students’ mother tongue
should be allowed in the English classroom. Only 20% of the respondents felt that
only English should be used. However, the opinions of those in favor of L1 use varied
with regard to the purpose of its use. The three reasons that were most frequently
cited were ‘explaining new words’ (62%), ‘checking students’ understanding’ (55%)
and ‘explaining grammar concepts’ (50%).

The first two reasons were never elaborated upon by the teachers, probably because
they felt that there was no need for any further explanation. As for the third reason,
some teachers said that they found it useful to use the students’ L1 in order to explain
grammatical concepts which were not present in the students’ native language, such
as the use of tenses. As Teacher J noted,
I use Bahasa Indonesia particularly to explain the different tenses in
English. Bahasa Indonesia does not have tenses … if I explain the
concepts behind these tenses using English, the students will be hard to
grasp and understand…

46 EA JOURNAL VOLUME 22 NO 1
Some teachers also said that they believed that using Bahasa Indonesia to teach
grammatical concepts would provide some motivation to the more reluctant learners.

The students’ mother tongue should be kept to a minimum

Although all respondents seemed to have a positive attitude towards the use of the
students’ mother tongue, almost all of them expressed the opinion that it should be kept
to a minimum. Other respondents even felt that the students’ mother tongue should
only be regarded as the last resort when all attempts to use English had failed.

One reason for this was the fact that the use of L1 would limit opportunities for
exposure to L2. In Indonesia, English is a foreign language and so exposure to English
is rather scarce. Therefore, all opportunities to expose students to the target language
should be used to the fullest. The following comments gathered from the questionnaire
illustrate this concept clearly:
The more L2 [English] is used in class, the more input the students will
get, and the more they hear, the more they will be ‘tuned in’ to the target
language.
To use the mother tongue is to eliminate opportunities of the students in
using or getting used to English. If not none at all, a minimal amount
of the mother tongue can be used, but only for emphasizing complicated
ideas after English is used first.
I know that using the target language as a medium of instruction is pretty
hard. The students will complain for the first two or three weeks. They
may have problems in comprehending the lesson. In fact, I had the same
experience when I was a student, but slowly and surely, I believe that
students will understand. We are teaching university students, so if we
don’t use English as a medium of instruction what else?
If possible, everything should be handled in English except for some
students whose English commands are poor; probably we will switch a
little bit to Bahasa Indonesia. But I can say that the use of English all the
time is very important. The second thing is because this is an exposure.
When my lecture spoke English all the time, tt was stressful but my
English developed. By being exposed to English all the time, students will
learn even without knowing that they are learning.
In conclusion, the data showed that the teachers believed in a judicious use of L1 in
the classroom. Underlying the practice of minimal use of L1 seems to be a theory of
language learning that states that for learning to take place, students have to operate
in the language.

EA JOURNAL VOLUME 22 NO 1 47
 The use of the students’ mother tongue in the classroom
This section discusses the extent to which the teachers’ beliefs discussed earlier are
reflected in what the respondents claimed to be their classroom practice. Figure 2
presents the relevant data from the questionnaire.

Regularly
Often
Sometimes
Rarely
Never

30%
30 28%
25 24%

20
15 14%

10
5 4%
0

Figure 2 : The actual use of the students’ mother tongue stated by the respondents
Figure 2 shows that only a very small proportion of the respondents claimed to use
the students’ mother tongue regularly. The percentages become a little higher for the
number of respondents who declared that they used the L1 often. However, most
respondents chose the middle of the scale – ‘sometimes’ –, while in certain cases, the
teachers selected ‘rarely’ and ‘never’ with a higher frequency, namely for the options
‘to explain the content of reading texts’ and ‘to give instructions’.
The picture thus reflects the beliefs discussed in the previous section. The high
frequency with which the respondents chose ‘sometimes’, in particular, may reveal
a certain degree of indecision. This is quite understandable since this topic, the use
of the students’ mother tongue in teaching English, has not been largely addressed
in Indonesia. In addition, the tendency towards the ‘never’ end of the scale is in
accordance with the belief that the use of the students’ mother tongue should be
kept to a minimum.

If, at this point, we now take into account the classroom observations, we can see

48 EA JOURNAL VOLUME 22 NO 1
that, despite the teachers’ willingness to use it as little as possible, the L1 was always
present in the classroom, in one way or another. The only teacher who never used
Bahasa Indonesia was a Canadian, who always used English throughout his classes
although he could speak Bahasa Indonesia.

It is interesting to note that although 62% of the respondents agreed with the use of
the L1 to explain the meaning of new words, in actual classroom practice most teachers
translated the English words into Bahasa Indonesia only as a last resort, typically
after attempting to explain the meaning of such words by means of paraphrases in
English.

