Attitudes of Teachers and Students about Using their Mother Tongue in learning English

Scholarly Research paper from the year 2014 in the subject English - Pedagogy, Didactics, Literature Studies, grade: 12, , course: EFL, language: English, abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate the attitudes of the students' as well as the teachers' use of their mother tongue (henceforth L1) in learning English as a foreign language (henceforth EFL) classrooms amongst the students of The Schools of the Islamic Educational College. The use of the students' mother tongue in learning English as a foreign language has been controversial for a long time. There have been various opinions about the utilizing of L1 in EFL classrooms. Recently, it has been noticed that some teachers tend to use so much of their mother tongue (Arabic) in EFL classrooms which has been reflected to the students' tendency towards accepting this trend within an EFL classrooms. An attempt has been made to review the students' as well as the teachers' perspectives regarding this issue. A questionnaire has been distributed amongst the students to highlight the different opinions and reactions about the use of Arabic in their EFL lessons. In addition, teachers of the seventh and tenth grades and some students have been interviewed for the same purpose. The results showed that there are positive students' attitudes towards using Arabic in EFL classes. The students in the study preferred the use of Arabic for various situations and reasons. The target teachers show rigidity about the use of Arabic although they admit that a rare use of Arabic might exist in their classes under certain circumstances. Recommendations as well as some future solutions are discussed.