EFL Teachers’ Opinions on the Use of L1 in L2 Classrooms: Role of Experience and Context

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Gülden Taner
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8040-5195
Gözde Balıkçı
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7168-8648

Abstract

The use of native language (L1) in foreign language classrooms (L2) has been studied from various perspectives, and it is important to investigate teachers’ opinions about the use of L1 to better understand their practice. This study investigates the role of experience on the attitudes of language teachers towards the use of L1 in L2 classes. The participants of this research were pre-service and in-service teachers, and research questions aimed to reveal the language teaching areas that they agreed and/or disagreed with the use of L1 in. The role of experience was clearly seen in the results of both quantitative and qualitative analyses in that the pre-service and in-service teachers differed significantly in their views about some areas where they use L1. While pre-service teachers showed a tendency to support English only, experienced teachers were more moderate towards the use of L1 in all their practices. Discussion of findings revealed that both experience and the L2 teaching and learning context were influential on teachers’ practices and beliefs. The study will provide insights into pre-service and in-service teachers’ attitudes in different educational settings and implications for pre- and in-service teacher education programs.

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Taner, G., & Balıkçı, G. (2022). EFL Teachers’ Opinions on the Use of L1 in L2 Classrooms: Role of Experience and Context . Focus on ELT Journal, 4(1), 74–90. https://doi.org/10.14744/felt.2022.4.1.6
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Author Biographies

Gülden Taner, Middle East Technical University, Alumna

Gülden TANER (ORCID: 0000-0001-8040-5195) received her PhD in English Language Teaching at Middle East Technical University, Turkey. She conducted her postdoctoral research on the professional competencies and development of teachers at the Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick, UK. Her research interests include pre-service and in-service language teacher education, professional development of teachers, and foreign language teaching.

Gözde Balıkçı, Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University

Asst. Prof. Dr. Gözde BALIKÇI (ORCID: 0000-0001-7168-8648) is a faculty member at Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, Turkey. She received her Ph.D. degree in English Language Teaching from METU in 2018. Her research interests include but are not limited to pre-service language teacher education, teaching English as a foreign language, and classroom interactional competence.

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