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Mother Tongue In Foreign Language Essay

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The Use of Mother Tongue in Foreign Language Classrooms In recent years, a discussion has been brought forward about whether the mother tongue (L1) should be implemented in foreign language classrooms or not. “The issue of whether language teachers should use the students’ first language in their second/ foreign language classroom has always been a controversial one” (Sharma, 2006:80). When looking at the historical process of teaching a foreign language, it is observed that teaching techniques should not be based on mother tongue. The target language (TL) is best taught in that language and by the native speakers. It is widely believed that the more exposure to the other languages, the less effective the target …show more content…

Cook (2001), claims that for more than a hundred years, the common approach in foreign language teaching has been against the mother tongue and obstructed the teachers and learners to use their native language. However, afterwards, the idea of using mother tongue has been advocated by some experts, as well. “Moderate and judicious use of the mother tongue is helpful and can facilitate the learning and teaching of the target language.” (Tang, 2002) Today, almost every teacher all around the world have a confrontation among each other when teaching a foreign language. While some argue that the usage of mother tongue facilitate the language learning, some argue that it may have unfavorable effects on students in the process of learning. This article is to express about the arguments for & against the use of mother tongue in foreign language and its advantages & disadvantages. Firstly, some teachers would prefer to use the mother tongue while they teach the foreign language. They

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