OBERVE 5.

STUDENT TALK AND THE USE OF MOTHER TONGUE

Language is for communication. In order to communicate in an EFL context, meaningful learning

opportunities should be created and students need to be given a real purpose. Traditional teaching and
mechanical learning reduces the opportunities to interact in L2. Moreover, students’ desire, ability, need
etc. to communicate would affect the outcomes of the learning process. Considering that our major aim
is to develop interactional and communicative competence, how much and/or how well the students
participate in communication is critical for teachers to evaluate their teaching. Another aspect of
classroom interaction is the use of mother tongue by the teacher and the students. The more the
teacher creates meaningful learning opportunities and facilitates language learning the less the students
feel the need to speak in the mother tongue. The teacher’s use of mother tongue also increases the
amount of L1 in the classroom.

Task Objective:

In this task we will focus our attention on student talk and the use of mother tongue by the students and
the teacher.

Procedure:

Before the Lesson:

Interview your cooperating teacher about the use of mother tongue in the classroom. Inquire about how
often, when and why s/he uses L1. What are some his/her strategies to prevent L1 and encourage the
use of L2? What are his/her reactions when students talk in L1?

During the Lesson:

1. Note down each time the students speak in L2 by using Table 5a below. Examine your table after
completing it and discuss the outcome (completed chart after your observation).
2. By using Table 5b, jot down mother tongue utterances spoken by the teacher and students and the
reasons for L1 use.

After the Lesson:

Compare your cooperating teacher’s ideas about L1 use with what you have observed in the classroom.

Reflection: What are your ideas about the use of mother tongue? Do you think that it is possible to
teach L2 via L2 at the high school level? What do you need to do to increase the use of L2? How can you
reduce the amount of L1 in the classroom both for you and your students? Do you think that
punishment is effective to prevent the use of L1?
Table 5a. Student talk in L2: Decide whether the student initiates talk or the teacher encourages the student
to talk. Then indicate the length of utterances by putting a “” under the relevant box.

Students St. initiates Teacher 1 Word 2 Words 3 words 4 words Longer No. of
talk encourages talk times st.
talks
St.1
St.2
St.3
St.4
St.5
St.6
St.7
St.8
St.9
St.10
St.11
St.12
St.13
St.14
St.15
St.16
St.17
St.18
St.19
St.20
St.21
St.22
St.23
St.24
St.25
St.26
St.27
St.28
St.29
St.30

(You can add more lines if your classroom is more crowded.)

 Table 5b. The use of the Mother Tongue: In the table below note down every L1 utterance by the teacher and the students and write the reasons for
their using L1.
Teacher’s L1 Utterances Reason Students’ L1 Utterances Reason