To celebrate International Mother Language Day, we’re highlighting an article from Cambridge author Philip Kerr. He discusses the use of own-language in the classroom, and the positives and negatives it brings. Is this something you encourage?
It’s beyond the ability of anyone to banish totally the learners’ own language from a foreign language learning experience. Learning is, by definition, built upon previous learning. So, the most significant resource that learners can bring to the language learning task is their existing linguistic knowledge. A substantial portion of which consists of knowledge about their own language. Learning is scaffolded and in the early stages of learning another language, it will be scaffolded, in part, on the languages they already know.
Should teachers limit own-language in the classroom? Whilst teachers can, perhaps, control the language their students speak, they cannot force them to think in the target language. Furthermore, the use of translation techniques is a preferred learning strategy of most learners in most places. Like it or not, translating won’t go away. It makes more sense for a teacher to use translation in a principled, overt way than to pretend that the students are not using it covertly.
The science behind it all
On top of this, evidence from various cognitive linguistics and neuroscience studies point strongly towards a role for the students’ own language in the language classroom. In fact, Henry Widdowson and others have argued that the neglect of translation has little to do with pedagogical principles or scientific research. New knowledge is constructed on a base of old knowledge. As long ago as 1934. Lev Vygotsky wrote that learning a new language necessarily involves the use of one’s own language ‘as a mediator between the world of objects and the new language’. Plus, neuroscience confirms that the initial acquisition of new words in a foreign language depends on the association of these items with corresponding own-language items in the learner’s memory.
Own-language and ‘negative transfer’
What about ‘negative transfer’ and ‘false friends’? It is commonly believed that the use of translation activities in the classroom can lead to ‘negative transfer’; the learner falsely assumes an equivalence between corresponding forms in two languages (e.g., false friends). For example, in English and any other language, there are likely to be many more true ‘friends’ than false ones. In the case of all languages, it is probably the case that the best and most efficient way to deal with ‘negative transfer’ is to compare the two languages directly.
Own-language and grammar
A direct contrast between English and the learner’s own language may also pay dividends in the study of grammar. Some aspects of the grammar of one’s own language (e.g., word order) can be very hard to shake off when learning another language. Therefore, conscious awareness of what these are can help learners make progress in these areas. Translation is likely to be the most unambiguous and efficient way of achieving this awareness.
Read our newspapers!
This article was taken from Teacher Development Matters, one of two newspapers produced by Cambridge University Press for you to browse on your lunch-break or when you have a spare five minutes. You can read this, as well as ‘How do you teach speaking?’ for free, online.
What to expect from ‘Teacher Development Matters’:
- Blended learning myths: busted!
- Making time for teacher development
- Bringing the world into your classroom
What to expect from ‘How do you teach Speaking?’:
- 5 factors for successful speaking practice
- Using role models to motivate language learners
- Tips for teaching speaking online
Philip Kerr’s insights have been used in the development of student eBooks for our new American English course, Evolve. To access a sample of the eBook, go to Cambridge Bookshelf. To read more from Philip Kerr, check out his post on ‘How to get your flipped classroom started’. Or, for speaking advice, there’s ‘Making asynchronous speaking practice meaningful’.