scholarly journals “Teacher English”: Teacher’s Target Language Use as Cornerstone of Successful Language Teaching

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 223-230
Author(s):  
Urška Sešek
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Teacher Talk ◽  
English For Specific Purposes ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Classroom Processes ◽  
Language Mastery

In most of today’s courses of English as a foreign language, the learners and teacher share the same mother tongue, but English is the language used to carry out all activities as far as the learner level allows. This means that the teacher’s level of target language mastery plays a significant role in the quality of language teaching and the resulting learning. The paper looks at the functions of teacher talk as a source of input and model language use as well as a tool for managing classroom processes. Based on that, an argument is made for ‘teacher English’ as a case of English for specific purposes.

scholarly journals Good Practices for Primary-Level Content-based Foreign Language Instruction Identified in Finland

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taina M Wewer
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Foreign Language Instruction

This practice-oriented article, also applicable for general foreign and second language instruction, outlines experiences and classroom practices recognized as functional and effective in CLIL (content and language integrated learning) contexts. CLIL can be defined as a comprehensive approach to foreign language teaching because it aims at learning language through various content across the curriculum. Since one of the guidelines in the Finnish basic education is teacher autonomy, the fluctuation in materials, practices and methods is notable. Therefore, there is no sole authenticated model of CLIL implementation, but the practices rather vary significantly from one classroom to another. Furthermore, the extent of the target language (TL) exposure has an impact on the instructional choices as well as the pre-negotiated and defined learning objectives. In most cases, the primary aim is that the child learns to read and write in the mother tongue or the main language of instruction (most often Finnish in Finland), and the target language (in this case English) is gradually and increasingly incorporated into the everyday classroom practice. Hence, instruction is bilingual. Research on foreign language teaching and learning helps to formulate some of the recurring linguistic practices in CLIL classrooms which is important in shaping the language used for social purposes. The integration of language and content and academic language need special attention in CLIL. In a similar manner, assessment of the target language, has to be specifically addressed. I will touch upon all these issues in the three main sections drawing on CLIL instruction with approximately 25% English exposure of total instruction.  

scholarly journals Foreign-language teaching and studying in Chilean and Finnish classrooms as seen by teachers

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pirjo Harjanne ◽  
Claudio Díaz Larenas ◽  
Seppo Tella
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Context Dependent

Abstract This article reports Chilean and Finnish foreign-language (FL) teachers’ perceptions of teaching and study realities in their own FL classrooms. Communicative language teaching (CLT) is used as the teaching–studying–learning methodological framework of an international KIELO project (= the acronym for Finnish “kieltenopetus” meaning “language teaching”), whose online survey was used to collect data for this article. We aim at answering the following research question: What are the FL teachers’ main approaches to teaching and studying in Chilean and Finnish FL classrooms and what is the FL classroom teaching and study reality like in these two countries? The data were collected from 83 Chilean and 147 Finnish FL teachers through an online survey covering 15 key themes of CLT and including 115 Likert-scale statements and 8 open-ended questions. In the descriptive data analysis, both Chilean and Finnish FL teachers claim that they encourage their students to use the target language considerably and that they use communicative oral tasks. For both groups of participants, however, teacher-centeredness and use of textbook score relatively high. The two-cluster analysis revealed a context-dependent cluster and a context-independent cluster. Context-dependent teachers tended to favor communicative oral tasks, real-life tasks and their own language tasks, whereas context-independent teachers favored more non-communicative tasks. Context-dependent teachers proved more student-centered than context-independent teachers. For Chilean and Finnish research participants, the use of mother tongue in foreign language classrooms appears to be an issue despite the growing need of foreign language communication.

scholarly journals The Use and Functions of Mother Tongue in EFL Classes at the Language Center of South East European University in Tetovo-Macedonia

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 172
Author(s):  
Basri Saliu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
East European ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
European University

The use of mother tongue (L1) in foreign language classrooms at Language Center is obvious. In this paper, the use and functions of it in various classes have been analyzed and discussed. The purpose of the present study was to find out to what level the instructors use mother tongue in their classes. We attempted to find out whether their mother tongue use changes according to different variables, for which functions they use it, whether they are aware of the amount and the functions, whether the instructors are satisfied with the amount of L1 they use, and whether their students are satisfied with it, and whether this satisfaction differs according to the amount used by their instructors. The study was conducted in the Language Center of South East European University in Tetovo, Macedonia, and it was based on both qualitative and quantitative research designs. The participants were 20 English teachers working in the Language Center and their 167 students. The data were collected through classroom recordings, questionnaires that were administered both to the instructors and the students, and interviews were conducted with all of the teachers and randomly chosen 49 students. The data have revealed that mother tongue is an indivisible part of language teaching, and it actually has different functions like “building up relations”, “making the topic/meaning clear (by giving examples, explaining, making extra explanations, etc.)”, “explaining difficult concepts or ideas”, etc. It was also found out that both the instructors and the students were aware of the importance of using the target language as much as possible in the classes, however, they could not disagree with the need of mother tongue from time to time.

scholarly journals Teaching Through Discourse

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 416-420
Author(s):  
Z. Kertaeva
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Communicative Approach

The article discusses the role of discourse in foreign language teaching by studying previous investigations in the field of discourse analysis and communicative approach–based language teaching. Moreover, it presents an analysis of some authentic examples of target language use to prove the role of discourse to prevent possible miscommunication.

First language and target language in the foreign language classroom

2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Littlewood ◽  
Baohua Yu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
First Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Foreign Language Classroom

For many decades, foreign language teaching has been dominated by the principle that teachers should use only the target language (TL) and avoid using the mother tongue (L1) except as a last resort. However, reports show that teachers make extensive use of the L1. This paper illustrates this discrepancy and considers some main reasons for it. It suggests a framework of principles for balancing L1 and TL use in the classroom. Finally, it reviews some strategies available to teachers who wish to make maximal use of the TL without denying the potential of the L1 to support foreign language learning.

