ANALYZING THE INFLUENCE OF L1 IN EFL STUDENTS’ ORAL INTERACTION

While carrying out some observations at a public school in Monteria we perceived two concerns in sixth graders’ learning process.

The first one is that students have some difficulties when performing oral interactions activities inside the classroom.

. The second one is that most of the English classes are taught in Spanish. For this reason, we became interested in researching how the use of L1 influence sixth grade students’ oral interaction.

PURPOSE

• To explore the role of L1 in the L2 oral interaction class.

• To analyze the pedagogical implications for the use of L1 in the oral interaction class

QUESTIONS

How does the use of L1 influence sixth grade students’ oral interaction?

. What are the pedagogical implications of the use of L1 in sixth grade students’ oral interaction?

RESEARCH DESIGN

case study

The fundamental goal of case study research is to conduct an in-depth analysis of an issue, within its context with a view to understand the issue from the perspective of participants (MERRIAM, 2009; SIMONS, 2009; STAKE, 2006, YIN, 2014)

For STAKE(1995) case study research is "the study of the particularity and complexity of a single case, coming to understand its activity within important circumstances" (p.xi). MERRIAM (2009) includes what is studied and the products of the research when defining case study as: "... an in depth description and analysis of a bounded system"

Methods used in case study to facilitate achieving the aim of co-constructing data most often include observations, interviews, focus groups, document and artifact analysis (MERRIAM, 2009; SIMONS, 2009; STAKE, 1995; 2006; STEWART, 2014; YIN, 2014).

The researcher's perceptions and interpretations become part of the research and as a result, a subjective and interpretive orientation flows throughout the inquiry (CRESWELL, 2014).

Subjectivity is openly acknowledged and to manage this, the researcher embraces a reflexive stance within the study, adopting methods such as memoing and journaling that support this position (DENZIN & LINCOLN, 2011; MILES et al., 2014, STAKE, 2006; YIN, 2014).

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

ROLE OF L1 IN L2 LEARNING

The L1 takes role to facilitate and support the English teaching learning in the classroom. Rahmawati (2015)

Rahmawati (2015) mentioned in the lower grade-level (in this case kindergarten classes) L1 has a valuable role to play in the English classroom. Teaching English for young learners requires teachers to teach efficiently and appropriately. It indicates that the L1 gains more benefits by incorporating the students’ L1 as a learning tool and a facilitator for an efficient teaching.

Meyer (2008) stated the students’ L1 can assist in making the classroom a more comprehensible place and help lower affective filters when used in the following roles

1) To allay a possible perceived threat posed by the L2 to the cultural identity of the students

2) To provide administrative/managerial knowledge - knowledge of school and classroom policies (i.e. classroom management) and for discipline enforcement

3) To allow the teacher to conduct comprehension checks

4) To allow students to request clarification from the teacher regarding a specific issue (i.e. grammar, instructions for an activity).

5) To provide schematic and contextual/situational knowledge – students’ can draw upon their background knowledge of: facts, physical settings, situations and the culture of the foreign/second language.

6) To allow students to attain greater fluency and make learning meaningful by allowing them to engage in code-switching, especially when engaging in story telling techniques.

7) To contrast/raise consciousness of similarities or differences between the students L1 and the L2.

The L1’s primary role is to supply scaffolding to lower affective filters by making the L2 and the classroom environment comprehensible. The L1 plays a secondary role by helping students to anchor L2 concepts to the L1 through use of loan words, translation activities, and code switching within story telling activities.(Meyer, 2008)

THE PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS L1 MIGHT BRING TO STUDENTS’ LEARNING

according to Cook et al.(1979) the learning of a first language is not simply a matter of learning syntax and vocabulary; rather it is environmental and linguistic as well as emotional. Thus ignoring L1 would decrease the cognitive level of that learner.

Children’s ability to learn a second or additional local language and an international language such as English, French, or German, does not suffer when their mother tongue is the primary language of instruction throughout primary school. Fluency and literacy in the mother tongue lay a cognitive and linguistic foundation for learning additional languages e.g. English language. (Yadav 2014

Yavad (2014) mentioned If, however, children are forced to switch abruptly or transition too soon from learning in their mother tongue to schooling in a second language, their first language acquisition may be weakened or even lost. Even more importantly, their self-confidence as learners and their interest in what they are learning may decline, leading to lack of motivation, school failure and early school drop-outa

USES OF L1 IN THE ENGLISH CLASS

Prodromou (2002) carried out research into the perceptions of three hundreds Greek students regarding L1 use in the monolingual classroom at three levels that are beginner, intermediate and advanced. He tried to investigate the reaction and attitude of students with different levels of proficiency. He found that the L1 was used for certain procedures for example, explaining difficult concepts, checking comprehension, raising confidence, explaining the rationale of language learning activities, error analysis, or vocabulary clarification. The findings showed that students at lower levels showed more tendencies to accept the use of L1 while for higher level students, they have a negative attitude toward the use of L1 in their classroom

Schweers (1999) investigated the use of L1 in his monolingual Spanish-speaking classes in Puerto Rico. He found that the use of L1 in the classroom was useful. The L1 can be used to explain difficult concepts, to make the situation more comfortable, to check comprehension, to define new vocabulary items and to switch the language when they fell lost and not confident

Rahmawati (2015) pointed an explanation in L1 may be necessary with a class of where no one speaks English. A student may get stuck in a teaching learning process and find themselves unable to express their opinions, answers, or ask the questions. Therefore, the teacher can simply allow them to use their L1 but stimulate them to say it again English with the teacher’s help.

The use of the L1 in the classroom can be gradually phased out as students become more proficient in the L2. Code switching can also involve using the L1 to supply vocabulary items, which the students are unfamiliar with, and then gradually remove them as the students progress. (Cook,2001)

REFERENCES

Cook, V. (2001) ‘Using the First Language in the Classroom’.

Harrison, Helena; Birks, Melanie; Franklin, Richard & Mills, Jane (2017). Case Study Research: Foundations and Methodological Orientations [34 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 18(1), Art. 19,

Merriam, Sharan B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Meyer, Harry. (2008).The pedagogical implications of L1 use in the L2 classroom

Rahmawati, Istiqomah Nur.(2015). The use of l1 in the english classroom. English Education: Jurnal Tadris Bahasa Inggris IAIN Raden Intan.

Stake, Robert E. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Yadav, M. K. (2014). Role of mother tongue in second language learning. International Journal of Research, 1(11), 572-582.