In some countries U-turn is sometimes allowed and may be the only means to get to your destination on time. The same applies to the use of the mother tongue tongue: sometimes it is a must and the best choice. But …
Since the introduction of CLT ideas the use of the mother tongue of the student has been a matter of some controversy. As a result many teachers are shy to admit they simply have to use the mother tongue in some situations. They do it but keep quiet about it … and feel guilty about it … without any reason.
In many cases we may have the prompts, hints or explanations in the mother tongue if needed but still explain the matters in English.
I have always taken a practical view to this problem:
Use the mother tongue as little as possible but whenever it is necessary and useful. Both the teacher and the students should, however, maximize the use of English in lessons.
The problem remains: When is the use of mother tongue necessay and useful?
USE THE MOTHER TONGUE …
- with pupils who are complete beginners and you try to establish the basic repeated instructions quickly in English. Have them in writing on the screen, read them aloud and have the translation visible as well. If you are using the ‘Dodson method’, the mother tongue is used a lot by the teacher in a specific way.
- if the instruction is a very long one and you know too many students will not undestand it unless it is explained in the mother tongue. First read the instruction on the screen in English and then explain in the mother tongue (or have it on the screen at the same time as well.) Sometimes we only need to explain the idea to some students or one group using the mother tongue.
- in any other situation where a lot of time is saved and frustration among many students can be avoided. For example, in ordinary classes at the end of an inductive session where we formulate a new grammatical rule. It is vital the students understand the new rule in full, rather than pretend they got it.
- in some vocabulary, phrase and translation exercises . In these cases the stimulus is in the mother tongue and the student tries to say or write it in English. This technique is particularly good with weak or average classes and most productively appied in A/B handouts which are to be done in pairs. See below
| A words | B words |
| park | puisto |
| oranssi | orange |
| car | auto |
| juna | train |
| bank | pankki |
| A Phrases | B Phrases |
| typical of | tyypillinen jollekin, (line 7) |
| Älä höpötä! (line 12) | Give me a break! |
| The sky is the limit. | Vain taivas on rajana! (20) |
| Näin ollen … (27) | As a result … |
| the general public | suuri yleisö (35) |
| … | … |
I myself love to translate from Finnish into English but it is a very demanding task for students unless … unless you have translated some sentences from the text for them or the whole text AND your students use your mother tongue sentences and check the oral translations in the textbook. It can be done as an A / B Handout style too as can be seen above.
The problem with translations is how to check the answers because there are so many possible translations that the situation is hard to handle.
For example: ‘Minulla ei ole autoa.’ I have no car. / I do not have a car./ I don’t have any car./ I haven’t got any car./ I do not own a car. etc. I ended up having more than 60 translations for this short sentence.
Still, in good classes translation from mother tongue into English gives some good change for the routine a couple of times a year.
5. In projects to find information. If you are, for example, having a cultural project on the sights of London, you need to decide if the students will gather information from English or mother tongue sources. The problem with English sources is that the students simply copy the sentences from the source which is not the goal. English sources are ok, if you can rely on your students’ skill to produce sentences of their own on London sights.
Nevertheless, weaker students may benefit from mother tongue sources and what they need to do is to simplify the ideas to the level of the English they master. They may need a lot of teacher’s help but the ‘translation’ exercise is very useful and meaningful.
6, The last reason but not the least. Use the mother tongue as a means of differentiation: in mind maps where the students have to explain the content of the chapter using the prompts, which may be in English, mother tongue or both with lines where the idea can be found in the text.
7 If you are using the Dodson bilingual method in teaching you can focus on either grammar, phrases, utterances or vocabulary. In this method the teacher picks up phrases from the text, says them in the mother tongue and the students say the phrase in English.
Then the teacher uses the same phrase and makes a minor change in it and everybody in the class says the idea in English. In brief, only the teacher uses the mother tongue. See the separate article about this method! Dodson method works best with very weak students!