In one case one teacher struggled explaining a lexical item in English even though he
could have probably done it more quickly and efficiently in Bahasa Indonesia. Again
this could indicate that for some respondents, the students’ mother tongue was to be
avoided as much as possible. The comments by Teacher F and Teacher G below are
particularly significant:
I use the mother tongue only 5%-10% at the most. I use the mother
tongue when I give an instruction and when many students are confused
with my explanation. If I could not express concepts or something well
in English, then I use Bahasa Indonesia but of course, I will try to use
English first.
Sometimes I will use English first then when I found students are confused
then I will switch to Bahasa Indonesia to make it clearer. Of course I will
try my best to use English first. If the students have already understood
with my explanation in English then, I just go on without using Bahasa
Indonesia.

Apart from the reasons discussed above, the students’ mother tongue was also used
during the explanation of theoretical concepts. When introducing ‘interlanguage’, for
example, Teacher C started by explaining the notion in English and then elaborated
in Bahasa Indonesia. When she was doing this, I heard students’ comments implying
that they understood the concepts better. Teacher E also used a similar strategy when
she explained ‘topic sentence’ and ‘controlling idea’ in her writing class.

Teacher I reinforced a concept presented earlier by giving examples drawn from the
students’ mother tongue. When he was teaching ‘meter’ and ‘tone’ in poems, for
example, he presented these notions by using simple poems in Bahasa Indonesia to
illustrate what meter and tone were. Later, after the students had understood the
concepts, he proceeded to give them exercises based on poems written in English.

EA JOURNAL VOLUME 22 NO 1 49
When asked why he used poems written in the students’ mother tongue, Teacher I
said that the students would understand concepts better:
…for non-skilled courses like teaching poems or the theory of literature, I
think it will be easier if we use examples using the language that students
understand better.
In teaching concepts, sometimes we [the teachers] also need to simplify difficult
language which is too theoretical into simpler one. And I think the most effective
way to do this is by using the students’ mother tongue.

Other respondents gave similar reasons for the use of the students’ mother tongue to
reinforce the presentation of new topics in a lesson.

Finally, the students’ mother tongue can be metaphorically described as ‘a shelter’.

That is, using the students’ mother tongue creates a less threatening atmosphere. One
way of doing it is by cracking jokes. Teachers C, D, E and J sometimes made jokes
in Bahasa Indonesia simply to ease the tension.

CONCLUSION
In general, the data show that the use of the students’ mother tongue in English
language teaching was viewed as potentially beneficial for certain purposes. At the same
time, there was a widespread conviction that the L1 should be kept to a minimum so as
not to forego opportunities for the students to be exposed to English. A certain degree
of hesitance was expressed due to the unclear distinction between what constituted use
and misuse of the mother tongue. The observation of classroom practice confirmed
this ambivalent attitude, but it also revealed that Bahasa Indonesia featured regularly
in the classroom, if in varying degrees. When the teachers resorted to the L1, it was
observed that in many cases the students responded favorably when their mother
tongue was used, especially for introducing theoretical concepts.

REFERENCES

Atkinson, D. (1987) The mother tongue in the classroom: a neglected resource?, ELT
Journal, 41(4):241-247.
Deller, M. and M. Rinvolucri (2002) Using the Mother Tongue: Making the most of the
learner’s language. London: First Person Publishing.
Cook, V. (2001) Second Language Learning and Language Teaching (3rd ed). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

50 EA JOURNAL VOLUME 22 NO 1
Harbord, J. (1992) The use of the mother tongue in the classroom, ELT Journal, 46(4):
350-355
Prodromou, L. (2002) From Mother Tongue to Other Tongue. http: //
www.geocities.com/cgabrielatos/Bone retrived: 16 April 2003.

Appendix 1:
The questionnaire

1. I think the use of the students’ mother tongue is advisable for

Checking students’ Explaining the content of reading

understanding. texts.
Giving feed-back to
Explaining grammar concepts.
individual students.
The students’ mother tongue
Giving instructions.
should never be used in class.
Explaining the meaning of
new words

2. Please provide a brief explanation for your choices above

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

EA JOURNAL VOLUME 22 NO 1 51
 3. When teaching English, I use my students’ mother tongue to:

REGULARLY OFTEN SOMETIMES RARELY NEVER

Check their
understanding
Give instructions
Explain the content
of reading texts
Explain the meaning
of words
Explain grammar
concepts
Give feed-back to
individual students

Nugrahenny T Zacharias has been teaching English at the Faculty

of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University in
Indonesia for four years. Her research interests include the use of the
students’ mother tongue in the classroom, the use of literature in ELT
and world Englishes.

52 EA JOURNAL VOLUME 22 NO 1

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