VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERISTY – HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDY FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ---------------- ĐỖ THỊ NGỌC PHƯƠNG THE ROLE OF MOTHER TONGUE IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION VAI TRÒ CỦA TIẾNG MẸ ĐẺ TRONG VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM THÁI NGUYÊN M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: Dr. DƯƠNG THI NỤ HANOI - 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT Part 1: Introduction 1. Aim of the research. Scope of the research.
Significance of the study. Organization of the thesis.2 Part 2: Development Chapter 1: Literature Review 1. Second language use and learning. Mother tongue or second language?.
Factors in language choice. L1 use in the classroom. L1 transfer - linguistic theory of the role of the first language. Grammar -translation Teaching versus Communicative Language Teaching.
The Monolingual Approach versus the Bilingual Approach. Subjects of the study. Data collection instrument .18 Chapter 3: The Result of the Study 3. The situation of English Teaching and the Learning at Thai Nguyen University of Education .19 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Results of the survey questionnaire. Results of teachers' interview. Results of classroom observation .35 Chapter 4: Discussion and Implications 4. Implications in teaching.
Limitations and suggestions for further research .41 References Appendices v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1: First language L2: Second language EFL: English as Foreign Language CLT: Communicative Language Teaching 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Tables Table 1: Reasons for the learning of English Table 2: The use of mother tongue in second language class Table 3: Situations for the teachers to speak in the first language Table 4: Situations for the students to speak in the first language Table 5: Reasons for using mother tongue in the English class Table 6: Percentage of mother tongue - speaking time to be used by the teachers and students Table 7: Teachers' years of experience Table 8: Teachers' opinion about the situations in which mother tongue should be used Table 9:Teachers' opinion about the percentage of time per a lesson for the mother tongue to be used in the language class Table 10: Results of classroom observation on the purposes of using mother tongue Table 11:The percentage of mother tongue - speaking time used by used by the teachers and the students in the class observation Charts Chart 1: Students' years of learning English Chart 2: Frequency of using mother tongue in class Chart 3: Aspects of second language to be taught in mother tongue Chart 4: The importance of mother tongue in the English class 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale In the history of language teaching, while many methods have been created in order to help learners study a second language (L2). People have started questioning whether using mother tongue in English classes is useful or not. The attitude towards this problem has changed dramatically over centuries and has been the subject of much debate and controversy.
It is known that there must be different teaching and learning methods for different learners of different levels. The way the teachers use to teach the beginners cannot be the same with the teaching method for the advanced learners. However, many teachers and curriculum designers think that creating communicative environment for learners is the best choice. It is true that in most language classes, the teachers always create opportunities to help the students practice and get familiar with the target language as much as possible.
The communicative environment here may be in the middle of the lecture when the teacher is lecturing or communicating with their students in English. It will be quite easy for the higher levels but to the beginners who have a limited range of vocabulary or grammar rules of the target language, whether this method is useful is a problem. The modern teaching methods focus on the practice and use of the target language as much as possible, which will help the learners get familiar with the language they learn as well as motivate them in the study. It is important to note that at the beginning level, the learners do not have enough vocabulary and structures to understand and catch up with the lesson in English.
The questions are whether the first language plays an important part in teaching the second language and how they are applied in teaching. Being aware of those problems, the researcher would, therefore, like to conduct this research to explore the impact of the mother tongue on the learning and teaching of a second language with some hope that both the learners and teachers can find an easier and more effective teaching and learning method. Typically, the questions to be answered in this study are as follows: 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. What are the impacts of mother tongue on the teaching and learning of English? 2.
What are the degree and situations for the use of mother tongue in the teaching and learning of English ? 2. Objectives of the study From the rationale above, the aims of the study were set out in order to specify the research as follows: Identifying the role of mother tongue in the teaching and learning of English at Thai Nguyen University of Education Investigating the students' attitudes towards the use of mother tongue in teaching and learning of English Suggesting the suitable degree and situations for using mother tongue among the 1st year students at Thai Nguyen University of Education 3. Scope of the research The research is confined to language use in classroom, especially the use of mother tongue in teaching English. However, due to the time constraint, the study only concentrates on the impact of mother tongue, namely Vietnamese and how to use it to teach English for the first year non-English major students at Thai Nguyen University.Significance of the study This study is significant for several reasons.
