MASARYK UNIVERSITY IN BRNO

Faculty of Education
Department of English Language and Literature

Teachers Usage of The Mother Tongue Versus English at

the Level of Young Learners
Thesis

Supervisor: Written by:

Mgr. Nadda Vojtkov Radka Benkov

Brno 2007

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Declaration:

I proclaim that I worked on this thesis on my own and that I used only the sources
cited in the bibliography list.

I agree with this thesis being deposited in the Library of the Faculty of Education at
the Masaryk University and with its being made available for academic purposes.

In Brno 27 June 2007

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Acknowledgment:

I would like to express special thanks to my supervisor Mgr. Nadda Vojtkov for
revising my thesis, for her valuable advice, kind and helpful attitude and assistance
that she provided me throughout the thesis.

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 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

THEORETICAL PART 3
I . Young Learners 3
I.1. Young Learners Definition 3
I.1.1. What Age May Be Treated as Young Learners 3
I.1.2. Basic Characteristics of Young Learners 3
I.2. The Childs Development 4
I.2.1 Cognitive, Emotional, Physical and Social Development 4
I.2.2 Language Development 5
II . Young Learners and Language Acquisition 7
II.1. Childrens Expectations 7
II.2. Acquisition versus Learning 7
III. Various Methods and Approaches of Using Mother Tongue in the Course of 9
English Language Teaching History
III.I. The Grammar-translation Method 9
III.2. Acquisition versus Learning 10
III.3 Audiolingual Method and Community Language Learning and Suggestopedia11
III.4. Total Physical Response, The Natural Approach and Communicative
Language Teaching 12
III. 5.Contemporary Trends 13
IV. Language in the Classroom 14
IV.1. Dispute about Language 14
IV.1.1. Advantages and Disadvantages of Using English to Teach English 15
IV.2. Using the Mother Tongue in the Classroom 17
IV.2.1 The Appropriate Age 18
IV.2.2 The PupilsPrevious Experience 19
IV.2.3. Particular Lesson Stages and Specific Situations 20
IV.2.4 Teacher versus Language 21
IV.3. Translation 22
IV.4 Who is a Better Teacher? 23

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 PRACTICAL PART 26
V. Questionnaire 28
V.1. The Czech Experience 28
V.2. The Greek Experience 29
V.3. The Teachers Views 30
VI. Observations 31
VI.1 Background Description 31
VI.2.Results of the Observation 31
VI.2.1. Graphic Presentation of the Results 33
VII. An Ideal Lesson Attempt 38
VII.1.1. The Background Description 38
VII.2 The Lesson 39
VII.2.1 General Characteristics and Recommendation 39
VII.2.2. Particular Lesson Stages 40
VII.3. The Summary of Techniques for Achieving our Aims that I Use or Would Like to
Adopt 55
VIII. Final Conclusion 67
REFERENCES
APPENDICES

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 Introduction

In the 21st century, modern English is considered as a world Lingua franca or

as a global language. According to Wikipedia, over 370 million people speak
English as their first language: 200 million to 1.3 billion people use it as a second
language or learn it as a foreign-language. English is also the universal language of
science, economy, and other branches.
Owing to afforesaid facts, English language learning and teaching is highly
relevant to the current situation. Teaching English has rather long tradition in the
western world. In the Czech Republic English has been in the centre of attention
since the early 1990s. The experts deal with all aspects influencing effective
language teaching and learning.
One of these aspects is using the appropriate language during lessons. This
question was firstly discussed in the 19th century when many language teachers
started a call for crucial changes. Since the 19th century the approaches to using
the mother tongue (MT, L1) or the target language (TL, L2) have changed
dramatically as well as the methods used for teaching languages. The topic of the
proper language choice is still often discussed. It seems that nowadays we have
already overcome the period of various radical approaches, methods and opinions
of using the mother tongue which used to be either highly promoted or cursed.
The question of using the mother tongue in foreign language lessons remains
controversial especially when dealing with young learners and beginners.
Although most of the experts acknowledge the fact that a certain amount of the L1
may be beneficial for the learners , the proper situations of its usage are still
discussed.
The following thesis deals with using both the MT and the target language
when teaching young learners. It depicts particular aspects of the afforementioned
age and focuses on various ways of learning languages. Later, individual
standpoints of the language choice are described. The practical part is based on
exploration of acquired knowledge. This part contains a chapter that tries to find
out the real amount of the MT used by the Czech teachers in their lessons.
Following chapter is grounded on one specific lesson where I tried to utilize
gained knowledge and depict particular lesson stages in light of the proper

6
language use. The final sequence conveys the results of the questionnaire focusing
also on the mother tongue in the foreign language lessons.
The aim of the thesis is to concentrate mainly on the practical utilization of the
results rather than presenting bare facts.
My personal aim was to explore the subject matter from the standpoint of both
- theory and practice. Above all, I focused on practice in order to explore gained
knowledge and the results of the observations in my lessons.
When working on this thesis a number of methods was used. The theoretical
part is based on study of various books addressing the topic of teaching young
learners, teaching languages generally and using the mother tongue in lessons. The
practical part is based on observations i.e. peer observation, recording and
questionnaires.

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 Theoretical Part

I . Young Learners

I.1. Young Learners Definition

I.1.1. What Age May Be Treated as Young Learners
Systems of primary education vary in different countries. In theUnited
Kingdom children attend primary schools from five to eleven years, while in the
Czech Republic Primary education lasts from the age of six to fifteen and is
divided into lower and upper section. According to Framework Educational
Programme, English is compulsory from the third grade. Therefore, children from
the age of eight to eleven would be considered as Young Learners. English is
often taught even in kindergarents, but those children would be designated as
Very Young Learners.

I.1.2. Basic Characteristics of Young Learners

At first we should emphasize that development does not proceed at the same
time for all children. As Sarah Phillips claims in her book Young Learners, not
all children in a particular group evolve in the same way, the important factors
which influence children s maturity are their gender, home, culture, parents and
their peers. Some of them develop early and some later. Nevertheless everybody
who deals with eight to ten year olds must bear in mind their personality which
consists of both adult and childish side. To be more specific we may pause on the
following specification of children at the afforementioned age. According to
Slattery and Willis, children start to develop writing and reading in their mother
tongue, develop their thinking, know what is real and what is not, are able to plan
the procedure of how to do a particular activity, cooperate with others and learn
from them, are reliable and liable for all activities which proceed during lessons.
Or we may also claim that:
1. Their basic concepts are formed.
2. They can tell the difference between fact and fiction.
3. They ask questions all the time.

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4. They rely on the spoken word as well as the physical world to convey and
understand meaning.
5. They are able to make some decisions about their own learning.
6. They have definite views about what they like and do not like doing.
7. They have a developed sense of fairness about what happens in the classroom and
begin to question the teachers decisions.
8. They are able to work with others and learn from others. (Scott,Ytreberg 1990: 3)

I.2. The Childs Development

I.2.1 Cognitive, Emotional, Physical and Social Development
Although a lot of theories dealing with learning exist, in general we should
mention at least two of the following as they bring crucial findings about
cognitive development.
Jean Piaget (1896-1980), who is considered to be one of the most famous child
psychologists, developed a theory of active learning often termed as
constructivism. "Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to
resemble the typical adult of his society . . . but for me and no one else, education
means making creators. . . . You have to make inventors, innovatorsnot
conformists" 1 He claimed that children are active constructors of their knowledge
of the world (Pinter, 2006:6) and also called them little philosophers, or tiny
thought-sacks. Piaget emphasized the biological basis of the development and in
accordance with his theory, children of seven to eleven pass through concrete
operational stage, whereas year seven is regarded as the turning point in their
cognitive growth and though they cannot yet generalize their understanding, their
thinking reminds us of thinking as adults based on logical reasoning. Although
Piagets stages were criticised, ( It was suggested that according to
afforementioned theory young children are underestimated and that experiments
supporting his theory were not presented in an appropriate child-friendly way) His
works inspired American and European education in the1970s which thereby was
more child-centredand focused on both theory and practice.
An other important observation was made by Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) who
was a Russian psychologist cooperating with Piaget. As he was closely

1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget

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investigating the importace of culture, communication and problem solving in
human development influencing the learning process: his theory is called Social
constructivism. Vygotsky highlighted the role of significant people in a childs
life such as parents and other adults.
Through these interactions, a child came to learn the habits of mind on her/his
culture, namely speech patterns, written language, and other symbolic knowledge
that affected a child's construction of her/his knowledge. The specific knowledge
gained by a child through these interactions also represented the shared
knowledge of a culture. This process is known as internalization.2
Emotional development also affects childrens language-learning activities.
Different kinds of temperament influence a learners participation in class. Some
of them are shy while others talkative, aggressive, self-confident or frightened of
making mistakes.
Not only cognitive and emotional development play a crucial role in
determining learning process. Young boys and girls behave differently as for
biological differences between them.
The function of muscles and all bodily movements. For example, focusing eyes on
a text and problems sitting still without moving and shuffling.
Young children are entirely dependent on their parents. A child is happy when
parents are involved in what she/he is doing, therefore, those with eager and
supportive parents have an advantage.
Teachers on the other hand should create a supportive and secure atmosphere at
school. Young children are eager to build up a relationship with their
teacher.(Dunn 1983: 16) Since children have a decent sense of fairness, teachers
have to treat them as equal. Children should be respected, but they have to feel
respect from their teachers as well.

I.2.2 Language Development

To deal with development we must take into account similarities between
learning the mother tongue and a foreing language.Eight to ten years old children
have already managed to use the first language and its basic rules. By the age of

2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Vygotsky

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ten they understand abstracts, symbols (beginning with words), generalise and
systematise.(Scott,Ytreberg
1990: 4)
Teachers should know how long it takes for children to learn their mother
tongue to know what is accesible for that age group in second language
acquisition. Another important parallel that young children need is to receive input
and participate in interactions as well as learners of a foreign language. According
to Pinter It is important to know what children can do and like doing in their
mother tongue because teachers can usefully build on this knowledge in their
second or foreign language classes.(Pinter 2006: 24)

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II . Young Learners and Language Acquisition

II.1. Childrens Expectations

Young children, if they are normal, want to learn. At no other time in life does
the human being display such enthusiasm for learning, for living, for finding out:
said Pluckrose (in Dunn 1983: 1)
Children, as well as adults, come to English lessons with some expectations. As
Dunn said: They want immediate results. They expect to go home after the first
lesson able to speak some English, so that they can be praised by their parents and
show off to their friends.(Dunn 1983: 2) We may say in general that children at
this age are curious, cooperative and they learn new languages very easily, just like
picking it up. What is more, they do not consider learning as work but as play as
they do not focus their attention upon language itself, it is not of first importance,
they value English if it helps them enjoy their interests. They want to use English
in real situations to talk about things they like.

II.2. Acquisition versus Learning

Younger learners respond to language according to what it does or what they
can do with it, rather than treating it as an intellectual game or abstract system.
This has both advantages and disadvantages: on the one hand they respond to the
meaning underlying the language used and do not worry about individual words
or sentences: on the other, they do not make the analytical links that older learners
do. Younger learners have the advantage of being great mimics, are often
unselfconscious, and are usually prepared to enjoy the activities the teacher has
prepared for them. (Phillips 1993:7)
We may distinguish two systems of gaining foreign language acquisition
and learning. In those two terms we may see the differences in child and adult
language learning. Children usually acquire the language. They learn from input
and interaction and they have a good instinct for interpreting the sense or meaning
of a situation. (Moon 2005: 5) This process is similar to so called simultaneous
acquisition which is connected with learning two or more languages almost at
birth.( For example in a mixed nationality marriage.) Children are willing to
experiment, imitate even long sentences and use the language in real situations.

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They do not analyse the language, they just use it. Children should be exposed to
language by their teachers who should create opportunities to act in real-life
situations and interact in order to develop more fluency according to the
motto,English needs to be experienced, not explained.3 Dunn said that: Language 2
cannot be taught as an isolated subject, it has to be thought of in terms of the
whole child and his individual educational needs and interests.( Dunn 1983: 8)
We may consider the turning point at ones puberty. It is linked with Piagets
stages of cognitive development because at this age adolescents are able to think
abstractly but their ability of acquisition is weaker. Thus we may see a system of
learningprevailing for adults, as they give attention to detail and are more
analytical.

3
http://iteslj.org/Articles/McGlothlin-ChildLearn.html

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III. Various Methods and Approaches of Using Mother Tongue in the
course of English Language Teaching History

To explore the issue of using the mother tongue and the target language in
lessons properly, we should know and result from experience that have been done
since Elizabethan times when English was first taught to the Hugenot refugees in
London till nowadays. During that long time period views on language teaching
have changed dramatically and a number of various methods and approaches have
appeared.
To speak about languages generally, we might bear in mind that since the
middle ages Latin and Greek prevailed in school it was done because of different
reasons e.g. commercial, military or social as a sign curriculum. Till 1800 only a
few schools taught foreign languages and till 1900 secondary schools included
usually only one language into their core curriculum. In various European
countries of good manners.
As history of English language teaching is not a dominant theme of this thesis,
the consequent abstract is short, focusing mainly on attitudes to mother tongue
usage.

