EFFECT OF MOTHER TONGUE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING: THE CASE OF ARABIC

Foreign language learning and teaching have emerged as a necessity when dealt within the scope of ongoing economic, historical, cultural interaction and developments. Considering in this context, Arabic language teaching has been started in line with emerging needs in various fields as a result of our country’s political, economic and cultural interactions. Throughout the history, Arabic language, which is increasing in importance day by day, has been attempted to be acquired through numerous methods appeared as a result of discussions about how to teach a language. Until the 1950s, foreign language was taught through traditional grammar translation methods. Then, it has continued by diversified different methods. However, it is clear that developed teaching methods and techniques have not achieved perfection yet. This creates a need to investigate factors affecting language teaching or causing negative results. At this point, usage of mother tongue in foreign language education has been a topic for discussion in research. In our study, it has been attempted to reveal to what extent and how often mother tongue should be used in courses where Arabic has been taught as a foreign language. The study is a qualitative research and data was collected through semi-structured interwiew questions. The study group of the research were composed of a total of 10 students and 10 educators selected from Tevfik Fikret İleri İmam Hatip High school and Gazi University Arabic Language Education Departmen in 2014-2015 academic year.