Firstly, it provides an overview of the use the mother tongue in teaching the second language in general and in teaching English in particular. Secondly, the author hopes this study can help the teachers to find a suitable method to teach English as well as change their stereotype on the use of mother tongue. Finally, this study also provides some suggestions on how to use the first language in an appropriate way to avoid its negative effects on the students' learning. Organization of the thesis The graduation paper consists of three parts.
Part 1, Introduction, introduces the rationale, the scope and the ai ms of the study. Part 2, Development, consists of four chapters: Chapter 1 provides the theoretical basis which supports the study, including some mother-tongue – related discussions. Chapter 2 presents the issues of methodology including the subjects of the study, data collection instruments and the 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com procedures of data collection. Chapter 3 presents the results of a survey conducted for the investigation of the use of the mother tongue in teaching English in classrooms at Thai Nguyen University by means of analyzing the students‟ responses to questionnaires and interviews with the teachers as well as classroom observations.
Following the results of chapters 2 and 3 is chapter 4, which gives some discussion for the results and the implications in the teaching and learning English. Part 3 of the thesis, Conclusion, includes the summary of the main findings of the study, conclusions, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further study. 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter deals with different points of views on the first language and its use in teaching and learning a second language. Besides, some teaching methods and some kinds of language classes in which the mother tongue can be used are also mentioned.
It is strongly believed that those different opinions about the use of the mother tongue in class will make some contributions to this research. Second language use and learning The use and practice of the second language is not that easy to most learners when the L2 is rarely used in their society. It is generally accepted that that learning a language without frequent use and practice is not effective. As Lightbown and Spada (1993) ever noted, the second language learners also have to "pass through sequence of development".
Fortunately, it is the fact that the learners have a little opportunity to use the second language (L2) outside the classroom. Therefore, it is important to maximize the use of L2 in the language classroom through different activities in class. However, it should be remembered that not all students have the same levels and competence in using the target language. Lightbown and Spada (1993) enlightened that even in the same classroom setting, there were still be some students that progress more rapidly in learning a new language It will be impractical if the same amount and level of the language are used for different types of learners.
For the low - level learners, the requirement of the use and practice of the target language should be suitable and should not be too difficult. As being mentioned in the introduction section, there should be different ways of using the language in class for learners with different levels of English. It is known that advanced learners are good at listening and interacting with difficult words and phrases in class without the explanation or help of the teacher. The elementary level learners require a much simpler way of using a foreign language in teaching.
6 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com In many situations in which the learners share the same first language, there is a tendency that the tasks which should be done in L2 (e. conversation preparation, discussion, preparation for writing.) can be done in L1. Many teachers may disapprove of the use of the first language in the language classroom. However, according to Paul Nation (2003) there are some reasons for the use of the first language.
Firstly, it is easier and more communicatively effective to use L1 because some of the learners do not have enough knowledge of the language they are learning to express their ideas. Secondly, that the teacher‟s frequent use of L2 in class may be incomprehensible for shy and low-level learners, thus they become inactive in discussions. Mother tongue or second language? Basically, the mother tongue is learnt first and the second language is learnt after a period of time in human beings' life. A child often learns a language naturally.
However, those who learn a second language later in their life are often influenced by many other factors outside the classroom. One of those is the prior knowledge of the language which they have learnt. In other words, it is widely believed that someone who has a good knowledge of their prior language can learn another language more easily. Or, as we can say, the way babies learn a language (mother tongue) is natural but the way that school children or adults who have different or developed cognitive, mental and conceptual capacities pick up their a language is not as natural as babies do.
It is generally argued that what a person has learnt from their previous language will have great influence on their current target language. Therefore, when we talk about second language teaching we should take into account the knowledge and skills of their first language that the learners bring into their target language. It is what we call the switching or transform from L1 to L2.