A review on “ An empirical study of the
use of the mother tongue in the L2 reading class”
PGDELT 2001 HUANG XIN
1.
Introduction
In the field of EFL research,
the role of mother tongue in the classroom instruction has long been a
controversial issue. In theoretical studies, researchers tended to discourage
the use of the mother tongue. Accordingly, in pedagogical practice, teachers
were always persuaded to avoid using the mother tongue in the classroom. An
established tendency seemed to focus on negative effect of the mother tongue in
EFL classroom context.
However, there has been
a different voice since the beginning of researching on the effect of the
mother tongue, which stands in opposite to the attitudes described above. And,
during 1990s, the voice has become increasingly powerful both in research and
pedagogy. Such a voice encourages the use of the mother tongue to a certain
extent and on certain occasions in the EFL classroom.
In this review, I will
try to report on an empirical study conducted in EFL classroom in China. The
study will show a striking change of trend in the theoretical concept as well
as in pedagogy.
2. Review of
the Study
The present study was
conducted by Tang Jinlan, from
Beijing Foreign Studies University. Her article on the report of the study was
published in “Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics” Vol. 5 (2), 2000, with
the title “ An empirical study of the use of the mother tongue in the L2
reading class”.
As is defined in the “
Introduction” of the article, the aim of the present study is to investigate
how the mother tongue is used and the purposes for using it, and to discover
the attitudes of both teachers and students toward its use.
In the first place, the
author reviewed the literature in the field of the present study. She briefly
made a historical glimpse of the main trends concerning the effect of the
mother tongue in EFL classroom context. According to her description, the first
trend was prevailed by monolingual approach. In this trend, Krashen (1981) and
his followers argued that the use of the mother tongue in the learning process
should be prohibited to a minimum.
However, during the past
15 years , criticisms have been poured upon the monolingual orthodoxy and more
and more professionals in the field have become increasingly aware of the role
the mother tongue plays in the EFL classrooms. In this trend, Nunan & Lamb
(1996), Drnyei & Kormos (1998), and Auerbach (1993) contributed to
enhancing the theoretical grounds for justifying the affirmative effects of
using the mother tongue under certain circumstances. A number of empirical
studies were also conducted to prove the supporting function of the judicious
use of the L1 in the language classrooms. These researchers include Schweer
(1999) in Spanish context and Turnbull (2000) in French. Tang’s study is actually
a partial replication of Schweer’s (1999) study, thus adding to the flourishing
of the trend.
The study tried to
answer the following questions: “(1). Is Chinese as the mother tongue used in
the tertiary level English reading classroom and for what purposes? (2). What
are the attitudes of the students and teachers toward using Chinese in the
classroom?”(Tang ,2000).The participants of the study were 120 first-year
English major students with intermediate language level at a university in Beijing
and 30 teachers at the same university..
The researcher tried to
use both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect data. In a qualitative
way, classroom observations and interviews were adopted. Questionnaires were
also designed to get data for qualitative analysis. Classroom observations were
used to find out how frequently Chinese was used and on what occasions it was
used. Interviews aimed at the reasons why the English teachers sometimes
preferred using Chinese to English in their classes. And, two questionnaires
were designed by following Schweer’s (1999) instrument to discover both
teachers and students’ attitudes toward using Chinese in the English
classrooms.
The article then reports
on the results of the study. Classroom observations show that Chinese was used
by the three teachers in their English reading classes for giving instructions,
explaining the meaning of words, complex ideas and complex grammar points. And
the frequencies of the uses on different occasions are illustrated in Table1
(Tang, 2000). Thus, Chinese actually played a supporting and facilitative role
in these classrooms.
Secondly, interviews
also show that using some Chinese in the classrooms was necessary and its
advantages outweighed its disadvantages. The interviewed teachers were in
support of using Chinese because: (1) it saved time for students to practice
and get exposure to English; (2) it helped comprehend the meaning of the
English sentences promptly, easily and properly; (3) it helped interpret
difficult and complicated points.
Finally, results of questionnaires
are reported separately in two sections, one of the students’ responses, and
the other of the teachers’. Both teachers and students responded positively
toward some use of the mother tongue in their classrooms. Both think it is sometimes
necessary to use the mother tongue for language tasks such as defining
vocabulary items, practicing the uses of phrases and expressions, explaining
grammar rules, and for the explanation of some important ideas. Detailed
results in terms of percentage can be found in Table3 (Tang, 2000).
In light of these
results, Tang claimed in her discussion that the present study bear many
similarities to Schweer’s (1999) study in the Spanish context in that both
indicated that the mother tongue was indeed employed by the majority of
teachers investigated and both teachers and students’ responses toward its use
were very positive. A further discussion was also made on the differences in
that more students and teachers in Schweer’s (1999) study than in the present
study responded positively to the use of the mother tongue in their classes,
owing to such factors as motivation, exposure to English and purposes for using
the mother tongue.
The conclusion is
self-evident, which is stated by the author, in her own words, as that “L1 is
used in the first year reading classes at the university. It is used mainly for
pedagogical purposes: language work and classroom management. Both the teachers
and the students surveyed responded positively towards some use of the mother
tongue in their classroom. However, the mother tongue only plays a facilitative
and supporting role in the classroom.”(Tang, 2000)
3. Comment
So far we have reviewed on an empirical study on the use of the mother tongue in the EFL classrooms in China. As can be observed from the review, the study has successfully achieved its aim and the conclusion is impressive, too. The success is actually attributed to such striking features of the study as: (1) its specificity. The aim is specifically defined; (2) Appropriateness of research methodology. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to lay a solid foundation for data collection. The observations were focused, which allows the investigator to look for specific behaviour of the teachers in their classes. The interviews were open-ended, thus can elicit the teachers to work out what they actually think about their own using of the mother tongue in the classes. Questionnaires were designed in the form of closed questions, which allows for the data to be readily quantified.
However, this is not to
say that the study is flawless. Actually, in some aspects, the study is
problematic. The first problem is concerned with the generalizability. As has
been noted by the researcher
herself, “the present study was limited to one university in Beijing. It would,
of course, be necessary to include other settings to draw more firm conclusion
about the use of Chinese in the foreign language classrooms in China.” (Tang,
2000) Thus, the samples should be extended. Secondly, the questionnaires
designed for the teachers and the students were not well balanced. On the one
hand, more questions should be included in the teachers’ version as, in China’s
EFL classroom context, teacher usually plays the role of a decision-maker.
He/she has more say than the students in the instruction. On the other hand,
the present questionnaires are all closely-ended, which may benefit statistical
calculation, but may also exclude some valuable data that may not be
pre-specified by the researcher. In my opinion, open questions should be
included as a supplementary method to collect the data having potentially been
neglected. Further, introspection may be an appropriate method to deal with
those data related to such factors as motivation, attitude etc. Suppose it be
applied, the degree of objectivity of the present study would undoubtedly be
improved.
(Word count: 1427)
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