Hello Mr.Albert Rayan,

I am an EFL English teacher, because I teach in Brazil. What I have taken from some training courses I have participated and most of my classes is that the TEACHER ´must´ speak English all the time, but not threat STUDENTS to do the same.

We have to bear in mind that learning especially a language is a long-term process, not an ability that you insert in your students´ brain. 

When my elementary students use their mother-tongue in classroom I deal with this very softly (even I dislike it) and try to incentivate them to use it naturally through some challengeble tasks, which they have to solve speaking freely.    

In English classes around the world, I feel that most of the teachers care a lot about teching their students the subject matter itself, however they fail in teaching how they can communicate in English.

I hope you bring more subjects for discussion.

Thanks.   

Dear Mr Albetrayan,

                              I am very sorry to interact with you rather late. I am the convener of ELTAI, E.G Dt chapter,A.P. I saw you and heard your speech in chennai during the 4th international conference. Dr elango came to kakinada and opened our chapter in august last year of eltecs i am able to blog for BC. Thanks a lot for you.

I think that the use of mother tongue depends on the level and  background of the learners. I teach in a govt high school where both english and telugu medium exist. I teach differently because of the difference in the medium of instuction. In the english medium classes the children learn nonlanguage subjects also in english. but in the regional medium classes the students learn english as subject only. So both the teacher and the students tend to use more mother tongue and less english.

Anyhow i feel that the teacher should use very simple and idiomatic english in the class so that the children improve their listening skills. later the teacher should lead the studentls to other skills. Unfortunately the evaluation system is examination oriented. I think there should be change in the materials,methods,men. evaluation and mind set of the policy makers,teachers and students. Until then acquisition of english in our educational institutions is a distant dream.

I hope you will read my blogs 1.learning and acuisition are different and 2.Narrative as a pedagogic tool and if possible other blogs and forum topics.

With kind regards,

yORS SINCERELY,

jvl narasimha rao

I would like to share my present experience with students down South ( Kerala )

I shifted to Kerala from Mumbai four years back. The educational system down here is horrible, without the slightest exaggeration. As of now, any student who is serious about his career, needs to have an excellent command over all areas of the English Language. I was initially training candidates for placing them in the BPO industry for three years. I trained close to 350 students during this span of time. Most of the students came from vernacular backgrounds and the second category of students were from schools, where speaking the English Language was mandatory. I never allowed the use of L1 in the class. My inputs were in the English Language and likewise I made them come out and speak in the English Language, even though the resistance was very high. I also noticed that the second category of students were more or less on par with the first group, in terms of their speaking skills. I probed into this and I was told that they were totally alienated by their classmates whenever they communicated in the English Language. Moreover the society has conditioned the minds of students to such an extent,  that they virtually detest the English Language, fully knowing the harsh reality that their entire career will be spoilt.

I used to make it very clear to all the batches, that the communication in the class should purely be in the English Language and more importantly they need to think in English. The students down here think in their mother tongue and then translate it into English, which will obviously make no sense. I was ruthless on this particular aspect and the results were a mixed bag. I had lot of dropouts on one hand and on the other hand I also had participants taking it up as a challenge and putting their heart and soul into the learning process.

I always used to tell them to keep the basic structure in mind, as in, Subject + Verb + Object. I used to highlight the importance of thinking in English, by taking a simple sentence, as in, "I love you"

When they think in their mother tongue and then translate it into English the sentence becomes "I you love"

I personally feel, there has to be a radical change in the mindset of people, which I do not see happening. Over the last four years, I have seen numerous cases of excellent teacher trainers, who gave it up and went back to their home ground, due to these issues. From my end, I ensure that I do my job with commitment and dedication, and the satisfaction of seeing a student totally change, keeps me motivated.  

Im my opinion, the excessive use of L1 may jeopardize the learning process since the students will tend to use their mother tongue whenever they find difficulty in commmunicating in L2. The use of L1 in classroom should be the last resort. for example when the teacher needs to explain abstract concepts that would be time consuming to be done in L2.