III.I. The Grammar-translation Method

The grammar-translation method was first introduced in Prussia in the
eighteenth century and was developed for secondary schools. According to
Howatt, the original motivation was reformist and the main aim was to make
language learning easier rather than to stress teaching languages by grammar and
translation as it was claimed later. At that time: Spoken language was, at best,
irrelevant and accuracy was elevated to the status of a moral imperative.
(Howatt,1984:135) Nowadays we consider this method as one of the most
traditional, which undoubtedly has many drawbacks. Firstly it has a focus on
learning the grammar rules, memorizing and translation, even very difficult text,
from one language into another, where as there is no place for group-learning and
other activities demanding active participation in a classroom. It also did not bear
in mind the content, thus it has no benefit for learners living in the contemporary

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 world. What is more, this method is not well-suited for young learners and
practically the only language used is the mother tongue. To summarize the facts,
we may hear the notions that afforementioned method simply cannot be the
prevailing one, used for teaching English and other modern languages, because it
used to be aimed at teaching Latin which is regarded as a dead language.

III.2. The Direct Method

As most teachers asked for a crucial change of methods, the direct method
appeared and became popular in the 1920s in European education. This method
was a step forward as it enabled learners to think and communicate spontaneously
in their target language. This approach was based on similarity between the L1 and
L2 acquisition.
To address the direct method critically, it must be said that it was undoubtedly a
progressive approach but we may also take into account its drawbacks. As well as
the grammar-translation method, this is also an extreme one, especially due to its
radical followers who totally banned the L1 in classrooms, which is
unquestionably highly difficult especially for young beginners. But the key
weakness is, that learners acquire the foreign language in the utterly same way as
their mother tongue. In the following list we can notice the major differences
between the L1 and L2 learners:

First-language learner

1. He has no command of another language before learning the target language.

2. He is neurologically immature, thus his mother tongue is not fixed.
3. He learns to recognise and cope with reality through the target language.
4. He requires a high contact-frequency with the target language to learn that all
things have names.
5. He requires a high contact-frequency with the target language to recognise the
meaning of sounds representing the names of things, because his range of
experience with the outside world is limited and as he has no knowledge of the
equivalent meaning of sounds from another language for the same things.

6. He requires a high contact-frequency to establish integration of mother-tongue

sounds with things.

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 Second-language learner

1) He has command of another language before learning the target language.

2) He is neurologically mature,thus his mother tongue is fixed.
3) He learns to recognise and cope with reality through the mother tongue, not the
target language.
4) He already knows that all things have names.
5) He has already experienced the process, involving high contact-frequency and
maturation, of recognising the meaning of sounds representing the names of things
in his mother tongue. As he is now neurologically mature, he need not be subjected
a second time to the same process in the new target language merely to recognise
the equivalent meaning of target-language sounds for the same
things. (Recognition of the sound representing the thing should not be confused
with the integration of the sound with the thing, set.
6) He has already established integration of mother-tongue sounds with things,
but requires high contact-frequency to establish new integration of target-
language sounds with the same things4

III.3 Audiolingual Method and Community Language Learning and Suggestopedia

The origin of the following revolutionary approach is connected with American

presence in the World War II, when many people who were involved in the war
needed to learn foreign languages. This method is closely linked with behavioral
psychology when due to memorization and drill, responses are produced
automatically in order to form a habit. The method became popular with the
promise of fast acquisition of communicative competence by means of highly
intensive courses and almost no mother tongue used by teachers. Sometimes we
can encounter a term the Army Method and already the title suggests that the
method is not appropriate for young learners. It is especially due to using many
highly controlled practices and drilling in an effort to overlearn the subject matter.
In 1970s we may hear about the Community language learning which is based

4
http://www.aber.ac.uk/~mflwww/seclangacq/langteach5.html

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on interpersonal relationship, feel of safety and learners intellect. This method is
unusual just in term of usage of the L1 vs L2 in particular. Learners start speaking
in their native language, then the teacher translates their ideas and the learner
repeats the teachers words subsequently. This procedure lasts until learners are
able to speak in the target language without any translation.

Late 1970s are connected with a new movement called Suggestopedia

which was introduced by Bulgarian psychologist Georgi Lozanov and this method
is based on suggestion removing barriers to learning. Mainly suitable conditions
for maximal usage of brain capacity are stressed. In lessons where Suggestopedia
is applied learners use handouts which contain billingual dialogues.

III.4. Total Physical Response, The Natural Approach and Communicative

Language Teaching

TPR was already introduced in the nineteenth century and is based on the idea
of similarity between L1 and L2 acquisition. It uses language - body
conversation between children and parents when the child is instructed and
though does not speak himself, just physically responds till he is able to produce
his own language. This process in the L1 is simulated in mastering the L2. The
afforementioned method is suitable just for elementary levels where the role of the
parent is displaced by a teacher. The natural way of learning without a stressful
situation is emphasized and apart from the fact that it is highly memorable and a
fun approach. It is good for kinesthetic learners and for mixed-ability classes.
In the1980s a new method was developed that shared some points with
afforementioned TPR and Direct method. This method was called Natural
approach. The method is based on principles of using the L2 communicatively
from the very beginning. The crucial difference is in allowing students to use their
mother tongue as well. This approach requires teachers to be very communicative
in order to give their learners sufficient amount of input.

If any approach which is acknowledged by most of language teachers exists, it is

undoubtedly the Communicative Language Teaching Approach. It does not
contain any strict enumeration of actions but just a wide range of ideas which lead
to successful learning rated mainly on needs of different pupils who need to use

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the target language not for academic purposes but just for practical ones. This
approach concentrates on language as a means of communication which is
developed already from the early age. The emphasis is placed on the target
language its usage in meaningful activities and as a natural device in classroom
management in order to approach the natural L1 acquisition.

III. 5.Contemporary Trends

1990sare linked with the Lexical Approach which lays stress on lexis rather
than grammar. This method is used also at young learners where the role of
teachers is to be communicative in order to offer maximal language input. Pupils
are encouraged to speak or just listen or reflex in some way.

The last century may be characterized as a time when the main aim was to find the
most appropriate method. To confirm this claim we may cite C.H. Prator who
said: One method has succeded another: grammar-translation gave way to the
direct method, which was in turn followed by the reading approach. The audio-
lingual approach enjoyed almost uncontested supremacy in many parts of the
world, through the 1950s and 1960s. The contemporary development is
sometimes called as the post methods era or eclectic approach which was
proposed as a reaction to the profusion of teaching methods in the 1970s and
1980s and the dogmatism often found in the application of these methods. 5 This
approach enables teachers to select the most acceptable part of each method and
apply it in their lessons in order to make the lessons as effective as possible.

5
http://moodlinka.ped.muni.cz/file.php?file=/135/hrehov_k.pdf

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IV. Language in the Classroom

To address the problem of using the mother tongue in the classroom we should
specify the type of class we are dealing with. In the following chapters we will
mention monolingual English classes where all the pupils have their common
mother tongue other than English which is typical for the Czech Republic. These
classes are usually taught by a non-native English teacher, but more and more
schools employ native speakers. An average amount of English lessons is about
three lessons a week for young learners and slightly more for more advanced and
older students. At the beginning we will deal with students of English generally,
later we will focus more on young learners.

IV.1. Dispute about Language

Every second spent using the L1 is a second not spent using English! And
every second counts! (Atkinson,1993:12)
The foreign language leads the students to explore their own culture, using the
mother-tongue as a bridge towards English.6
We may infer from afforementioned quotations that nowadays we may hear
more or less controversial and extreme ideas which advocate either monolingual
principle or using the mother tongue and translation in classrooms.
In Britain, the monolingual principle is still a controversial issue in foreign
language teaching, whereas in Germany, for instance, visitors to secondary
schools a century ago could witness monolingual foreign language lessons taking
place, not as Direct Method experiments, but as a normal procedure in an
ordinary school. (Howatt, 1984:135)
As Podromou said in his paper From Mother Tongue to Other Tongue: Until
recently, the MT in the EFL classroom has been a skeleton in the cupboard.7 He
responds to the fact that many teachers feel ashamed of using MT in their lessons
and they reagard it as their personal failure because using English only is often

http://web.archive.org/web/20021119093709/www.thracenet.gr/bridges/bridges5/From+Mother+T
ongue+to+Other+tonge.html
7

http://web.archive.org/web/20021119093709/www.thracenet.gr/bridges/bridges5/From+Mother+T
ongue+to+Other+tonge.html

19
considered efficient and proper. On the other hand Costas Gabrielatos in his
response to Podromous paper claims that: L1 has never been a skeleton in the
cupboard rather it has been a bone of contention for more than two centuries.
Peter McKenzie-Brown states in his paper Using the Mother Tongue to Teach
another Tongue: This practice is essentially a product of the twentieth century. In
no other age have language teachers been forbidden as a matter of principle to
communicate with their students in their native language.8
According to Atkinson , the essential question, which will be discussed in detail
later, is: Should English be spoken all the time by all teachers of English in all
classes? (Atkinson,1993:2)

IV.1.1. Advantages and Disadvantages of Using English to Teach English

All of the following arguments are quoted from Children Learning English
(Moon, 2000:63) and deal with advantages and disadvantages of using English to
teach English.

Advantages
It increases the amount of
exposure pupils get to English.
It develops pupils confidence
in the language
It provides real reasons for
using English to communicate,
eg in giving instructions,
getting information from
pupils.
Disadvantages
It can take a long time to explain
things, even using gestures, etc.
Pupils who are anxious to do the
activity may lose interest or lose
concentration.
Weaker or slower pupils may lack
the confidence to believe they can
learn through English, they may
be frightened or put off to
English.
Teachers may have limited
English or insufficient fluency in
the language. They may give
pupils incorrect models.

8
http://languageinstinct.blogspot.com/2006/11/using-mother-tongue-to-teach-another.html

20
 Much classroom language, eg
instructions, has a simple and
repetitive pattern which can be
picked up by pupils without
them being aware that they are
learning.
It can motivate pupils to want
to learn.
It develops greater fluency, as
pupils are encouraged to think
in English from the early
stages.
It may be very difficult to do any
reflection on learning or discuss
pupilsopinions about their
learning in English because pupils
have limited English.
For pupils who are not highly
motivated, it may involve too
much effort to try to understand.
It may take longer to cover the
syllabus.

We may agree or disagree with some of these claims. I would like to comment
on four of them.
The most frequent argument against using the target language is that particular
pupils are not able to understand English nor to speak English. This claim should
be taken into account when dealing with young learners as it is a complicated
question, but it mostly depends on the class and the skills of their teacher.
Nevertheless we may hear such reasoning by teachers who teach even older
students which is undoubtedly wrong.
Some teachers also argue that their students feel silly and ashamed when using
English in communication. Yes, some of them definetely do feel silly but i tis
mainly those who have not been used to speaking English since the beginning of
their learning. Therefore the best way how to overcome such negative feelings for
suitable and adequate usage of English is to practice with their teacher and their
peers.
The third claim, but not so common as the previous ones , is that teachers feel
that the level of their English is not high enough. Sometimes it is unfortunately
truth but sometimes it is a pointless disregard of themselves. As Atkinson claims:
No teachers English is perfect (non-native speaker or native speaker!) but less
than perfect English is better than no English. (Atkinson, 1993:17)

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 Another reason why teachers do not use English is that they are stressed out by
the amount of knowledge listed in the syllabus and the lack of time to teach all the
grammar. Hence they use translation and Czech as a means to be faster and not so
demanding for them.

IV.2. Using the Mother Tongue in the Classroom

The mother tongue in the classroom is
1. a drug (though with therapeutic potential, it can damage your health and may
become addictive)
2. a reservoir (a resource from which we draw)
3. a wall (an obstacle to teaching)
4. a window (which opens out into the world outside the classroom, if we look
through it we see the studentsprevious learning experience, their interests, their
knowledge of the world, their culture)
5. a cruch (it can help us get by in a lesson, but it is recognition of weakness)
6. a lubricant (it keeps the wheel of a lesson moving smoothy, it thus saves
time)9
To what degree will these Podromous metaphors truths will be explored in the
practical part with reference to young learners.
The only thing we may undoubtedly claim is, that English should be the main
language in the classroom. But our aim is not to prepare lessons where our main
aim is to speak only English, but such lessons where an adequate, deliberate usage
of both languages leads to the greatest effect on childrens ability to use English.
Using the mother tongue, we have learned to think, learned to communicate
and acquired an intuitive understanding of grammar. The mother tongue opens the
door not only to its own grammar, but to all grammars. For this reason, the mother
tongue is the master key to foreign languages, the tool which gives us the fastest,
surest, most precise, and most complete means of accessing a foreign language.
claims Butzkamm in McKenzie-Brown paper.10

http://web.archive.org/web/20021119093709/www.thracenet.gr/bridges/bridges5/From+Mother+T
ongue+to+Other+tonge.html
10
http://languageinstinct.blogspot.com/2006/11/using-mother-tongue-to-teach-another.html

22
 The crucial question is what is the right balance between those two languages
and how the age of learners influences the amount of English used in the
classroom. Therefore we will not debate about the use of the mother tongue,
instead about its appropriate usage and possible overuse.
When dealing with the proper balance, the following factors which affect
language choice will be examined. Firstly, the important factor is the age and level
of English then character of their previous classes (whether they are used to
English in their lessons or not), particular stages of the lesson and the teachers
ability to communicate in English. Afforementioned factors influencing the
language choice will be examined in the following section.

