METHOD OF TEFL, Task 3

IS IT POSSIBLE THE TEACHERS TAUGHT WITHOUT USING MOTHER TONGUE…………??

I think, it’s impossible an English teacher taught without use mother tongue. As we know, English is complicated and foreign language for us especially for learners. If the teachers teach without using mother tongue I believe the students cannot catch the materials clearly.

Each time they were having the foreign teacher class, who speak English only in class, I found that the students had a great difficulty in understanding what the teacher meant. In one class, the foreign teacher taught the name of some vegetables, most students could not know what he referred to even he used the simple English to describe it. Usually on this occasion, the teacher turned to make explanation in mother tongue and only with this way the students understood. So, we can see that the mother tongue can be helpful to the foreign language learning.

The availability of the meaning of the foreign language could prevent the learner's wasteful guessing for meaning. By using the mother tongue, meaning is established immediately with the foreign language in the initial phases of foreign language instruction and this guarantees that the learning of EFL takes place on the premise of good understanding.

English learners, they do not go to the class with empty heads, on the contrary, they can instantly express themselves and understand materials through mother tongue. The concepts of mother tongue are firmly fixed in their minds. So, can we absolutely ignore the mother tongue and only use English to think, obviously, it is impossible. One who cannot master his/her mother tongue also cannot learn English well.

To sum up, one’s proficiency in his or her mother tongue determines his or her competence in learning a foreign language, and mother tongue can be greatly helpful to enhance both language learning and teaching English as a foreign language.