Similarities in the Syntactic Structure of the German and Croatian Language

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-118
Author(s):  
Manuela Svoboda
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
German Language ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Subordinate Clauses

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to analyse any potential similarities between the Croatian and German language and present them adopting a contrastive approach with the intent of simplifying the learning process in regards to the German syntactic structure for Croatian German as foreign language students. While consulting articles and books on the theories and methods of foreign language teaching, attention is usually drawn to differences between the mother tongue and the foreign language, especially concerning false friends etc. The same applies to textbooks, workbooks and how teachers behave in class. Thus, it is common practice to deal with the differences between the foreign language and the mother tongue but less with similarities. This is unfortunate considering that this would likely aid in acquiring certain grammatical and syntactic structures of the foreign language. In the author's opinion, similarities are as, if not more, important than differences. Therefore, in this article the existence of similarities between the Croatian and German language will be examined closer with a main focus on the segment of sentence types. Special attention is drawn to subordinate clauses as they play an important role when speaking and/or translating sentences from Croatian to German and vice versa. In order to present and further clarify this matter, subordinate clauses in both the German and Croatian language are defined, clarified and listed to gain an oversight and to present possible similarities between the two. In addition, the method to identify subordinate clauses in a sentence is explained as well as what they express, which conjunctions are being used for each type of subordinate clause in both languages and where the similarities and/or differences between the two languages lie.

Translating ambiguous and nonambiguous Words in a foreign Language

2003 ◽  
Vol 139-140 ◽  
pp. 129-152
Author(s):  
Paul Bogaards ◽  
Elisabeth Van Der Linden ◽  
Lydius Nienhuis
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Lexical Ambiguity ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Bilingual Lexicon ◽  
The Individual

The research to be reported on in this paper was originally motivated by the finding that about 70% of the mistakes made by university students when translating from their mother tongue (Dutch) into their foreign language (French) were lexical in nature (NIENHUIS et al. 1989). This was partially confinned in the investigation described in NIENHUIS et al. (1993). A closer look at the individual errors suggested that many problems were caused by words with more than one meaning which each require different translations in the target language. In the research reported on in this paper, we checked our fmdings in the light of what is known about the structure of the bilingual lexicon and about the ways bilinguals have access to the elements of their two languages. On the basis of the model of the bilingual lexicon presented by KROLL & Sholl (1992) an adapted model is proposed for the processing of lexical ambiguity. This leads to a tentative schema of the mental activities that language learners have to perfonn when they are translating from their mother tongue into a foreign language, The second part of the paper describes two experiments we have carried out in order to find empirical support for such a schema. The last section of the paper contains a discussion of the results obtained as well as the conclusions that can be drawn.

scholarly journals Christopher Brumfit Award 2014

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-433
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Quality Of Presentation

The Editor and Board of Language Teaching are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2014 Christopher Brumfit thesis award is Dr Hilde van Zeeland. The thesis was selected by an external panel of judges based on its significance to the field of second language acquisition, second or foreign language learning and teaching, originality and creativity and quality of presentation.

scholarly journals Jurnal Al-Maraji' Volume 1. Nomor 1. Juni 2017

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
PUJIA UNISMUH MAKASSAR
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Direct Method ◽  
Point Method ◽  
Learning Science ◽  
Teaching Language ◽  
First Time ◽  
Science Subject ◽  
The Way

Direct means straight to the point. Direct method or straight to the point method is the way in presenting Arabic where the teacher directly uses the language ( Arabic) as the language in giving instruction , without using students’ mother tongue . If there is a word is difficult to understand by the students, teachers can interpret that word by using props, demonstrating, describing and etc. This method is based on the understanding that teaching foreign language subject is not the same as teaching the science subject. If in the Learning science, the students are required to memorize certain formulas, think and remember, in language teaching, students or pupil are trained to practice directly spelling certain words or sentences. It is same when we consider a mother in teaching language to her childrens, she practices the language by herself directly , lead her child to pronounce the word by -word, sentence by-sentence, and her children will repeat what she spell in funny way. In principle, Direct method is really important in teaching Arabic, because through this method students can practice their speaking skills directly without using their mother tongue (the language of their scope). Although in the first time it seems difficult for students to duplicate it, but this method finally so interesting for them .

scholarly journals Metode Langsung (Al-Tarīqah Al-Mubāsyarah) dan Strategi Pembelajarannya

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Sitti Aisyah Chalik
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Direct Method ◽  
Point Method ◽  
Learning Science ◽  
Teaching Language ◽  
First Time ◽  
Science Subject ◽  
The Way

Direct means straight to the point. Direct method or straight to the point method is the way in presenting Arabic where the teacher directly uses the language ( Arabic) as the language in giving instruction , without using students‟ mother tongue . If there is a word is difficult to understand by the students, teachers can interpret that word by using props, demonstrating, describing and etc. This method is based on the understanding that teaching foreign language subject is not the same as teaching the science subject. If in the Learning science, the students are required to memorize certain formulas, think and remember, in language teaching, students or pupil are trained to practice directly spelling certain words or sentences. It is same when we consider a mother in teaching language to her childrens, she practices the language by herself directly , lead her child to pronounce the word by -word, sentence by-sentence, and her children will repeat what she spell in funny way. In principle, Direct method is really important in teaching Arabic, because through this method students can practice their speaking skills directly without using their mother tongue (the language of their scope). Although in the first time it seems difficult for students to duplicate it, but this method finally so interesting for them. 

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