IV.2.1 The Appropriate Age

The first important factor influencing the language choice is the age of learners.
But even this point is subject to debate and controversy. Some of the teachers
claim that young learners are neither able to communicate nor understand the
teacher. We may also notice such opinion that children feel stressed out and
confused when their teacher speaks mostly English or that children are not
motivated when they are forced to use the target language as they are not able to
express it sufficiently yet. On the other hand, for example Pinter claims that: In
young learnersclasssrooms, especially at the beginning stages of learning a
language, teachers often talk a lot in the target language because they provide the
language input. (Pinter, 2006: 46 ) She also claims that children can choose to be
silent and just absorb or contribute in the mother tongue or try doing that in the
target language. Pinter also emphasizes that when there is a serious breakdown in
communication between learners and their teacher, so called language
modification or other tools assisting exposure e.g. gestures, illustrations,
repetition, alternatives and synonyms etc. may be used.
Nevertheless it may be said that the mother tongue can occur more often in
young learners classes than in advanced groups. High levels have fewer reasons
why to use the mother tongue except translation of some vocabulary etc. The MT
can be used especially by children who are not yet able to communicate in all
situations but by their teacher as well, as sometimes excessive use of English may
be counter-productive. Young learners, especially total beginners may be confused
and stressed out when there is no place for mother tongue during the lesson and

23
particularly the weaker learners may find English too difficult and stop trying and
enjoying the subject. According to Gardners the worst thing to do is when one
moment, the teacher is talking normally and suddenly refuses to speak the childs
mother tongue. They claim that the teacher has become a different person to the
child and such difficult experience may influence the childs attitude to the foreign
language. At the same time we may emphasize that young learners are highly
sensitive to the sounds and rhythm of the target language and they do not feel
ashamed of reproducing new sounds and patterns of intonation. It means that
reasonable amount of input, suitable environment and English atmosphere has
undoubtedly the positive impact which enable children to acquire the language.
According to Willis, in a beginnersclass they do not acquire only the language,
they are also practising a vast amount of skills including listening, picking out key
words and thinking in English which helps them to overcome the interference from
L1. Hereafter they will become familiar with intonation and word stress , specific
lexical patterns and lexis and language of communication which they will know
from the classroom situations.
To summarize afforementioned thoughts, Gardners say: It is important, from
the early stages of learning, to avoid translation as much as possible and make the
learners think in that language. (Gardners, 2000:6) More over, using English as
much as possible keep the learners thinking in English and evoke a good English
atmosphere. Gardners also highlight the fact that when children are able to
understand at least something, it gives them feeling of success and it helps the
teachers confidence as well.

IV.2.2 The PupilsPrevious Experience

The second notable factor influencing the particular proportion of English and
the L1 is the students previous experience. In this case it may happen that
teaching young learners can be less exacting than teaching the advanced students.
It is rather difficult for the teacher to use English as a main language straightway
when the learners were taught by a teacher who overused the mother tongue and
hardly ever spoke English. These students are not used to using English and it
takes them longer to accustom it. In addition, pupils may feel silly when using
English and also when listening to the teacher. On the other hand children with the

24
opposite experience may continue developing their L2 better and be more willing
to participate and expect their teacher to speak in the target language too.

IV.2.3. Particular Lesson Stages and Specific Situations

During the learning proces we may encounter stages when, independently of
the level of learners and their previous experience, the mother tongue usage is
undesirable and vice-versa. It means, that the mother tongue should be used in the
situation when either our lesson requires more complicated language than the
learners are able to understand or we have to solve a difficult discipline or another
problem. To be more specific we may divide lesson stages according to language
choice subsequently. Firstly we will deal with giving instruction, then beginning
and ending the lesson, games, correction of mistakes, presenting and practicing
new language. Some of the claims are based on the Atkinsons paper Teaching
Monolingual Classes.
Classroom English, e.i. giving instruction and getting organised is one of the
right opportunities on how to provide even very young pupils exposure into the
foreign language. More over, pupils can feel that English may not be used only in
exercises. In such situations English should be used as much as possible because
the communication can be accompanied by gestures and mime. Although some of
the teachers object that beginners or young learners are not able to understand,
even young learners are often more willing and sensitive to perceive the meaning.
Secondly, when beginning and ending the lesson it is not strictly recommended
to use entirely the L1 or L2. It depends on the level of the subject, sometimes it
may be useful to use the mother tongue when presenting a new topic as the lead-in
should be quick and all pupils must understand the situation in order not to be
confused or bored, or on the other hand summarize the lesson. It happens because
in such moments children can express their attitudes to the disccussed topic, their
views and experience which can be rather difficult or almost impossible when just
starting to learn English.
Games are undoubtedly one of the most popular learners activities. Although
according to Atkinson, during games speaking should not be used in the mother
tongue. The important part of the process of playing the game is the explanation of
the rules which may be above the learners current level of their knowledge.

25
 During the learning process learners make a plenty of mistakes. It is entirely
natural and learners should not wait with producing the target language until they
are perfect. Correction of mistakes may be in both languages. When we just want
to correct, we may use the English but when explaining the grammar in more
detail also the mother tongue can be used.
Presenting and practising a new language is also disputative. When presenting
the new language, we may use a various list of techniques such as gesture, mime,
visual aids, giving definition, through a context or we can simply use translation.
Before we use translation we should be certain that the other techniques failed or
are inappropriate. For example abstract words are difficult to explain without using
the mother tongue or some facts from life in English speaking countries can be
said in the L1. Sometimes, as Podromou claims: The foreign language leads the
student to explore their own culture, using the mother-tongue as a bridge towards
English.11
One of interesting ideas which Atkinson offers is to offer the pupils few
minutes to discuss the given topic in their mother tongue as they need certain
amount of time to process the language and of course to have a rest in order them
to work better. This is quite important for young learners who are not able to
concentrate for long periods of time yet.
Nevertheless we will address the problem of proper language choice when
dealing with young learners at some length later in the following practical part.

IV.2.4 Teacher versus Language

The teachersability to communicate in English plays the crucial role. It
seems to be a rather serious point as we have been encountering the problem of
having the lack of qualified teachers in the Czech Republic since the 1990s.
This problem is visible mainly in the lower sections of elementary schools,
because teachers who teach their, studied their English when they attended
grammar school. This seems to be a great issue because to teach young learners
who are entire beginners demands consequent preparation, quality work as the
very beginning influences their following studies and attitude towards English. Not

11

http://web.archive.org/web/20021119093709/www.thracenet.gr/bridges/bridges5/From+Mother+T
ongue+to+Other+tonge.html

26
only the teachers knowledge of English influences the language choice, it also
depends on how comfortable they feel using English in particular classes. Some
classes, usually those which were taught by a teacher who did not use English at
all, may feel awkward and cause problems to their subsequent teacher.

IV.3. Translation
As we could notice in previous chapters, translation as a language teaching
technique has passed through a long development and over times moved between
two poles on the scale of popularity. A rather interesting fact is, that translation, as
a main tool of grammar-translation method, was either unambiguously
acknowledged or scarified formerly. It is still an open question whether to use the
mother tongue or not in the classroom.
To assess drawbacks versus merits of translation we may start with the
following statement. As Alan Maley in Alan Duffs Translation describes last
decades of the past century: Translation has been denigrated as
uncommunicative, boring, pointless, difficult,irrelevant, and has suffered
from too close an association with its cousin, Grammar. (Duff,1989:3) The chief
reason why translation was considered not to be suitable for language practice was
the fact that this ancient craft, was associated with obsolate methods and it
tended to be used only for testing. Other widespread arguments against translation
are according to Duff as follows. Firstly, as nowadays is given priority to group
work and pairwork, translation as an individual activity is not suitable for
classroom work. Secondly, pupils usually have to translate literary or scientific
texts which do not suit to the general needs of the foreign language learner.
Furthermore, we do not develop all skills, just reading and writing, which is not
communicative enough as it does not involve an oral interaction and also it
requires use of the MT which is not very desirable. To summarize above-
mentioned cases, most teachers judge translation as boring, time-consuming and
wasteful.
On the other hand, and it applies especially for young learners who start with
their first foreign language, translation is a natural and common part of their lives
not only at school but also outside the classroom. Pupils work with authentic
language which enlarge pupilsrange of expression and what is more, it enables
them to communicate not only into a foreign language but both ways. As Duff

27
claims, all people have their mother tongue which shapes their way of thinking,
helps them to understand the influence of the one language on the other and
correct errors. Translation can be also a good opportunity for starting a discussion
or a pair work. To summarize afforementioned claims,we may say that:
Translation develops three qualities essential to all language learning:
accuracy, clarity, and flexibility. It trains the learner to search (flexibility) for the
most appropriate words (accuracy) to convey what is meant (clarity). This
combination of freedom and constraint allows the students to contribute their own
thoughts to a discussion which has a clear focus the text. (Duff,1989:7)

IV.4 Who is a Better Teacher?

McKenzie-Brown claims: Dr. Wolfgang Butzkamm argues that having the
ability to speak the first language of your learners is a gift to be valued. All else
being equal, a teacher fluent in her studentsmother tongue will be a better teacher
than one who blunders in that language or doesnt know it at all.12
It is a controversial issue to judge whether native speakers or teachers who use
childrens mother tongue are the better teachers. According to Atkinson,
previously native teachers were considered to be better teachers as they know the
target language and are confident when using it, there is no tendency to use the
mother tongue, they know the target language culture.
Nowadays many teachers have the opportunity to travel and explore various
countries and cultures, they are also enabled to participate in various educational
programmes abroad in order to experience the atmosphere, culture, improve their
language skills and establish co-operation. They also contextualize the English and
Czech meaning and as they are foreign language learners themselves, they have
their own learning strategies and are able to identify possible difficulties.
Sometimes, mainly at elementary schools when teaching teenagers with enigmatic
problems or even young learners who require special attention as their ability to
concentrate is not stable, it can be very difficult to control the lesson without any
discipline problems. The question is, whether an ideal target age group exists for
which a native teacher is the best and vice versa. Is a native speaker suitable more
for young learners, teenagers or advanced learners? The young learners can

12
http://languageinstinct.blogspot.com/2006/11/using-mother-tongue-to-teach-another.html

28
acquire the important insight, they are able to learn by hearing more than any other
age group and as they start to learn pronunciation and new vocabulary with the
minimal amount of grammar the native speaker is undoubtedly benefiting. On the
other hand the advanced learners and adults work on their fluency and as they are
advanced they should not have any essential misunderstanding or other problems.
To deal with the views of other contemporary teachers we may study the
British Council website http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/talk/vote/native.shtml
concentrating on teaching English and sharing teachers ideas and opinions.
Recently we could participate in forum focussing on advantages and disadvantages
of native speakers and from the total number of 540 votes, 15% claim that native
speakers are the best teachers, 29% agree somewhat, 28% disagree somewhat,
24% totally disagree and 4% did not know. Firstly we should say that there are
good and bad teachers, both native and non-native, but we may also mention other
thoughts. To start with the advantages, most of the participants stress the native
speakers input that can provide, in terms of pronunciation and language usage,
then tendency of natives to concentrate on increasing fluency rather than grammar
and some of the respondents also stress the young learnersability to learn
languages by hearing it. Most of the teachers also regard natives as the best
teachers of vocabulary and pronunciation. To mention some of the often cited
disadvantages we may make reference to the fact that natives often do not
understand why their students are having problems at understanding certain
grammar and that non-native teachers are more aware of the interconnection of the
pupils mother tongue and hence they can decide which particular problematic
areas should be their aim. To speak about the language itself, some respondents
claimed that even though some native speakers are excellent others have terrible
local accents. Another problem of native speakers is also a fact that not all the
native speakers are teachers.
Finally I would like to quote two entries. Since the world is a global village we
cannot claim that these or these people speak better. English is the international
language, there is no native speaker, it's a a dynamic language. And another:
I believe being a native has its advantages in terms of context of the
language. However, this alone is not sufficient enough to make a good teacher. On
the other hand, teaching non native speakers is definetely easier if the teacher is

29
able to converse in the non-native's language. It depends on individuality as a
good teacher is someone who can make the teaching lively and interesting. 13
Nowadays, the main emphasis is placed on the most effective way how to
teach the foreign language and methods which should be used and the obligation to
use only the L2 in order to be an ideal teacher is rather obsolate. On the other hand
native speakers are undoubtedly persons which can highly motivate children, they
offer different approach and general view on the target language, they usually use
slightly different methods and children like them and revere them. Native speakers
can help mainly to young learners to build their confidence as they feel really great
as they realize they are able to communicate with a real Americanor British.
Nevertheless in my opinion an ideal combination is to offer traditional lessons
with a non-native teacher and some lesson (they may be both optional or
compulsory) taught by a native speaker even from the very early stages.

Conclusion
To resume this chapter, eventhough there is often basic difference between
ideal lessons when teachers try to do their best in order to use the target language
and the reality when they often meet various obstacles it is vital to know the
advantages and disadvantages of using both languages so as to know whether to
use English or the mother tongue in order to teach as efficiently as possible.

