ELTWeekly Issue#32, Research Paper: The Ubiquity of the English Language and the Cruxes in Learning it as a First Language in India

The Ubiquity of the English Language and the Cruxes in Learning it as a First Language in India

by Aadhi Ramesh Babu, Asst. Professor in English in Kamala Institute of Technology and Sciences, Huzurabad, Karimnagar,   Andrapradesh

India is a vast country with different languages in different parts of the country. These regional languages differ from each other so much that it is not possible to communicate with people of other regions without a common language. India is on the road to become a strong and prosperous nation in the world. For all this, there is need of a common language i.e., English. It is this language which is understood almost all over the region in addition to national language of Hindi, all schools and colleges teach English and mostly have it as a medium of instruction.

No one denies the importance of English language in the present time as global language. It is clear that the English language has become more dominant around the world. In some countries it is used as the mother tongue and, other countries learn it as second language in their schools like India and Africa. This is made English widespread. In addition, many reasons which contributed to rising of English spreading. For example, use it for communication between people around the world, as well as, it is language of modern times. On other hand, English is the language of science and technology. There is no doubt that, the English is language of communication between the people with different cultures. It is also the language of computers that help to communicate with the people around the world through Internet technology and e-mail. People who know English can deal with the Internet, which is regard information and communications revolution.

I would like to mention a few points in this paper on how the first language is used in foreign language learning, specially the focus on English language, in India. It’s not prohibited to use mother tongue language in class while dealing with English teaching but it should be the last means. Because it’s better to use visual aids, flash cards or anything else that reduces the difficulties, and as teachers we can accept learners’ mother tongue use. However, research shows that the first language has a small but important role to play in communicating meaning and content. This role is important across all four strands of a course. In a well balanced foreign or second language course, there are roughly equal opportunities for learning through these four strands:

1.  Meaning focused input – learning through listening and reading

2.  Meaning focused output – learning through speaking and writing

3. Language focused learning – learning through deliberate attention to language features

4. Fluency development in target language – learning through working with known  material across the four skills at a higher than usual level of performance.

Use of L2 (English)

Research has shown that the first language of learners can play a constructive role in some of these strands and the aim of this article is to look at some of this research and to clearly identify those parts of a language course where there is value in using the L1. Before doing this, let us look briefly at ways of increasing the use of the L2.

When teaching a foreign language, the students should be exposed to as much comprehensible input as possible. The teacher should keep speaking English in the classroom and make him/herself understood that he/she expects the same from the students.  At the beginning, they will have problems understanding the teacher but later on, they, at least some of them, will do their best to answer the teacher’s questions in English. What I find especially worth mentioning is that the students take it easier and donot show enough enthusiasm to learn English when it is not spoken in the classroom by the teacher.

In India it is too tough to learn any foreign language, particularly English because the learners want to speak in their mother tongue. We all know that it is very comfortable language to speak and I would like to give some techniques to improve the use of English. Most of the students speak in their mother tongue outside of the classroom. They are not using L2 in the colloquial language.  Where learners have little opportunity to meet and use the L2 outside the classroom, it is very important that the use of English is maximized in the classroom. One obvious way to do this is carry out classroom management in the L2, English. Classroom management involves things like telling the class what to do (take out your books, turn to page 7), controlling behaviour (be quiet), explaining activities (get into pairs). The teacher has to make the class interesting by giving the tasks. Vocabulary, grammar, and communicative speeches are generally useful to the students. If the use of English in classroom is done in a planned, consistent way, classroom can be a very effective opportunity for learning through meaning focused input. Through observation the functions and forms of the language of classroom management, classroom based research would be to identified and it is a classified list of useful sentences that make use of generally high frequency words and grammatical structures. I think that in this way the role of the L1 in classroom management can be minimized and the role of the L2 increased and of course in classrooms where the learners all share the same the first language or national language, or local languages like Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam in India, there is a tendency for tasks which should be done in the second language, such as conversation activities, situation dialogues, discussion of intensive reading, preparation for writing etc to be done in the L1.

Should English Language teachers use the mother-tongue in the classroom? The rationale for not using the mother tongue was a mixture of pedagogical and pragmatic. Let me substantiate why I tell you to use L 1 in the class. There are many reasons for this L1 use.

• Comparing English grammar with the mother tongue’s grammar can be very positive for some learners.
• Beginners will probably progress at a quicker pace if the use of the mother tongue is allowed in the classroom.
• Translation exercises may also be the perfect practice when there is a grammar point that is causing trouble to students.
• It is more natural to use the L1 with others who have the same L1.
• It is easier and more communicatively effective to use the L1.
• Using the L2 can be a source of embarrassment particularly for shy and mute learners and those who feel they are not very proficient in the L2.
• There are however some times when use of the L1 can have very positive effects on learning and we will now look at these in relation to the four strands.

