Mother Tongue In English

2983 Words12 Pages

Mother Tongue: an Effective Tool in Teaching English Abstract: The use of mother tongue in teaching foreign language has always been a matter of controversy and debate. The paper explores the possibility of use of mother tongue [Hindi] as a resource for learning English language and to understand learners’ general attitude towards use of methodology in English classroom. The paper also presents some of the approaches and methods that have been practiced to teach English as foreign language. A mini research was carried out in both private and government schools of Delhi using questionnaire.
Key words: mother tongue, native, skill, methodology, grammar, translation

Introduction
The use of mother tongue has always been a controversial issue. …show more content…

Atkinson[1987], Widdowson and Willis favor the use of mother tongue in English foreign language classroom. ‘When students come in classroom to learn foreign language, they have fairly good knowledge of native language. They are loaded with cultural heritage. Native languages are not inferior. L1 can become a tool to maximize foreign language learning.’[Atkinson] ‘Banning mother tongue use altogether may not be advisable. When mother tongue is totally banned in group talk, the resulting interaction tends to be shorter and less natural’.[Willis,1996:46] .Criticizing Krashen theory Elridge[1996] points out that ‘there is no empirical evidence to support the notion that restricting mother tongue use necessarily improve learner …show more content…

• Will it help the students’ learning more than using English words?

1. Mother tongue can be used to explain new concept. Using native language equivalents alongside English words is useful for students to memorize new words. ‘One tends to transfer forms & meanings of their native language to foreign language and culture’ says Lado. In monolingual method students struggle for hours to comprehend a text or vocabulary, while using mother tongue this can happen very soon. ‘’German scholar Wilham Victor [1850-1918] who criticized Grammar Translation also advocated that native language could be used in order to explain new words or to check comprehension’’. [Richards and Rodgers :p.10]

2. Techniques involving use of mother tongue can be very efficient to save time. Harvard psychologist Roger Brown [1973:5] [as quoted in Richards and Rodgers] expressed his annoyance in watching a teacher try to explain new vocabulary through elaborate ‘’verbal gymnastics’’, when in his opinion translation would have been a much more efficient

Open Document