13
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/talk/vote/native.shtml

30
 Practical part

Introduction
The previous theoretical part focused on general aspects of using the mother
tongue and the target language in the foreign language lessons. The following
practical part concentrates more on the group of young learners. It consists of three
main sequences.
The first sequence is based on the results of the questionnaire which focuses on
opinions of respondentsof various ages. It compares views of total beginners and
more advanced older students.
The second part appears from the results of the first one. It describes the real
situation it means that several primary school teachers lessons were observed in
order to describe the real proportion of using the MT and the TL. Their lessons
were analysed and the total number of sentences in each language were expressed
in percentages.
The third sequence is based on a video recording a class of young learners.
Before filming the lesson, I studied several handbooks for teachers dealing with
using the foreign language when teaching languages and after that I used the
knowledge in my lessons and created a lesson based on afforementioned
knowledge. The particular stages of the lessons are comprehensively analysed. I
chose to record the lesson on a video tape as it capture the lesson more
comprehensively. The chapter dealing with this topic is called An Ideal Lesson
Attempt. It should be regarded only as the attempt because we usually do not
teach under ideal conditions, an ideal class and even we are not ideal ourselves.
The main aims of the practical part are as following:
o Firstly I want to appraise the difference between the ideal, i.e. how an ideal lesson
should look like and the common practice. In the case of learners and students, it
may be connected with their motivation, experience, interest and refering to
teachers it may show their knowledge of the given topic.
o Secondly I intend to show to what extent the theoretical knowledge function is in
practice and what are the possible ways of improvement.
o Another aim is to compare the opinion of the particular age groups of using English
in various lesson stages by the Czech teachers and the native speakers as well.

31
o Finally, the main aim which interconnects all parts of this thesis is the focus on
practical respect rather than theoretical with concentration on the group of young
learner as it is still an unresolved issue.

32
V. Questionnaire
This first sequence of the practical part deals with the results of various
questionnaires. It is rather interesting and no less important to know the oppinions
of our learners. To make foreign language teaching as effective as possible our
learners do not have to be essentialy consistent with all our intentions, but they
should definetely know why English is the main language of the lesson.
I asked almost 140 respondents about their experience and opinions on using
the mother tongue in foreign language lessons in order to map the background.
Than I compared the results with the same questionnaire that had been done in
Greece and also searched the internet to find out teachersopinions.

V.1. The Czech Experience

Following questionnaire was answered by 137 respondents. (The questions are
the same as Podromous see later but in Czech.) They were elementary level
(8th and 9th grade at an elementary school), and intermediate (the highest grades
at a grammar school and a secondary school)
In the following table we may see the results in full. The figures refer to
percentage (%) of possitive responses by students at beginner and intermediate
levels at the secondary school and the grammar school.
1: Should the teacher know the students' mother-tongue? 85 86 86
2: Should the teacher use the students' mother-tongue? 85 75 54
3: Should the students use their mother-tongue? 69 31 30
It is useful if the teacher uses L1 when:
4: explaining new words 55 38 30
5: explaining grammar 67 60 55
6: explaining differences between L1 and L2 grammar 72 69 76
7: explaining differences in the use of L1 and L2 rules 74 68 75
8: giving instructions 6 8 0
Students should be allowed to use L1 when :
9: talking in pairs and groups 26 18 16
10: asking how do we say '..' in English ? 59 24 27
11: translating an L2 word into L1 to show they understand it 67 49 45
12: translating a text from L2 to L1 to show they understand it 67 41 46

The teacher and students can use L1 to:

13: check listening comprehension 49 55 39

33
14: check reading comprehension 63 52 35
15: discuss the methods used in class 67 47 44
14

To comment on the afforementioned results we may highlight the very first

response when most of the learners claim that their teacher should know their
mother tongue. Less than 10 % think that it is essential to use the target language
in procedural language. About three quarters of the respondents regard explaining
differences between the L1 and the L2 grammar and rules in Czech as important.
The responses depend on the level of the students. Elementary insist on use of the
MT more than intermediate. Rather interesting is also the fact that students
consider usage of English themselves more important than usage of the TL by their
teacher.

V.2. The Greek Experience

Podromou, one of the advocates of using the mother tongue in foreign language
teaching, asked three hundred Greek students at the levels of beginners,
intermediate and advanced (mostly teenagers and young adults) general questions
concerning the mother tongue usage. The survey showed rather interesting results.
In general, we may notice scepticism towards the MT. 65% beginners and half of
intermediate and advanced believed that the teacher should know his/her pupils
mother tongue. To deal with students usage of their mother tongue, the figures for
advanced level are rather low (only 29 % accept the MT) but quite high (66% and
58% accept the MT) for beginners and intermediate. It can be said that the
responses depend on the age and mainly on the level. The higher the level of the
respondents, the less they consider use of ther MT to be right. For example about
31% of beginners agree with use of the MT to explain grammar but only 7% and
0% intermediate and advanced. To summarize the results (to acquaint with the
results in full see apendix) the Greek students agreed on the fact that they should
use and hear the L2 not only during various exercises and activities but when their
teacher gives instructions etc. It appears from this that they consider the procedural

14
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/mother_tongue.shtml

34
language in the classroom to be a good opportunity to expose themselves to
genuine English.

V.3. The Teachers Views

This short passage discusses the teachers attitude to use of the mother tongue
when teaching English.
The discussion took place on the British council web page designed for voting.
At total 641 teachers participated and answered the question: Which option best
describes your attitude to the use of the studentsmother tongue when teaching
English? The results were as follows: fifty-eight percent of respondents use the
mother tongue sometimes, twenty-one use it only, eight frequently, six about half
the time, seven most of the time.

Conclusion
As it was already said, it is important to know the opinions of our learners.
Pupils should know why the particular language is used and what are the
advantages and disadvantages of such choice.
The results of both questionnaires (Czech and Greek) have shown that the
students are aware of the importance of procedural language and are convinced
that English should be used in the foreign language learning. On the other hand
they are certain of the importance of their mother tongue as well as it helps them to
better understand the language.
From the results we may come to a conclusion that they are dependent on the
age and level of the students. It seems that Czech students are more tolerant to the
MT use than Greeks. It may be caused by the methods used by their teacher or by
the history of language teaching in each country. In my oppinion, the students
approach towards particular language usage depends on the students experience
and on their teachers attitude as well.
In the following chapter the results of the observations of particular lessons will
be discussed. We may see whether the results of the observations will be relevant
to those from the questionnaire.

35
VI. Observations

VI.1 Background Description

Nine groups of young English learners and nine teachers were observed. The
observations took place in a small town with population about 10 000 people in
Bohemian - Moravian Highland, 60 kilometres far from Brno. (It seems to be
rather important information because the location and the population can influence
the results.The situation in larger towns and cities could be different.) The groups
were on different level of their knowledge, the youngest third graders were eight
years old and the oldest pupils were ten to eleven. The groups were mixed
abilities whereas some of them were specialized in foreign language learning.
Diversity of individual classes can be also seen in their discipline. It may be said
that almost all groups participated enthusiastically in their effort to learn
something new and exciting as English is one of their favourite subjects.
To concentrate on the role of educators, seven teachers are specialized in
teaching young learners and the others teach also older pupils. None of them is
fully educated for foreign language teaching and though most of them passed some
language exams and their level of English is quite high, some of them have not the
necessary qualification. To be objective, it must be said that all of them strive to
do their best to make their lessons as good as possible and attend various seminars
and courses concerning language itself and methodology. Such personal situation
seems to be rather common nowadays as for various reasons there is still a
shortage of fully qualified teachers of English who are willing to teach in the
Czech republic. An interesting element influencing the lesson process is also the
age of the teachers. (See results of the observation.)
It should be emphasized that afforementioned lessons were focused on different
skills and topics and they were the common ones, not a kind of demonstration
lessons.

VI.2.Results of the Observation

Results of all observed lessons are summarized in the following chapter and
the claims are based on the following diagrams which are added with a brief
description of the class and the particular teacher. To speak about the amount of

36
use of the MT, the teachers were rather sceptic about the level of their English and
their expectations were worse than reality. (As was already said before, teachers
usually feel ashamed when using Czech during teaching English nowadays. It can
be surely confirmed.) It means that, when talking about English lessons, their self-
confidence is not high and it also does not support more frequent English use. In
situations when they are either not sure about their English or do not know the
proper word due to insufficient vocabulary they feel stressed and immediately start
to use their MT. Usually they start speaking English at the beginning of the lesson
and then, after a few minutes, continue in Czech. There were many structures said
in English and next time in Czech though children have already known them.
Some tools which helped children to understand better were used in the
lessons. Firstly, all the teachers used body language i.e. they mimed, used gestures
and worked with their voice and noises and they used vast amount of teaching aids
and pictures which is usual at lower primary department. Nevertheless only some
of the tools were used and neither graphs showing degree, real things, nor
dictionaries, explanation, synonyms/antonyms, word formations or context were
used. As they claimed, they prefered translation because to translate the meaning
straightaway seems to be faster and easier and it does not have to be well planned.
If we target the methods used, most of the teachers used ecclectic approach in
their lessons. The lessons consisted of the TPR method, Communicative Language
Teaching Approach, Audiolingual Method, Direct and Grammar-Translation
method.
To assess usage of English according to different stages of the lesson all
teachers claimed that they use English when they get organized, play games or do
exercises they are familiar with. On the other hand the mother tangue is used for
explaining grammar or difficult exercises. In reality all the teachers used the target
language when beginning the lesson e.g. greetings were always in English, then
they announced the topic in Czech and motivation part was usually in English
again. In the process of time English was on the wane. Getting organized and
instructions were mostly in the foreign language, but the teachers usually used
only the simpliest structures. Discipline problems were always solved in Czech,
not only the difficult sentences but also the easy ones such as Stop talking, Do
not disturb or Pay attention. Children were assessed in Czech, the only

37
 assessment in English was OKor Good. Only few teachers used English untill
the end of the lesson. Usually the ending was in the mother tongue.
The afforementioned results were just the description of the results without any
commentary. We will expand on appropriate language choice in the particular
situations later in the fifth chapter where possible methods of improvement will be
mentioned and depicted.

VI.2.1. Graphic Presentation of the Results

The aim of following graphs was to analyse the relative proportion of the
mother tongue (L1) and foreign language (L2) used by a teacher during English
lessons. Those graphs are based on tasks from Teaching English through English
by Jane Willis and Classroom Interaction by Malamah-Thomas, but they are not
exactly the same. All graphs are numbered, and described in terms of class and
teacher characteristic.
The total amount of each language was counted as follows. I observed each
lesson and also taped some of them and counted all Czech and English sentences,
even the very short ones, that were said by the teacher , not students. Then I
expressed the amount of Czech and English in percentages. When assessing my
lesson I also divided the language according to particular lesson stages.
The following graph is one of my lessons taught in the fifth grade, the class is
specialized in learning foreign languages and they have been learning English for
three years. There are no discipline problems and children are eager and willing to
participate in lessons. The smaller graph expresses my prediction about the lesson
and the second show the actual proportion of using the mother tongue and the
target language.

25%

30%

L1 L2
L1 L2

70%

75%

38
 This pie-chart shows the real proportion of target language used in particular
lesson stages.

Beginning
3% 3% 4%
10% 11% Getting organized

Instructions

Different lesson
20%
stages
Assessment

Dividing the class up

49%
Ending

Following graphs are those of my colleagues lessons.

1. This class of fourth graders has just started with

English, they have been learning for three months 35%

and moreover they have poor results and discipline

L1 L2
problems. To describe the teacher, she has been
teaching four years, passed several methodological 65%

courses and elementary state exam. She is popular

with children but strict, always innovating her teaching methods. The lesson
focused on a grammatical issue.

2. This pie-chart assesses the lesson of the

31%
afforementioned teacher, but with another class. This
time, those pupils are fifth graders, swift and willing to L1 L2

learn something new without discipline problems. The

aim of the lesson was to improve speaking and 69%

listening skills.

39
3. Pupils in this class are third graders without any discipline problems. They have
just started to learn English. Their teacher has
passed a kind of Jamecourses and tends to use
40%
more traditional methods. She has been L1 L2

teaching since 1990

60%
(seven years of teaching English). The aim of the
lesson was to teach children to speak about
possession. The topic was Animals.

4. This class of fourth graders have their second year of English.

They are specialized in language learning e.g. they
have one extra lesson with a native speaker, take an 35%

active part in various language camps and participate

L1 L2
in various competitions.They enjoy English and we
notice a calm atmosphere in the class. Their 65%

teacher has been teaching for two years and

eventhough she did not study English and has no certificate, she spent one year in
England and she uses innovative methods.The aim of the lesson was to improve
speaking skills.

5. This graph shows results of fourth graders, with good results without any
discipline problems after their first year of English.
Their teacher has been teaching twenty-two years 38%

(seven years of English) and she attended JAME

L1 L2
courses. Eventhough she is not certificated
62%
teacher (if we speak about teaching English), she is
very enthusiastic, using recent trends and
methods.The aim of the lesson was to practise verb like and the topic was
Food.

40
6. The results of this chart belong to the third graders
who have just started to learn English, they are
35%
specialized in English, without any serious
discipline problems and they are still keen. Their L1 L2

teacher attended JAME courses. The aim of the 65%

lesson was to practice verb like

7. Following graph belongs to the class of fourth graders

who have just started to learn English. They are
disciplined and their teacher is young, beginning
teacher, trying to use contemporary trends and 45%
L1 L2
methods, but she is specialized in teaching Maths 55%

and Civics on the upper section. The aim of the

lesson was to teach children to speak about
possession. The topic was Animals.