First language use and meaning focused input and output

There’s no doubt that learning another language is challenging. Especially if you don’t live in the country where the language is in daily use and you are not exposed to it on a daily basis. It’s a fact that if you were suddenly transported to a country where you had no knowledge of the language you would soon start to pick up basic phrases and words. I agree with our colleges on the matter for using mother tongue which is sometimes really necessary, especially when we do not have the suitable equivalent of the English words. Of course some teachers recommend using synonym or antonym in English to avoid using mother tongue which is also very useful method but there comes time when we are at our wits end and whatever we explain the learner doesn’t get the meaning. We know that there is no real synonym word in English language and synonyms have near but not exact meaning of the same word. Here the teacher’s role, his wide knowledge and experience in teaching English and finally suitable materials chosen for the learner can be very useful. Some English teachers in India allow their students to use a bilingual dictionary when they can’t convey the meaning in English but it should be the last choice, only for jargons and expressions not used or found in mother tongue.

Meaning focused tasks can carry a heavy cognitive load. Not only do learners have to focus on what to say or what is being said, they also have to focus on how to say it or how it is being said.  The learners discuss a task in their first language before they had to carry it out in writing in the second language. That is, if they think in their first language, they have the opportunity to fully understand the content and they can write with proper ideas. The first language discussion of the task had some interesting features.

• The learners were all very actively involved in coming to grips with the ideas.
• Secondly, the first language discussion included quite a lot of the second language vocabulary which would be used in the later task.
• They cannot think with critical ideas in foreign language so the first language is better.

Thus the discussion not only helped learners to get on top of the content, but it also helped them gain control of relevant L2 vocabulary in a very supportive L1 context. I think there a danger that the students might habituated to speak in their mother tongue and too much practice is surely needed but if the learners who did the preparatory L1 discussion in groups did much better on the L2 written task than other learners who did preparatory L2 discussion even though that discussion was in the same language as the subsequent written task. There is thus a useful role for the L1 in helping learners gain the knowledge needed to reach a higher level of L2 performance.

Use the first language and focus on target language learning

There are numerous ways of conveying the meaning of an unknown word. These include a definition in the second language, a demonstration, a picture or a diagram, a real object, L2 context clues, or an L1 translation. In terms of the accuracy of conveying meaning, none of these ways is intrinsically better than any of the others. It all depends on the particular word concerned. However, studies comparing the effectiveness of various methods for learning always come up with the result that an L1 translation is the most effective¹ This is probably because L1 translations are usually clear, short and familiar, qualities which are very important in effective definitions^2. When the use of an L1 translation is combined with the use of word cards for the initial learning of vocabulary, then learners have a very effective strategy for speeding up vocabulary growth ³. Although there are frequent criticisms raised of learning L1-L2 word pairs, these criticisms are not supported by research. The research shows the opposite, the direct learning of L2 vocabulary using word cards with their L1 translations is a very effective method of learning.

We get some support from studies of dictionary use. Learners’ dictionaries can be classified into two major types – those that only use the L2 (monolingual dictionaries like the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, the Cambridge Dictionary, and the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English), and those that make use of the L1 (bilingual or bilingualised dictionaries). A bilingualised dictionary is a monolingual dictionary with L1 translations included. Monolingual dictionaries usually contain a wealth of useful information and in an attempt to make them accessible for lower proficiency learners, the definitions are often within a controlled vocabulary. The definition vocabulary usually consists of around 2000 words. Thus to use a monolingual dictionary effectively learners need to have an effective receptive vocabulary of 2000 words. Most learners of English as a foreign language in India do not achieve this until they have been studying English for seven to eight years. It is not surprising then that surveys of dictionary preference and learner use show that learners strongly favour bilingual or bilingualised dictionaries. To effectively use a monolingual dictionary, learners need to have a large enough vocabulary

(I think at least 2500 words) and need to be able to interpret definitions, which are much more difficult than L1 synonyms.

The L1 clearly has a very important role to play in the deliberate learning of vocabulary. Different languages borrow a lot of words from English and in the same way the English language is also borrowed from various languages like, Greek and Latin. “Encouraging learners to notice this borrowing and to use the loan words to help the learning of English is a very effective vocabulary expansion strategy. This involves deliberately exploring L1 and L2 relationships. Even greater help is available where the L1 has a family relationship with English as is the case with languages like Spanish and Swedish^4″

Use the first language and develop your communication skills effectively in target language.

