A Study Of The Use Of The Mother Tongue In Junior School English Class

What kind of role does the first language play in foreign language classrooms? This question is always a controversial issue in applied linguistics. The debate on whether it is helpful or impeding to foreign language learning, which is quite fierce among the applied linguists and language teachers, has reached no agreements. For a long time, One of the most deeply held beliefs among language teachers is that the exclusive use of the target language is the preferable practice in the classroom; at least, the teachers should try to avoid using students' first language. While recently more and more researchers have realized that mother tongue (Chinese) can play an effective role in teaching practice. However, even among those who advocate an appropriate use of the first language in second language classroom, how to use it appropriately remains an objective of further study. Meanwhile, the research on the use of mother tongue in English classroom is too limited to build up systematic support.To enrich the relevant literature, this study aims to explore the teachers' use of the mother tongue in English classroom of Chinese middle school, so as to find out whether Chinese is being used by the teachers, what attitudes of students and teachers towards teachers' Chinese use are, what the reasons and purposes for teachers' use or avoiding using Chinese are, and to what extent Chinese is used.The sources of data are questionnaires, classroom observation, and interviews. We find that influenced by many interactive factors Chinese is still used by teachers in English classroom; most students and teachers approved of the judicious use of Chinese; the extent of teachers' Chinese use varied according to the context in natural teaching process. Based on the analysis of the data, this study concludes that in foreign language classroom, the mother tongue plays a complementary and facilitative role which can not be totally prohibited; that the extents to which the mother tongue is used and the purposes for which it is used in different contexts vary greatly; that the teachers should take the need of students, the teaching environment, and the capability of teachers themselves into consideration when they are choosing the language to use. Some pedagogical implications of the study are finally provided in addition to the discussion of its limitations and recommendations for further studies.