8. These are the results of fourth graders, the same group as in

the fifth graph. The lesson was taught by the teacher
who has been teaching for four years but now she is on
43%
her maternity leave. She has been studying in the
L1 L2
pedagogical department and had to practice some 57%

of her lessons now. She is eager and creative. The

topic of the lesson was Fairy tales.

9. This was the group of fifth graders figuring the

second year of their study. This group is very
42%
undisciplined and shows low study results. Their
L1 L2
teacher has been teaching for twenty two 58%
years and focusses mainly on increasing her
students speaking skills. The topic of the lesson
was Family and celebrations.

41
 Conclusion
To summarize the afforementioned results, the proportion of using the mother
language moves from 35 to 75 percent which is quite a considerable distinction
and though the acceptable amount of Czech vs. English is still debatable, we may
average at 35 percent, although that is far from an ideal goal. One of the
teachersreply to the question: What is the cause of problems when you use
English in your lessons? was that they have deficient vocabulary, lack of
experinces, no chance to communicate with a native speaker and lack of time to
develop their speaking skills.
We may claim that the proportion of the mother and the target language
depends mainly on two aspects. The first one is teachers personality, his or her
approach, ideas, knowledge and skills and another is discipline and learners
knowledge of language. Teachers teaching older classes used more the target
language as their pupils are more advanced but in the classes with discipline
problems English was not used so frequently.Teachers with some experience in
English and better knowledge of English used it much more often.
Some teachers pointed out that young learners accepted using foreign language
by their teacher without any problems, some of them claimed that they have to
translate most of their talk as their learners do not understand.
Most of the teachers used translation a lot. They translate from English to
Czech more often than vice versa. All of them considered this method to be
acceptable.
In conclusion it must be said that observation of my colleagues and even
observing or recording ones own lesson is extremely worthwhile as we can better
detect weaknesses and strongpoints of our teaching because some problems we
may do are not realized at all until we watch or listen to ourselves, which
undoubtedly helps us to develop.
As it was said, to identify the right proportion of L1 and L2 use is a difficult
task and this topic will be disscussed later in this paper together with various ways
of how to increase the usage of L2 in lessons. We can surely say that the target
language may be undoubtedly the prevailing language in the lesson even when
dealing with young learners.

42
VII. An Ideal Lesson Attempt

Introduction
As it has been already said, this chapter focusses on the ideal proportion of
using the MT and the TL in the lessons when teaching young learners.
Firstly, I studied several didactic books, mainly English for Primary Teachers
by Mary Slattery and Jane Willis and Teaching English through English by Jane
Willis, to deal with this issue. Afterwards I started to apply the methods
mentioned in afforementioned books in my lessons as all of them require time to
be absorbed. Finally one of these lessons was filmed and its particular sequences
were analysed. Each sequence also contains several suggestions on how to either
attain the goal or deal with the problem in a better way, although I strived to do my
best, it is still only an attempt to create an ideal lesson and hence some mistakes
occured.

VII.1.1. The Background Description

I made the attempt with a group of twelve young learners. They are in their
fifth grade and they are all ten to eleven years old. They are at beginner level, they
have been learning English for three years. They have English four times a week, (
in the previous two years only three times a week ) three lessons with a Czech
teacher i. e. I and one with a native speaker. They spend four days at special
English camps every year. They are in their third year of English and hence they
are used to most instructions and explanations given in their mother tongue. There
are almost no discipline problems, most of the learners are willing to coopearate
and are eager. One boy suffers from specific learning disability and the group may
be regarded as a mixed-ability class in all respects. It is shown mainly in their
ability to concentrate or the learners own working pace.
The topic of the lesson was School subjects. (The whole lesson plan and DVD
are included in the appendix.) The main aim was to improve learnersspeaking and
listening skills, practise new vocabulary and compare some aspects of Czech and
British school system. My personal aim was to create a balanced lesson and try to
use Czech and English in appropriate situations in order to provide the learners
with sufficient input and to make the lesson as effective as possible.

43
 The lesson lasts forty-five minutes. I used following teaching aids: a video
cassette, a ball, a pair of flappers, several paper cards and some realia (a British
school report). Children participated in the following patterns of interaction:
individual work and group work. The lesson did not take place in a room intended
to teaching English.

VII.2 The Lesson

Firstly, I will concentrate on the general description and suggestions. Later, the
particular lesson stages will be depicted..

VII.2.1 General Characteristics and Recommendation

As Slatery and Willis claim in their book, children between their seven and
twelve years develop their thinking, distinguish reality and fiction, cooperate with
the other children and are able to learn from each other. They are also responsible
and able to plan a way to solve problems. That is why, I always explain my
intentions, make the learners my helpers, encourage them to read (for example
short stories or comics), write, think critically, experiment with language and I also
try to use a broad scale of carefully selected expressions to provide the learners
with input. I usually explain grammar too, but only uncomplicated structures and
functions.
We should bear in mind that although the young learners are not able to
understand immediately, they learn subsequently. Therefore, it is essential to use
English as the main language during the lesson because the more English the
children hear, the more they acquire it. Moreover, the children do not have to
understand the individual words, they have to understand the context. On the other
hand, learners may use their mother tongue as it may be more benefiting for them
than to insist on using English only. To be engaged in teaching total beginners, the
habit of listening to English, picking out the key words and thinking in English is
very important for children as it reduces the amount of interference from the L1.
For that reason, usage of gesture and tone of the teachers voice is extremely
important.
Teaching languages at lower sections has one more specificity. The foreign
language may be taugth by a teacher who is specialized on teaching languages
only or by a class teacher. I must say that both has its advantages and

44
disadvantages. I, as the specialist, may compare and use experience from other
classes where I teach. On the other hand, my colleague, the class teacher, may use
English also in other subjects which is important as it shows learners that English
may be used in various everyday situations as a common part of their lives.
To summarize this sequence, I would mention some causes for learners
failure
o Children are bored.
o They are corrected too much by their teacher.
o Activities require a long attention span.
o Teacher uses too many abstract grammar rules that are taught without practical
usage.
o Children feel uncomfortable and depressed.

and on the other hand, ideal conditions for learning language.

o Children are motivated.
o Children are provided opportunities for exposure to the L2.
o All words or sentence patterns are in a clear context.
o Children have opportunity to participate, they are active and fully involoved..
o They learn by listening, observing, copying, and doing things.
o Children learn through their mistakes and by checking their understanding.
o Children learn by reasonable repetition and routines. 15

VII.2.2. Particular Lesson Stages

In the following chapter I will depict the particular lesson stages which my
lesson consisted of, even the ones that were not covered in the filmed lesson for
the lack of time or other reasons.
The dialogues written in italics are authentic, they all happened in the filmed
lesson. I address my pupils in English.

Genuine situations
In my oppinion, the beginning of the lesson is very important and only English
should be used in order to show the learners how the lesson will proceed. At the

15
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45
very beginning I use English only in order to help children to aquire the language
to a large extent. It may be also seen on DVD. Although there were no activities or
exercises with a specific aim, children came to be in various situations similar to
real life. They listened to or communicated in English in order not to participate in
an imaginary matters but because it was dictated by the situation and it was just
natural to speak English in such a situation. Language is much better learnt
through real use rather than through pattern drills and exercises. (Willis, 1992:1)

greetings
Teacher (Me): Good morning, children.
Learners: Good morning, Miss.
Teacher: Thank you and sit down.
The lesson started with greetings. That was the very first thing which I taught
my pupils. Even though it seems to be rather a short piece of communication I
replace it in various ways e.g. children may be replaced by boys and girls,
everybody etc.

apologize, attendance
Teacher: David, whats the problem?
David: Im sorry Miss, I forgot my clock. (Children were asked to bring their paper
clock or watch, because the topic of the very next lesson was Telling the time.
The boy confused the days.)
Teacher: Ok. Sit down, but dont forget it next time.
At the beginning of the lesson children usually apologize. Even these phrases
are rather important and I use these short answers or longer, more complicated
dialogues depending on my learnerscurrent level.
In the lesson children calmed down when I took the register too. They used just
short answers as yes, here or present but I also use more exploited dialogues
with the advanced learners e.g. Jane is not here. Is she ill? Whats the matter with
her? Does anybody know? etc.

relation teacher vs. child

Teacher: Today we will speak about school subjects. Tess, do you like school?
Tess: Yes, I do.

46
Teacher: (smiling) Oooh, you are a good student, a good pupil! What about you,
Mark?
Mark: (unhesitatingly) No, I dont.
The important aspekt here is a pleasant and friendly atmosphere. I tried to
create this kind of atmosphere from the very beginning of the lesson. Informal,
short chitchat may help to achieve this aim and it also helps learners to feel and do
well in English. As Moon claims in her paper, teachers who tend to use some types
of talk more frequently than others, for example when they check answers, control
and give instructions rather than ask for real information about the children,
appraise them and get them to think may encounter problems as their relationship
with children will become more formal. On the other hand I must confirm that
learners who are asked for real life information, given encouragement and whose
teacher jokes with them are more willing to speak and more enthusiastic.

during the ball game

Teacher: Peter, whats your favourite day?
Peter: My favourite day is Sunday.

Teacher: Tess, have you got a skateboard at home?

Tess: No, I have.
Teacher: No, I ..
Children: havent
Teacher: No, I havent.

Teacher: Camilla, who is your favourite singer?

Camilla: My favourite singer is Justin Timberlake.
Teacher: Justin Timberlake. Oooh (The teacher nods her head appreciatively and
smile.)

I must say that creating a friendly atmosphere is easier when dealing with
young learners. I have taught this class for three years, very often cooperate with
their class teacher on different kind of projects or competitions and every year
spend several days on trips and language stays. I think we know each other well
and that is why our relationship is not anonymous - teacher and her learners, but I

47
know them, their hobbies and families and they know the same about me. A
friendly atmosphere is not only better for learning, but it is much easier to teach
under such conditions.

short talk
Teacher: Aneta, How are you today?
Aneta: Im fine, thank you.
Teacher:OK. Mathew, how are you today?
Mathew: Im fine, thank you. How are you today?
Teacher: Well, Im fine, thank you.
This opening dialogue was useful for two main reasons. Firstly, at the
beginning of the lesson it takes some time, especially with the young learners
groups, to settle them down and to switch to English. By asking and addressing
some of the children I can attract their attention and give them a chance to get
ready for the lesson. In this way every child knows that I notice him/her.The
dialogue may be longer of course. It depends on the learners level again. I ask the
advanced learners about their experience, hobbies and interests and their free
time. It is possible to ask young learners the same questions. They are able to
understand but they give only short and simple answers. I usually let them to use
Czech and repeat their sentences in English as I believe it is better to develop at
least their listening skills than doing nothing.
Another reason for using such dialogues is that learners acquire particular
patterns of British manners and culture. It means that I try to teach them to express
their thanks for asking, ask me too and perceive the difference in purpose between
Czech and British habit, when somebody asks How are you today?. The same
case is when the learners apologize.
To enlarge the learners vocabulary I usually change particular phrases as for
example: Im OK. Im fairly well. I am having a great time. Not bad. etc.
One of outstanding features of young learners in general, is their flexibility and
their ability to learn extremely fast. Consequently it is so important for the teacher
to use English often and vary the phrases so the learners can acquire them and use
them after a short time.

organizational language/classroom management/instructions

48
 The language of the classroom may be social, organizational or personal. For
example when I was speaking about conditions in the classroom I also used
English. I commented on temperature, lighting and collecting homework, but it
may be also used in other situations such as commenting on the furniture
arrangement etc.

Teacher: Its quite hot here. Could you open the windows, please. Mark, open the
windows. Thank you. And its quite dark. Could you switch on the lights. Aneta,
switch on the lights, please. Thank you.
or
Teacher: Camilla, could you collect homework, please.

