Role of the L1 in the English Classroom

Role of the L1 in the English Classroom

Gabriela L Quezada

Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepcion

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Role of the L1 in the English Classroom

Role of the L1 in the English classroom

The ability to acquire a language is one of the most important features

that differentiate human beings from other animals and what is more, the ability

to acquire a second language is a difficult process which has been studied for

some authors that not only wanted to know about that process and how the

mother tongue affect it, but also wanted to find some strategies that can

improve the process of learning a second language. some authors have

investigated about the importance of L1 in the acquisition or learning of L2;

Cook (2011) is one of them, he focuses his researches on the comparison of the

child learning L1 and L2, Cook (2011) pointed out eight main differences that

deal with learners behavior, personal characteristics, the environment that

surround them among others. As the text explains, they seem to have potential

implications for languages in education. The second author, Krashen (1981)

focuses his researchers on first language influence on second language

performance. In chapter 5 of the text Second Language Acquisition and Second

Language Learning he summarizes the Idea on three statements that are

supported by the use of specific and clear evidence. According to Krashen

(1981) “first language influence appears to be strongest in complex word order

and in word-for-word translations of phrases”, “first language influence is

weaker in bound morphology” and the last one “first language influence seems

to be strongest in “acquisition poor” environments” (p.1). Finally the last author

is Freeman, who in two chapters refers not only to first and second language

acquisition, but also to written acquisition. On the first chapter he focuses

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Role of the L1 in the English Classroom

mainly on first language acquisition from different views and fields of study,

such as psychology, sociology, linguistic among others. And on the second

chapter he focuses on written and second language acquisition, describing

different views and the main purposes that they have depending on the view.

At the moment of reading the texts what caught my attention at the very

beginning, was that every statement, every declaration was not a fallacy, instead

of that, every one of them have evidence, some of them were studies, some of

them experiments, and some of them researches, but all of them were totally

clear and strong. After reading the different texts, and analyzed the researches,

theories and evidences related to acquiring L1 and L2, I can realize that the text

definitely will help us as futures teachers in the process of teaching a second

language.

Even when the three authors mentioned above focus their investigation on the

acquisition of L1 and L2 every one of them had different and specific

objectives, but despite that they agree in relevant factors, such as the

significance of cognition in the process of acquiring a language, the influence

that mother tongue has on this process, and as a futures teachers-to-be, in my

personal opinion the most important fact are the suggestions that they mention

in order to help us to improve the teaching of a second language. Cook (2011)

explains “Language teachers might at least consider the alternative of starting

from the student’s social and psychological needs in the classroom rather than

from the student’s needs in the future” (p.10). Also Krashen (1993) suggest that

“students acquire a language when they receive input that is slightly beyond

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Role of the L1 in the English Classroom

their current level” (p.38). Krashen means that if teachers give student input

that is below their level, the students will have nothing new to acquire.

Moreover in the text of Freeman, we can find diverse hypothesis related to

second language acquisition and one of them is about the affective filter, how

some negative factors such as boredom, anxiety among others can influence in

the process of acquiring a second language, Freeman (2004) explains that those

factors can serve as a kind of filter to block out the new information.

As a conclusion I would like to say that those text definitely were important

in my formation as a future teacher; moreover, after reading the texts I would

like to broaden my mind to these investigations and maybe focus my thesis on

one of the topics that were developed. Undoubtedly it would be an amazing and

enriching experience.

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Role of the L1 in the English Classroom

References

Cook, V. (2011). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching (3 ed).

Freeman, D., & Freeman, Y. (2004) What you need to know to teach reading,

ESL, Spelling, Phonics, Grammar. Heinemann

Krashen, S. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language

Learning. University of Southern California

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