Use of L1 in Plan Ceibal English

Recently there has been much discussion of the use of L1 in the English classroom. One of the impulses to this has been the handbook for teachers by Philip Kerr: Translation and own language activities (CUP, 2014). In the very first part of the introduction to this book, Kerr (2014:1) cites from some blog posts relating to the theme from eltcommunity.com (2009-10) that shows the strength of feeling for or against the use of the learners' own language in the ELT classroom:

• No matter what nationality you are, Mother tongue is always there interfering in our lessons
• (Translating in the classroom) got so out-of-hand that even I was looking up Spanish and (heaven forbid) writing translations on the board. After a few months of this, I realized that this has to stop and STOP now
•  We treat the mother tongue as a problem because of the stupidity of our immersion methodology

Kerr goes on to state that although this is "a contentious issue" which has largely been ignored in both the most widely used in-service training manuals and on UK based pre- and in-service training courses, it has recently become an important issue that needs to be revisited. Kerr's book is a timely attempt to readdress the balance, which argues for principled use of L1 in the foreign language class.

Using L1 in the classroom

There was also a recent #AusELT chat on the subject of using L1 in the classroom, with a number of interesting related links, including:

• Patricia Ryan Tedx talk, Dubai - Don't Insist on English
• Isabella Villas Boas - L1 in the L2 classroom
• Guy Cook Translation in Language Teaching (OUP)
• Schweers, CW (1999) Using L1 in the L2 classroom (pdf), English Teaching Forum

L1 in the Ceibal English project

Which brings us back to Kerr (2014:5) who states that the "most significant resource that learners can bring to the language learning task is their existing linguistic knowledge." He goes on to state reasons why, at times, L1 should be actively encouraged: 1) The learners' own language is a point of reference 2) The growing voice of the non-native (or ELF) speaker teachers' discourse in English language teaching.

We are currently analysing the use of L1 in remote teaching and this is surely going to be a subject I will return to.