At the beginning I started to teach just short instructions accompanied by a

clear demonstration, e.g.: Open the window, please. The Gardners claim that we
should not overload the children with too many phrases. At the beginning three to
five instructions are enough. They also claim that it is better to provide the
children with only one instruction about each particular situation. That is true for
beginners. Later I give more complex instructions. It is rather hot here. Would
you open the window, please. As these situations have a rather clear meaning, I
usually vary the phrases in order to provide the pupils with new vocabulary and it
also develops the childs ability to guess the meaning of new words or phrases. In
this way a variety of possibilities in the target language is also shown. Systematic
variation is a valuable pedagogic tool. (Hughes 1993: 7)

Teacher: Choose the right expression and stick it on the board. (The teacher is
miming the movement of sticking the card on the board.)
Later
Teacher: What about Geography? Have you got Geography today, Charlie? Have
you got Geography?...... Today.
Charlie: No, havent.
Teacher: Sorry? Speak up, please! (The teacher is miming that she does not
understand.)
Charlie: No, we havent. (more loudly)

49
 According to Hughes, the teachers can offer to their pupils the opportunity to
meet genuine uncontrolled language that may be used for genuine
communicative purposes though we may still encounter a belief that the pupils are
able to understand only the words they are able to say. The classroom activities
are so diverse it is tempting to suggest that an entire teaching syllabus, even
methodology, could be built around the use of classroom management phrases.
(Hughes 1993:7)
Some of the mentioned instructions will be acquired earlier, some later.
Nevertheless when addressing a problem of evoking the English atmosphere we
should try to teach the words thank you and please in order to acquire the
typical British habit. I taught them such phrases at the very beginning and that is
why they accepted and now use it without any difficulties.
When preparing a lesson, I usually create a list of instructions and other
phrases that will be used. It helps to use a reasonable amount of English. To
facilitate conveying the meaning I created speacial board cards with instructions
which are highly useful, especially for the beginners (see the chapter V.4 ) As we
may see on the DVD children are used to the common requests such as: Excuse
me, can I have a drink?, Excuse me, can I go to the toilet? etc.

helper/interpreter
Teacher: Tell me, who would like to be my helper for today? (Several children are
rising their hands.) Peter. Anybody else? Mathew, Charlie. Ok,. So Mathew. Yes,
Mathew will be the helper for today.
later in the lesson
T: What does it mean subjects? Who knows? Mathew my interpreter?
Mathew: Pedmt.
T: Pedmt. Ok. And subjects means? Peter?
Peter: Pedmty.
At the beginning of the lesson I also chose one helper or interpreter who
helped the others to understand as he tried to convey the meaning in difficult
situations. Sometimes he/she is employed more, sometimes less. It is quite useful
as it is one possible way how to avoid the teachers translation. It is suitable both,
for gifted children and learners with certain learning difficulties. The former may
see the translation as a challenge and the latter may understand the other childrens

50
explanation better.Even Harmer claims: Where students all share the same mother
tongue (which the teacher also understands), a member of the class can be asked to
translate the instructions as a check that they have understood them.16
In the lesson, one of my aims was to exploit all classroom situations, as many
classroom management sentences can be used in situations outside the classroom
e.g. opening the window, radio operation, cleaning the board, classroom
arrangement, collecting or distributing exercisebooks and other handouts. It is not
recomended to involve all age groups in helping the teachers. From my experience
young learners are always willing to cooperate somehow with me.

Teacher: Well, I need somebody to help me with the radio, please. Charlie, could
you help me with the radio?
(The boy is operating the radio.)
Teacher: Plug in the radio, please. Thank you.

motivation and approval

A game called Hangman was used as a motivational part of the lesson. The
game itself and the language used was rather easy and that is why the mother
tongue did not have to be used at all.
On the other hand, Atkinson says that in this particular sequence the L1 can be
used as the main aim of this part which is motivational. I usually dont concentrate
on the motivational part for a long time as it should be fast and exciting and for
that reason I sometimes use Czech when it is necessary.
Everybody needs motivation and encouragement when learning English.
Mainly beginners should be praised for every partial success. I usually use not
only words asvery good,yes,OK, but try to enlarge my vocabulary. I must
say that time to time it is rather difficult as I am not accustomed to it yet. Gardners
mention the fact that time to time English teachers use only afforementioned kinds
of approval even when they are not satisfied with such comments. It seemed to be
my problem as well and it also seems to be the matter of habit which I should
overcome, because the frequent use of OK may cause lazy use by learners.
Here are various options for assessment:

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51
 Picture 1 - Assessment cards by Perclov, Wisniewska and Tyller

Checking understanding
I use various techniques to check the learners understanding. Sometimes I
simply ask: Do you understand? or ask a child to translate the sentence into the
mother tongue. In this way, the advanced children have an opportunity to
understand English and the students who do not understand wait for their
schoolmates translation. It is also a good way how to avoid the afforementioned
question (Do you understand?) and I do not need to use the mother tongue.
Teacher: (The teacher is reading a sentence)What is your favourite subject?
What does it mean? What does it mean in Czech? Charlie?
Charlie: Jak je tvj oblben pedmt?
Teacher: Yes, Ok.

behaviour
When focusing on behaviour, I used sentences like Stop talking or Pay
attention only in English as it may be seen at the DVD. Sometimes when I deal
with a more complicated situation I use Czech as such cases often require a fast
and clear solution to be efficient and English usage can make the situation even
worse. Such disciplinary problems demand the mother tongue, though in my
opinion it is more natural for both learners and their teacher and, more forceful.

52

mother tongue
Some experts claim that a warning signal is when children speak their mother
tongue as it may mean that they are bored. I do not agree with such an argument.
Although I persuade the learners that English should be the language of
communication we may realize that especially for the young learners it is just
natural from time to time to use Czech. It depends on various circumstances. Very
often we may notice enthusiastic discussion in the mother tongue when the
children are concerned in an interesting activity. It means that the usage of Czech
does not have to mean that the pupils are bored, on the contrary they may be so
influenced by emotion that they tend to use Czech automatically. In the filmed
lesson it may be seen when we discuss the British school report. By all means I
always ensure that English is the main language in the lesson. First and foremost
the most effective method is to use English yourself as the natural language
starting from the very beginning.
Admittedly the teachers own confidence and willingness to use the TL is the
best model. Underwood suggests that the teachers can also address their students
in the TL in each possible situation. I try conveying the meaning by eye contact
or the sound of my voice. I would also recomend the following techniques
described by Slatery and Willis. Some of them were also used in the filmed lesson:

 TEACHERS REACTION it means that a teacher responds to all questions

asked by children in English. By using this we show our interest, the possibility of
using English in all situations, the English expression for the Czech phrase or word
and we also suggest that all members of the class should speak English as often as
possible.
(knocking on the door)
Teacher: Come in! (a few children from another group are coming for their pupils
books)
Learners: Dobr den, pan uitelko my
Teacher: Sorry? I dont understand! (The teacher is miming, that she does not
understand Czech.) Could you speak English?
Learners: Im sorry, miss, I forgot mypupils book.
Teacher: Yes, you forgot your pupils book. OK. So take your pupils books.
Learners: Thank you.

53
Teacher: Youre welcome.Good bye, have a nice day!
Learners: Good bye.

Later in the lesson during the game flappers

Mark: Can I use Czech?

Teacher: Yes.
Mark: Pan uitelko, nevad kdy jich je o jednoho vc?
Teacher: How many boys are there?( The teacher and children are counting.) Six
boys and six girls, so thats OK.

 RECASTING is a didactic technique when a teacher recasts ( translates ) the

childrens talk into English and answers in the L2 too. It may be also considered as
a very useful technique. This method shows the learners the fact that their teacher
understands them, supports the language acquisition as the children hear his/her
talk in English and finally it helps to intensify the feeling that we may
communicate in English as well as in Czech.
( I must say that the habit of using this technique requires a really long time to be
adopted. Teachers may start with recasting particular words and than continue with
the whole phrases. The most difficult task is to use this technique naturally in order
not to disturb the fluency of the lesson.)

 REPHRASING it is a useful tool for correction but without the frustrating

effect in which we express a certain value of learners language and motivate
them. By using rephrasing we can avoid negative assessment. Rephrasing is very
similar to so-called caretaker talk.

 caretaker talk
Lets suppose the L1 and L2 acquisition is similar in some respects. Small children
acquire the language by listening to their parents, using the words they hear and
imitating their parents pronunciation. This process is the same as starting to learn a
foreign language. Slattery and Willis make a reference to the term caretaker talk
when parents and later teachers speak in a special way in order to achieve their
objectives, e. i. improve their children/learner language. We may achieve the aim

54
in various ways. Both parents and teachers speak more often than children thereby
create the appropriate atmosphere that enable children to experience their
language skills. Learners, as well as young children, use only words and phrases
that they hear around them. What is more, Kelly claims that children have to hear
each word more than 250 times and only after that he/she is able to use it
himself/herself. The parent/teacher uses various techniques:
 They repeat the particular phrases or words.
 Attract childrens attention by asking various questions.
 Correct the pronunciation in natural way.
 Exploit the dialogue.

Teacher: Have you got Art today?....Today, it is(the teacher use her fingers to
mime the day of the week. Whats the day today?
Learners: Tuesday.
Teacher: Yes, Tuesday. Have you got Art today?
Learners: No
Teacher: No, you havent. You havent got Art today.
(The teacher is reacting on the pupils answer.)

 SANDWICH TECHNIQUE- this technique is mentioned by Butzkamm in

McKenzie-Brown paper17. He claims that by usage of this technique we may avoid
interference from the L1 by inserting a translation between repetitions of an
unknown word or phrase. We should remark that this technique should be used
carefully as the learners may get used to it and wait lazily for the Czech expression
without an active participation.

The learners should be used to speaking mostly English. When they have a real
problem to understand, I taught the children to also use English and ask: Can I
use Czech, please? They use it rather often eventhough they tended to overuse it
at the beginning. When I told the children to use the afforementioned sentence,
they asked it very often as they were not used to asking things in English and they
regarded it more complicated than it really was. Actually it seems to be a problem
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55
of the current generation of learners (not only foreign language learners). Children
are not used to use think over the problem too much because they are provided
with all the necessary information they need.
To summarize this topic, English should be used as the language of
communication. The lesson that I filmed is proof that it is possible even when
teaching a group of young learners. Teachers should speak English as often as
possible by describing their surroundings and activities, and translating the
childrens talk into English. On the other hand, Slattery and Willis maintain that
children need to have many opportunities to speak in order to learn something and
therefore they should be allowed, especially young learners, to use their mother
tongue. In my lessons I try to use English as the main language but neither me nor
the children are forbidden to use Czech.

teaching cultural facts

Teaching aspects of British life should be an inherent part of the school
curriculum. In such situations I use the TL but sometimes it is rather difficult for
the learners to understand. Children are usually interested in facts about English
speaking countries and that is why the difficulties of conveying the meaning may
cause serious obstacles in learning and discourage the learners, especially the
younger ones. I agree that when teaching this part of the curriculum, the meaning
is more important than the language itself. Its main function is motivation which
may be more beneficial than insisting on the exclusive TL usage.
In the theoretical part we discussed the importace of being a native speaker or a
Czech teacher. When teaching the facts about English speaking countries the
Czech teacher, having a reasonable knowledge of British culture, seems to be
better, because his/her lessons may be based on the konwledge of the resemblances
and distinctions. In the lesson we discussed the British school report its
similarity and variance.
Teacher: I would like to show you something. Look at it. Well, tell me, what it is.
What is it? And you can use Czech. What is it? Camilla, what do you think?
Camilla? (hesitates)
Teacher: Anybody else?David!
David: Pihlka?
Teacher: No, it isnt.Tess?

56
Tess: Zkouky?
Teacher: No, not exams, not.
David: Dokument
Teacher: Yes, it is a kind of document, but Mathew, do you now what it is?
Mathew: Vy kola v.pihlka?
Teacher: hmmm
Charlie: Potvrzen o studijnch vsledcch
Teacher: Yes, what is it?
Charlie: Vysvden.
Teacher: Yes, it is in Czech vysvden, it is a school report. This is a school
report. And this is a British school report. Yes? And tell me, do you remember
Johny Koktav?Honza, Honza Koktav?
Children nod their heads.
Yes, he lived in England last year and this is his school report. A school report,
yes? Well. So we will look at the subjects. OK. What is it? The first subject is
Music. Ok. Another subject is Religious Education. What does it mean
Religious Education?
Peter: Nboenstv
Teacher: Nboenstv, very good.
After a while.
Teacher: And now, I will speak Czech. Kdy se na to podvme(The teacher is
continuing in Czech. The class is discussing differences between the British and
Czech school report. They are also describing its advantages and disadvantages.)
It seems to be better to speak either Czech or English in such activities in order
not to make our learners confused. I usually simply announce that I will continue
in L1/L2.

games
Games are vital parts of the foreign language lessons, mainly at the first grade
as they may provide relaxation and fun. To speak about giving instructions, we
should bear in mind that these activities usually do not last long a time thus we
should not spend more time with giving complicated instructions than with the
activity itself. It means that if the rules of the game are easy or children already
know the game and I only remind the rules (see cassette a game Flappers or a

57
ball game), the target language can be easily used. On the other hand, spending
several minutes explaining the rules of a relatively short game is not beneficial and
usage of Czech is more effective as the main purpose of games are as we have
already said.

break (it was not covered in the lesson)

Sometimes, mainly in the young learners classes, children are not able to
concentrate the whole forty-five minutes. In such cases Atkinson offers few
minutes break when the children can use their mother tongue. Eventhough
somebody may object that it is a waste of time, in my opinion it is better to use this
technique, have a few minutek to rest and refresh than to work hard the whole
lesson with a pure concentration which is undoubtedly less efficient.The same
situation happens when the children want to discuss some important or exciting
news and the topic is beyond their ability. It is better to discuss the topic in the
mother tongue, as it may be a helpful motivation tool. It often happens that
children want to tell me about something interesting and if it consists with the
topic of the lesson we discuss it. It also helps to create better relationship between
children and their teacher.
Not all of the lessons contain such a break. It should be used either when we
would like to discuss something very exciting and important or when explaining
something demanding that needs some time to be processed by our learners.

listening
Listening is undoubtedly a crucial skill that should be practised as often as
possible. Listening is the first language mode that children acquire. It provides a
foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development, and it plays a
life-long role in the processes of learning and communication and is essential to a
productive participation in life. A study by Wilt (1950), which found that people
listen 45 percent of the time they spend communicating, is still widely cited (e.g.,
Martin, 1987; Strother, 1987). Wilt found that 30 percent of communication time
was spent speaking, 16 percent reading, and 9 percent writing. That finding
confirmed what Rankin had found in 1928, that people spent 70 percent of their
waking time communicating and that three-fourths of this time was spent listening

58
and speaking. 18 The author of the afforementioned article emphasized that one of
our aims should be to develop listening skills, in fact students concentrate more on
writing, reading and speaking. One of the reasons is the fact that more activities in
the current textbooks mention the other skills. That is why the development of
listening skills should get more attention in the lessons. As Byrne claims, the
essential difference between listening and other skills i.e. speaking and writting is
that the former is not teachable. It follows from this that it is rather difficult task
to develop students listening ability. We may use various recorded materials but it
is not sufficent because when listening to a record the children are in a situation
which is not spontaneous. They have not got an opportunity to use a variety of
clues as mimics or gesticulation which help to convey the meaning. Again we may
highlight the important role of the teacher and the necessity of using English in the
lessons as it is mostly the most natural way on how to create an English situation.
There were not any exercises focusing on listening but I spoke English almost
the whole lesson thus children had apportunity to develop their listening skills and
what is more, the English was used spontaneously and not only as a part of an
exercise. As it has been already said the young learners have the unique ability to
absorb a great deal of speach they hear. Therefore we may confirm that the target
language should be used to a large extent when teaching beginners, even the young
learners. Eventhough Atkinson does not recommend usage of the mother tongue
during activities focusing on listening as he regards them to be disturbing, children
must be provided with clear instructions and also all the tasks and questions must
be comprehensive.

ending of the lesson

Teacher: I think, thats all for today. Thank you, thank you for your attention,
good bye and have a nice day.
Learners: Thank you, you too.
Teacher: You have a break.

