On The Influence Of The Mother Tongue On Classroom Forrign Langauge Teaching

It has long been a controversial issue whether the mother tongue should be used in foreign language classrooms and what is the use of the mother tongue in foreign language learning. Some of the scholars hold that the mother tongue should be excluded in foreign language classrooms because it has a negative impact on students'foreign language acquisition. However, more and more researchers come to approve of the appropriate use of the mother tongue because this will promote foreign language learning to some extent. Nowadays, in open classes, only English can be used. However, in daily English classes, the mother tongue is more or less used. This is a paradox. Then what is the attitude of students and English teachers towards the use of the mother tongue in English classes? How much is the mother tongue used in daily English classes? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the mother tongue in such classes? And what are the reasons of using the mother tongue such classes? There is no consensus on these questions so far.The present study is conducted in a junior middle school in Shanghai, aiming at exploring the above questions.12 English teachers and 304 students are investigated in two questionnaire surveys and among the 12 teachers,4 Grade 7 teachers had a discussion about the use of the mother tongue in English classes.The findings of the study reveal that Chinese as the mother tongue of the teacher and students is widely used in the junior middle school English classrooms. But most of the teachers and some of the students think that Chinese is used too much in daily classrooms.The advantages of using Chinese in English classes are as follows:it can facilitate the students'comprehension of the teaching content, ease the students'anxiety, save the classroom time, and maintain the classroom order; it can enable the teachers and students to express themselves clearly; it can promote the students'learning by translating and comparing Chinese and English and adjusting the classroom atmosphere.The disadvantages of using too much mother tongue are:too much Chinese will reduce students'input of English, thus impeding students'English learning, especially their listening and speaking; it can make the students depend on Chinese too much and the students will intend to produce Chinese-English; the students will misunderstand the teaching content.The reasons for the use the mother tongue in English classes can be listed as follows: the influence of the current examination-oriented evaluation system, students'factors and teachers'factors.Based on these findings, the paper holds that the appropriate use of the mother tongue in English classes can promote foreign language learning, and therefore, the mother tongue can not be totally excluded from both open classes and daily English classes. However, the current situation is still worrisome, since Chinese is used too much in English classes.In the end, some suggestions on the use of Chinese in English classrooms are put forward and the limitations of the study are discussed.