Fluency development tasks need to involve language items that are already familiar to the learners, need to involve largely familiar content, and need to include some kind of encouragement to perform faster than usual. This encouragement can take the form of time pressure as in practicing in situational dialogues, role plays and group discussions. The L1 can have a small role to play in preparing the learners for such tasks to make sure that the material they are working with is truly familiar. This preparation can involve helping learners recall L1 stories and information that they work with in the L2, or getting learners to use the L1 to discuss and become very familiar with L2 input, such as newspaper articles, TV news reports, short factual texts, that is then used as the basis for L2 fluency tasks.

L1 and L2

There is no doubt that L1 is a useful tool to the students. In most of the roles of the L1 that we have looked at, there is the common theme that the L1 provides a familiar and effective way of quickly getting to grips with the meaning and content of what needs to be used in the L2. “It is foolish to arbitrarily exclude this proven and efficient means of communicating meaning. To do so would be directly parallel to saying that pictures or real objects should not be used in the L2 class ^5″ All the arguments against L1 use similarly apply to the use of pictures, real objects, and demonstration.

Let us now conclude by looking at ways of avoiding over-use of the L1 and encouraging L2 use.

Encourage the use of foreign language learning

We all know that English is spoken as a second language in India. The students think that it is very difficult for them to learn. So I think that teachers need to encourage

learners to use the L2 as much as possible especially in classes where learners all share the same first language or national language. It practices not only the students listening, but also improves their orally English language. As English teachers, we could try to use English, of course when you deal with some difficult Grammar. The following range of options is based on the idea that there are several reasons why learners use the L1 when they should be using the target language. These reasons include low proficiency in the L2, the naturalness of using English to do certain jobs, shyness in using the L2, or simply a lack of interest in learning the L2. Here are some of the ways of dealing with these obstacles to L2 use.

1. Native language always wants to interfere in learners communication, avoid it.
2. Prepare learners for tasks by pre-teaching the language items such as language games debates and group discussion and skills needed.
3. Use staged and graded tasks that bring learners up to the level required

4.  Tell learners to act as if to be English speakers.
5. Make the L2 an unavoidable part of the task. Retelling activities, strip stories,              completion activities, and role plays all require for the learners.
6. Repeat tasks to make them easier.
7. Tell learners of the learning goals of each task so that they can see how using the L2   will help them achieve a clear short term learning goal.
8. Discuss with the learners the value of using the L2 in class.
9. Inform them to speak in English outside of the classroom.
10. Set up a monitoring system to remind learners to use the L2. In group work speaking      tasks this can involve giving one learner in each group the role of reminding others to use the L2.
11. Use non-threatening tasks. Learners can choose their own groups, the teacher can stay out of the groups, allow learners to prepare well for the tasks, don’t use tasks that put learners in embarrassing situations, and choose interesting, non-threatening topics.

12. Choose manageable tasks that are within the learners’ proficiency.

If encouraging second language use is a problem, several of these different solutions may need to be used. These solutions cover a range of affective, cognitive, and resource approaches and thus can be seen as complementary rather than as alternatives.

In some countries, English and the first language are in competition with each other and the use of English increases at the expense of the L1. Teachers need to show respect for the learners’ L1 and need to avoid doing things that make the L1 seem inferior to English. At the same time, it is the English teacher’s job to help learners develop their proficiency in English. Thus, a balanced approach is needed which sees a role for the L1 but also recognizes the importance of maximizing L2 use in the classroom. In fact, using mother tongue in the ELT class is not a sin; if it helps you make your students understand better. But conducting all the classroom activities in mother tongue all the time doesn’t seem justifiable to the students who are learning English as their second language. In this regard, what I suggest you is use mother tongue if you think that it is really difficult to explain in English but at the same time you need to make sure that you are not encouraging your students use their mother tongue all the time.

References:
1. Laufer, B. and Shmueli, K.  “Memorizing New Words: Does Teaching Have Anything to do with it?” RELC Journal 28:1 (1997): 89-108.

2.  McKeown, M.G. “Creating Effective Definitions for Young Word Learners.” Reading Research Quarterly 28:1 (1993) :17-31.

3.   Nation, I.S.P. Learning Vocabulary in another Language. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, (2001): 296-316.

4.  Ringbom, H.  The Role of the First Language in Foreign Language Learning. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1987.

5.  Nation, I.S.P.  Translation and the Teaching of Meaning: Some Techniques. ELT Journal 32:3 (1978): 171-175

** ELTWeekly would like to thank Aadhi Ramesh Babu for contributing this research paper.