18
http://moodlinka.ped.muni.cz/mod/resource/view.php?id=29086

59
 Ending of the lesson is as important as the beginning. When I did the
observation of my colleagues, most of them used Enlish only in the first part of
their lesson and the end was in Czech. By doing this, they waste many occasions
where English would be easily used. For example announcing homework saying
goodbye and so on. As we can see from the filmed lesson, it is possible to use
English almost the whole lesson even with young learners and without any
difficulties with understanding. The lesson started and finished with greetings and
particular learnersresponses. This created an entity which enable the learners to
perceive a certain system and they adopted certain habits that are important for
children in their age.

VII.3. The Summary of Techniques for Achieving our Aims that I Use or Would
Like to Adopt

1) Use classroom English

The classroom situation is a genuine social environment which allows the
meaningful situational use of the language, and its communicative potential is
closer to real interaction than is often assumed. (Hughes 1993:6)
Language is a tool and not a museum exhibit. (Hughes 1993:6) Using English
as much as possible in the classes does not mean using English only when
practicing various exercises and activities. As one of the primary language
functions is to communicate the information, the L2 should be used in most of the
classroom situations. The category of such phrases and expressions is called
classroom English. During the lessons I often find myself in situations that do
not require repeating, translating etc. but provide opportunities for the L2 to be
used communicatively. As Hughes claimes, such situations are genuine moments
when an instruction is followed by the action. What is more:
It is perhaps an interesting paradox that whereas teachers are quite willing to
spend time practising key structures in phrases like Cows eat grassand Is John
your mother?, they may well switch to the L1 in order to set the days homework.
The reason very often put forward for this is that the pupils may not understand!
Any naive pupil may come to the very understandable conclusion that English is
basically a very tedious subject since all the information it conveys is either known
or meaningless. (Hughes 1993: 6)

60
 I have noticed that when I use the target language children not only start to
think in English, they are also forced to pay attention more intensively because
they have to listen carefully and also respond creatively. The reply may be verbal
or nonverbal i.e. they react somehow. By doing this, they become and active
learners which is definetely more effective than inactive learning.
According to some experts, the classroom English is occasionally marked as
artificial. That is why the most of such situations are initiated by the teacher.
Nevertheless in my opinion it is just natural that the teacher has more or less the
prestige position in the classroom and his main duty is to manage the lesson and
help the learners. This applies to the young learners all the more. In foreign
language classes his functions extend and he is also the only living interacting
source of the language and the classroom may well be the only social context for
practising it. (Hughes 1993:8) The young learners acquire the new phrases
holophrastically and they can be also given a list of useful phrases that can help
them. According to my experience, the children usually try to use the phrases of
the classroom English because it helps their confidence to use the same language
as their teacher does.
Sometimes they are not able to use the whole complicated structure and that is
why they just spontaneously combine English and Czech together and make funny
sentences, e.g.: Pan, uitelko, j nevidm, mohl bych switch on the light?

Picture 2 Visualisation of the classroom English is a useful tool.

61
2) Adopt verbal techniques e.g. recasting, rephrasing, etc. (see the previous
chapter)
To use English as the main language during the whole lesson is difficult not
only for the learners but for their teachers as well. This is also the case of teachers
whose level of English is rather high, because it is more the problem of
methodology than language. I must say that it is quite demanding to learn which
language to use, what particular sentence to say and when to use it. It requires a lot
of time to acquire suitable techniques, for example using the caretaker talk or
rephrasing. Some of these techniques I started to use after reading materials
focusing on classroom English. Some of them were easy to use directly, some not.
I made a lot of plans to achieve my goals. Firstly, it was important to be well
prepared for each lesson, prepare all phrases that were said in English and all
situations when the MT was used.

3) Ask for feedack and reflection/ use video or audio technique

Each teacher should have a feedback or reflection of his/her teaching. A
good way to acquire such information is to record ones own lesson. It is rather
common to observe ones colleagues at our school. Peer observation is very
helpful as we can share experience, ideas or we may focus on a particular problem.
I also use audio or video recording which is both a great way that offer a view
of things that happen in the class and sometimes we do not notice them at all.
When concentrating on the usage of the mother tongue, we may observe how
much we talk, how much our learners talk, which language we use and how we
use explanations and instructions, pronunciation and explanation, the place where
we stand, how many learners we speak to, etc. Sometimes I encountered with
problems when using video for the first time. Children were shy or disturbed and
they did not participate as they usually did. To overcome this problem I installed a
camera a few lessons before recording. The camera did not work but the children
thought it did. After several lessons they got used to it. The video or audio records
are not a good help only for the teacher, but it seems to has its motivational benefit
for the learners as well. I played the filmed lesson to my students and it seemed to
be helpful as they realized some of their mistakes, noticed that they spoke in a very
low voice or they observed the behaviour of each other.

62
4) Consider the translation carefully
When focusing on appropriate methods we should mention various techniques
which enable the teachers to avoid translation. As Nik Peachey claims in his paper
Conveying meaning, when teaching any foreign language sometimes we have to
check that our learners have understood the meaning. Admittedly, rather often,
understanding is checked by translation by both learners and teachers. Peachey
also highlights possible problems of translation. Eventhough it seems to be faster,
learners become more dependent on their teacher and some structures simply
cannot be translated as they do not exist in other languages. What is more, in my
opinion, learners should be taught how to use their brain, to be creative, to react
and be able to participate in a dialogue. I believe that by doing this I help them to
become independent. When they are used to translation they may use English only
in activities taking part in the classroom and not in a real world situations. When
avoiding translation we may use various options. We should bear in mind that the
advantage when teaching the foreign language to beginners is that we are dealing
with learners without any previous experience and hence they accept the teachers
methods without any problems.

5) Use various pedagogical tools to convey the meaning

I use gestures and noises i.e. mime to make lesson, more enjoyable and to help
better understanding. When I want to help the learners to understand what I am
saying I use miming very often. Before I use some gestures I prepare them in order
to be clear and comprehensible. Also pictures and mainly paper cards with
instructions on the board acquited well. Such techniques help especially the
weaker learners which gives them a feeling of success. The self-confidence is vital
not only for students but for their teachers as well. The more the learners
understand the more English the teacher uses and vice versa. I can confirm that
this moment is very motivational.

63
 Picture 3 Speak in a lower voice

Widely known teaching aids are pictures, including photos or drawings and
realia which I display in the classroom as they help me to create more memorable
lessons. I also use real objects that can be particularly benefiting for learners who
learn better when they can touch the objects and for learners with learning
disabilities. Peachey also mentions graphs that show degree and help with
explaining more complicated words as always, often, hardly ever etc.
Afforementioned graphs are based on the learners knowledge of some of those
words. Similar method is using synonyms and antonyms. Explanation and using a
monolingal dictionary is more demanding for both children and their teachers but
very useful in helping them to understand, express their thoughts and become
independent. This method has a connection with the usage of context. It also
enables children to be creative and use their brain power. The author also mentions
a method that is based on breaking down the complex words to their root parts, it
seems to be useful but more proper for advanced students as it is rather difficult for
young learners. Eventhough all above-cited techniques are powerful ones, it may
happen and mainly when teaching beginners, that we will teach the words that are
easier to translate. Nevertheless we should try to use all possible ways in order to
help the children to become better learners.
Some experts claim that when explaining something difficult to understand, for
example the rules of a new game, we should use the L2 and than translate it into

64
the L1 or vice versa. They affirm, that the switching from one language into
another is not disturbing, moreover it is just natural as the children are used to
reading subtitles for example and so on. I would say that this process has its
difficulty. If the translation becomes a routine, the children stop listening to the
instructions in the L2 and wait for translation. It is obvious that phrases or words
that are difficult to understand should be translated to be clear and comprehensive,
but before doing this, I am always assured that I have already tried to use the
alternative techniques i.e. gesture, mime, and that nobody understood. If there is
at least anybody who understands, the I cooperate with him/her and with his/her
help explain the meaning. I usually appoint an interpreter and he/she translates
from one language into another or work with a dictionary. On the other hand if it is
obvious that the explanation would take a long time, it is better to translate it
straightaway as our aim is not to use English at any cost but to use it in order to be
as benefiting as possible. Another notion by Gardners is that it is better to choose
between the L2 and L1 rather than translate English instructions into Czech and
vice versa. It means that instead of translating we should give some instructions in
the L2 and some in L1.

6) Exploit the language

As it has been already said, children do not get used to usage of English
strightaway. I have proceeded from simple structures to more complex ones,
starting with easy and short instructions and phrases e.g. Stand, up. and later
exploited the sentences Could you stand up, please? etc. When teaching a new
phrase or instruction, the teacher should think carefully over the proper situation in
where to use it and how to present it. I accompanied the instructions by gestures or
a picture and later when the children get used to it I use the phrase without any
aids. I never start the lesson with a list of useful words or sentences. The children
should perceive that the particular phrase is required by the situation and that it is
not just a part of a grammar exercise.

7) Choose a helper
Young children, as probably the only age group, are dependent on their teacher.
The teacher is an important figure for them and his/her opinion is more
appreciated than the opinion of their classmates. They like situations when they

65
can be helpful or participate in the lesson somehow. They like activities as
collecting or distributing exercise books and other handouts, cleaning the board,
opening or closing the window, operating the radio, etc. I take advantage of these
situations because by using everyday phrases and words children feel important
and proud that they can be my helpers and that they are able to understand me.

8) Use games
Teaching through games is an integral part of the young learners lessons.
Games are an effective motivating element. It works especially well with young
learners who appreciate exciting activities as they are extremely curious and need
frequent changes of activities. Games are a unique opportunity in how to make
English lessons interesting, enable to find way to English and overcome the
initial troubles. Starting with a new language is tough for children at the age of
eight or nine, when they usually start learning, have problems to master even their
mother tongue. When using games, our aim is to teach the language in a fun way.
When starting with acquiring basic instructions I use games such as Simon Says
etc.

9) Motivate your learners

Probably the greatest number of language
students in the world do it (learn English) because it
is on the school curriculum whether they like it or
not! (Harmer 1991:1) When teaching young
learners we should give enhanced attention to
motivation as we deal with the total beginners and
probably our approach will more or less influence
their attitude towards English. On the other hand,
children are curious and may enjoy English as it is
something new and attractive. Although Harmer
claims that children will usually not have any
motivation outside the teachers attitude, behaviour
and methods he/she uses. We may notice a kind of

Picture 4 Children like pictures from the foreign countries.

66
extrinsic motivation when children are attracted by British or American culture
and it helps them to be better motivated. Nevertheless, we may surely claim that
intrinsic motivation must prevail. Children perceive the place where their lessons
take place, all methods and activities, their success or failure and especially the
personality of the teacher who is undoubtedly an important figure for the children.

10) Create an English atmosphere.

Ahother way that I use to motivate learners is creating an English
atmosphere. Children love realia. I arranged a special corner and displayed all
those objects. The walls in my language classroom are covered by posters
picturing well-known British or American places, childrens projects, various
geographical or theme maps and I also established a book case consisting of
various dictionaries, books and
magazines. My classroom also
contains a computer with some
educational programmes and an
internet access. Lessons of foreign
languages are undoubtedly very
different from any other lessons.
Gardners claim that using
classroom English mainly and
creating English-speaking
atmosphere help the learners to
think in the target language.
Picture 5 The English Corner.

11) Use visualisation.

When teaching beginners, I make small cards and label all the important objects in
the room. Children can create it themselves and use various shapes and colours.
This method is suitable mainly for learners with learning disabilities.

67
 To help children with following the instructions, special paper cards may
decorate the room. They can be made by both teachers and children. Teaching
young learners offer many advantages and their willingness to participate and help
the teacher is one of them. Those cards help children to understand the meaning
better and to help their teacher save time as well as his/her voice and use the
language more effectively.

