Open AccessTeachers’ and Students’ Attitudes towards L1 Use in EFL Classrooms in the Contexts of Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia
Author(s) -
Israt Jahan Shuchi,
Asharul Islam
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
english language teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1916-4750
pISSN - 1916-4742
DOI - 10.5539/elt.v9n12p62
Subject(s) - psychology , arabic , subject (documents) , first language , bengali , mathematics education , tertiary level , semitic languages , teaching method , medium of instruction , pedagogy , foreign language , linguistics , library science , philosophy , computer science
The role of a mother tongue (L1) in the teaching and learning of a foreign language (FL) has been the subject of much debate and controversy. This paper reports on a piece of research carried out in our own teaching environments (at universities both in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia) and presents an analysis of the attitudes of students and teachers towards the use of learners’ mother tongue (in this case Bengali and Arabic) in English language classrooms at the tertiary level where English is taught as a non-major subject. For the study, two surveys with the same questionnaires were conducted in two universities each from Bangladesh and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with the participation of 1000 students and 30 teachers. Results suggest that a judicious and moderate use of L1 does not hinder learning; rather, it assists, aids and facilitates the teaching and learning process thus providing the teacher with an effective pedagogical tool for maximizing the learning outcomes.