Picture 6 Visualisation of the English sights

Picture 7 Visualisation of the particular months the year

68
12) Overcoming of the old habits
The most difficult task when trying to acquire the suitable methods is
overcoming of our bad habits. I do
this subsequently: The very first step
is to identify them, which can be
done by a peer observation or by
recording ones own lessons. Then,
as it is imposible to eliminate them
stright away, we should set our
targets. A good way is to determine
our personal objective for the next
couple of lessons. Important factors
are consistency and patience.

Picture 8 - Labeling of the classroom may help

Conclusion
To summarize the lesson, when teaching the target language, young learners as
well, we should bear in mind that English is a language to be used for
communication not only for dealing with exercises and drills. English should be
the main language of the lesson but the theories when the mother tongue was
strictly banned have been already disproved. The main aim is not to use the L2
solely but to encourage the learners, help them to acquire language and a possitive
attitude towards English. Limited amount of the mother tongue is not to the
detriment of the cause. We are not able to determine the exact amount of the L1 or
L2, but we may decide when to use them depending on the particular class.
Eventhough the usage of English is not always the fastest and the most easy way,
it is often more efficient. The teacher has a variety of methods and tools and even
other learners help him/her to convey the meaning.

69
 In the theoretical part the paper written by Podromou was mentioned. Now we
can discuss it as the claims are based on the results of afforementioned
observations and experience.
The mother tongue in the classroom is
1. a drug (though with therapeutic potential, it can damage your health
and may become additive) We may certainly confirm this quote. The more MT
we use, the more we get used to it, or we may say that we become lazy to use the
target language. This is true of teachers and children as well.
2. a reservoir (a resource from which we draw) The MT can be a
resource, but we should pay attention to the limited use of it. The MT can be used
when all the aids which should convey the meaning failed . (the abstract words
etc.)
3. a wall (an obstacle to teaching) We can regard it as an obstacle to
teaching and learning as well. When a teacher uses a lot of the L1, he/she misses
many genuine opportunities for greater impact.When a learner uses a lot of the L1
he/she cannot develop his/her speaking skills.
4. a window (which opens out into the world outside the classroom, if
we look through it we see the studentsprevious learning experience, their
interests, their knowledge of the world, their culture) We can draw from the MT
when we teach sociocultural facts of English speaking countries because we may
use method of comparison.
5. a cruch (it can help us get by in a lesson, but it is recognition of
weakness) All of the learners need a help of the MT to understand the meaning
time to time.
6. a lubricant (it keeps the wheel of a lesson moving smoothy, it thus
saves time)19 It definetely saves the time but as it has been already said the MT
should be considered carefully in order not to become a drug.
My personal aim of this thesis was to enhance my knowledge about the proper
language use with the emphasis on the practical utilization.
The most important thing is to teach English through English, thus we make the
learners to react in the foreign language and what is more, to think in English.

19

http://web.archive.org/web/20021119093709/www.thracenet.gr/bridges/bridges5/From+Mother+T
ongue+to+Other+tonge.html

70
 The aim of this sequence was to create an ideal lesson from the standpoint of
using the right language in the young learners lesson. After a thorough study of
various handbooks I have increased my knowledge about this topic. Nevertheless
the knowledge still remained on the theoretical level. That is why I started to apply
them into my lessons. They did not work directly. They were used by easy stages
in order to be processed by my learners and me as well. It should be said that the
particular methods were more complicated for me as the children are really
flexible and are rather quick to react. It is a really long term process to adopt new
methods and change all the bad habits because not only children need repetition
and a kind of drill to remember all the words and phrases. It seems to be a difficult
task because eventhough we plan our lessons in detail we should bear in mind that
each lesson is different as we work with children and many unpredictable
situations may occure. As it was already said at the beginning of the practical part,
we never teach under ideal conditions and that is why not all of the ideas written
in the handbooks are true for real teaching. The lesson was recorded on a video
tape, thus we may watch both verbal and nonverbal communication and also the
childrens reactions which is undoubtedly better than just listening to an audio tape.
I was rather satisfied with the development of the lesson. I did all stages that I
had planned and the aims of the lesson were also realized. The children cooperated
well. The amount of the English was the same as in other lessons. It may be seen
that the children are used to being taught English in English. The proof of this is
their spontaneous behaviour. There were some points that I would like to improve.
Firstly, even though I have already adopted most of the afforementioned
techniques, I still have difficulties with rephrasing and the methods of correcting
the learners. Eventhough I usually use various phrases for evaluation, I used only a
minority of them. I would say it was caused by stress from the video recording.

71
VIII. Final Conclusion

Using the acceptable language at the right age is still an unsolved problem that
remains a subject of discussion. The attitude towards using the mother tongue has
gone through a long development. It may be said that most of the experts more or
less reached an agreement on the fact that English should be the main language in
the lesson which applies to all ages and levels.
The advocates of using the target language solely when teaching young learners
refer to the similarity of learning the mother tongue and the foreign language and
to the human ability to learn the language in a foreign country only by listening
and acquiring the target language.
On the other hand we should bear in mind that the sole usage of the target
language does not have to be the best method and the carefully considered amount
of the mother tongue used during the lesson can be even more beneficial and
effective.
To concern of age, the young learners have a kind of memory that they are able
to repeat accurately the words and phrases they hear. On the other hand the older
students have their left hemisphere more dominant and they use logical operations.
When teaching the young learners the teachers should exploit all the advantages
of the young age, e.g. the learnersnatural curiosity, in order to create positive
attitude to English use. Our aim should be to use English not only during various
exercises and drill activities, but in other situations as well and point out that this
language surrounds us and that is the reason why to learn it. The children should
get used to the usage of the target language as something that is natural for foreign
language lessons.
Usage of the target language is essential as the children store the words and
phrases while working actively. Although listening is regarded as a receptive skill,
it definetely should not be considered as passive.
Teaching the young learners is a responsible task as the very first experience
with the foreign language influences their future attitude. We may solve various
doubts including the proper age of the students. It may be certainly said that each
person and a child in particular, is different. Hence the teacher has to engage
his/her ability to be a skilled observer and diagnose each learner. He/she has to be

72
able to identify when the usage of the target language is negative, maybe even
frustrating and vice versa. Nevertheless we should not underestimate our learners
beforehand, because a lot of them are able to understand a considerable amount of
words and phrases in English for a long time before they are able to use it.

73
REFERENCES:
1. Atkinson, David. Teaching monolingual classes.Harlow: Longman Group UK
Limited, 1993
2. Byrne, Donn. Focus on the classroom: selected articles. Modern English
Publications, 1982
3. Duff, Alan. Translation.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989
4. Dunn, Opal. Beginning English With Young Children. London: Macmillian
Publishers LTD, 1983
5. Gardner, Bryan.,Gardner, Felicity. Classroom English.Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2000
6. Harmer, Jeremy.The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow:
Longman Group UK Limited, 1991
7. Howatt, Antony P. R. A History of English language teaching. Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 1984
8. Hughes, Glyn S. A handbook of Classroom English. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1993
9. Kelly, Milena. Jak vyuovat AJ na zkladn kole. Anglitina expres, 2004, s. 4
10. Moon, Jayne. Children Learning English. Oxford: Macmillian Education,
2000
11. Perclov, R., Wisniewska, I., Speak out in English. Plze: Fraus, 1997
12. Phillips, Sarah. Young Learners. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993
13. Pinter, Anna-Maria. Teaching Young Language Learners. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2006
14. Scott, Wendy.A., Ytreberg, L. H. Teaching English to Children.New York:
Longman, 1990
15. Slattery, M.,Willis, J. English for Primary Teachers: Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2006
16. Underwood, Mary. Effective class management: a practical approach.
London: Longman, 1987
17. Willis, Jane. Teaching English through English. Harlow: Longman Group UK
Limited, 1992
18. Malamah-Thomas, Ann. Classroom Interaction. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1987

74
INTERNET RESOURCES
1. http://www.eslkidstuff.com/Articles.htm
2. http://www.nthuleen.com/papers/720report.html
3. http://www.abacom.com/~nathan/grammar.htm
4. http://www.aber.ac.uk/~mflwww/seclangacq/langteach5.html
5. http://moodlinka.ped.muni.cz/file.php?file=/135/hrehov_k.pdf
6. http://www.gabrielatos.com/Bone.pdf
7. http://web.archive.org/web/20021119093709/www.thracenet.gr/bridges/bridge
s5/From+Mother+Tongue+to+Other+tonge.html
8. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/convey_meaning.shtml
9. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/young_learners.shtml
10. http://languageinstinct.blogspot.com/2006/11/using-mother-tongue-to-teach-
another.html
11. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/talk/vote/vote15_mother_tongue.shtml
12. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/talk/vote/native.shtml
13. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/mother_tongue.shtml
14. www.wikipedia.org

75
Appendices
Appendix 1- The lesson plan
Topic: School subjects
Aims: to improve learnersspeaking and listening skills, practise new vocabulary
and compare some aspects of Czech and British school system.
Personal aim: to create a balanced lesson and try to use Czech and English in
appropriate situations in order to provide the learners with sufficient input and to
make the lesson as effective as possible.
Language level: Beginners
Age group: 5th Grade
Time: 45 min
Class size: 12 pupils
Patterns of interaction: group work and individual work
Materials/Equipment: a school report, flappers
Procedure:

Warm up:

 Introduction greeting, short discussion (How are you today? etc.), taking
the register, conditions (opening windows, lights, etc.) helper, homework
 Game Hangman School subjects
 New words particular school subjects cards on the board - matching Czech
and English expressions + learning pronunciation and correct meaning
 Discussion - time-table: "Have you got Art today? etc.
10 min
Main theme:
 Game Flappers - this game is useful for learning or practising vocabulary.
About 10 English words are written on the board. Two teams of pupils stand in
front of the board and have a flapper in their hands. A teacher says one of those
words in Czech and the pupils try to hit the right word as fast as possible. The
faster is the winner.
Words: particular school subjects
5 min
 Ball game Children sit in the circle and listen to the music. They pass the ball
as fast as possible. When the music stop, the person who has the ball answers my
question. For example: Do you like Music? revision of grammar structures
Do you like? Have you got?... and practising new words
5 min
 Discussion - a British school report.(in the circle on the carpet) Comparing the
British and Czech school reports. Practising school subjects. Discussing
advantages and disadvantages of both reports.(Using mostly Czech)
10 min

76
 Survey Children ask each other:What is your favourite subject?
10 min

Conclusion:
 Discussion - the results of the survey
5 min

The end of the lesson:

 Ending of the lesson and saying goodbye

77
Appendix 2 Greek Survey Results in Full

Survey results in full

Survey : 300 students
The figures refer to percentage (%) responses by students at beginner, intermediate
and advanced levels.

1: Should the teacher

know the students' mother- 65 53 53
tongue?
2: Should the teacher use
the students' mother- 66 58 29
tongue?
3: Should the students use
63 53 35
their mother-tongue?
It is useful if the teacher
uses L1 when:
4: explaining new words 25 35 18
5: explaining grammar 31 7 0
6: explaining differences
between L1 and L2 27 4 6
grammar
7: explaining differences
in the use of L1 and L2 33 22 20
rules
8: giving instructions 3 9 0
Students should be
allowed to use L1 when :
9: talking in pairs and
22 3 3
groups
10: asking how do we say
13 38 6
'..' in English ?
11: translating an L2 word
into L1 to show they 18 13 6
understand it
12: translating a text from
L2 to L1 to show they 21 7 6
understand it
13: translating as a test 21 2 6
The teacher and students
can use L1 to:
14: check listening
27 9 3
comprehension
15: check reading
14 7 6
comprehension

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16: discuss the methods
21 13 6
used in class

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/mother_tongue.shtml

79
Appendix 3
DVD An Ideal Lesson Attempt

80
Abstract
The topic of the following thesis is - using the proper language, i.e. the mother
tongue or the target language, when teaching foreign languages. To regard the
age, the age group of young learners who are beginners will be highlighted.
The paper is divided into two parts i.e. the theoretical and practical sequence.
The first one depicts the language choice out of various angles. The second
sequence is mainly based on a cassete recording a lesson that was created in order
to try to teach an ideal lesson where both languages were used. It also presents the
results of the observation of several lessons taught to groups of young learners in
order to describe a real proportion of using the MT and the TL and shows the
results of the questionnaire.
The main aim of this thesis was to attempt to find an ideal proportion of the
mother tongue and the target language usage when teaching foreign languages to
the age group of young learners.

Key words: mother tongue, target language, young learners, language acquisition,
native speaker, teaching foreign languages

Resum
Tma tto diplomov prce je vhodn uit mateskho a clovho jazyka pi
vuce cizch jazyk. Co se te vku, prce je zamen na skupinu dt mladho
kolnho vku.
Diplomov prce je rozdlena na teoretickou a praktickou st piem prvn
popisuje uit vhodnho jazyka z rznch pohled. Druh st je zaloena
pedevm na video nahrvce zachycujc hodinu, kter mla za cl pokusit se co
nejvhodnji vyut matesk i ciz jazyk. Praktick st t prezentuje vsledky
observac, kter byly provedeny za elem zjitn relnho pomru uit obou
ve uvedench jazyk uitelem a vsledky dotaznku.
Clem tto prce bylo pokusit se najt vhodnou mru pro uit matetiny
uitelem pi vuce cizch jazyk a to u skupiny dt do 11 let, kte jsou zrove
zatenky.

Key words: matesk jazyk, clov jazyk, ci mladho kolnho vku, osvojovn
jazyka, rodil mluv, vuka cizch jazyk

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