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Key words: mother language; primary school English teaching; application
I. The introduction
English, as a tool of international communication and the media of information transmission, is becoming more and more important. Realizing its importance, many countries set the English course. English lesson is given in Chinese primary schools. As a foreign language, English is completely new for the Chinese pupils. Therefore, how to help them study it well is a big task placed in front of every English teacher. As we know that language learners will be affected by their mother tongue, so, should we make full use of our mother language to help the pupils to learn this foreign language? This thesis tries to talk about this problem.
II.Different opinions on the use of mother language in English teaching
As for the application of mother language in foreign language teaching, wide and intensive discussion always exist in the field of foreign language teaching. Generally speaking, two viewpoints exist: pros and cons.
The viewpoint that objects to use mother language in foreign language and study formed along with the appearance of Direct Method at the beginning of last century. Direct Method emphasizes that we should do communication, reading and conversation just through the foreign language itself to put foreign language into full use, and it clearly put forward that we should not use the students’ mother tongue in the foreign language teaching, nor the translation and formal grammar. Direct Method is not as popular as before, but the influence is very wide. In the 1960s, Communication Approach appeared at the stage of foreign language teaching. Communication Approach says that the students’ communicative ability is the goal of foreign language teaching. It objects to the teaching method which is based on the grammar, and also it discards the teaching method based on listening and speaking. Its important characteristic is that learning the foreign language through the foreign language itself. It maintains to teach the students the different functions of languages, the methods of using languages, and so on. Many scholars object to use the mother language in English teaching, such as Grover and Walters, in their book of A teaching Practice Handbook, they warn the people not to use the mother tongue indiscriminately.1 In some teaching works called as “humanistic”, such as Caring and Sharing in the Foreign Language Classroom written by Muscovite and Teaching English a Way and Ways written by Strike,2 the same idea that mother language shouldn’t be used in the language classroom, is also held.
The viewpoint that we should draw support from our mother tongue in foreign language teaching mainly based on two facts. First, practice shows that mother language is the medium for a student to master a foreign language. “Most students learn a foreign language on the basis of that they are familiar with and what they have mastered.”3 When they start to learn English, they always understand English through their mother language. That’s to say, only when the mother language is the bridge, the foreign language and thought can work together. For example, if the beginners want to speak English, they always think what they want to say in their native language, and then translate it into English. Only by their repeated practice, the students can reach the automation-thinking in English. Second, the result of psychology research shows that only when the direct contact among words, word groups and concepts is established, thinking completely in foreign language can be reached. The viewpoint that we should draw support from the mother language in the foreign language teaching mainly comes from the research on psychology, and also on which three teaching methods are based. The first one is Grammar Translation Method. By this method, the teacher explains the complex grammar rules and the isolated words which are divorced from the context. Teaching material takes the text as its main body. The second one is Contrastive Method; it means the students contrast their mother language and the foreign language in the process of learning. The last one is Cognitive Method. It advocates that the mother tongue is allowed to be used.
III. The language transfer and the children’s psychological condition
Since there exists so many different opinions on the use of mother language in English teaching, is it necessary to adopt the mother language in primary school English teaching? The author holds that it is. From the language transfer and the children’s psychological condition, the necessity of using mother language in the primary school English teaching is analyzed.
A. The language transfer
The function of mother language in English teaching is called language transfer.4In other word, the knowledge or structure of Chinese transfer toward English teaching and learning. “As a conception of cognitive psychology,transfer refers that the early learning is affected by past knowledge. It can be divided into two parts: positive transfer and negative transfer. If the existing knowledge has good influence on the learning knowledge, we call it the positive transfer; otherwise, it’s the negative transfer.”5
In the English teaching, when students communicate in English, they are always influenced by mother tongue, or they try to express their thoughts by the use of mother tongue, which is self-evident. “Just as a good comparison made by Betaken, a German professor on English teaching method: “Mother tongue is not a coat. The learner can’t take it off before he goes into the foreign language classroom, and leave it outside the classroom.”6 In the daily English teaching, when our mother language has the same form of expression with English, it will promote the students’ English learning, and then the students will not only learn English more relaxed, but also remember it more easily.
A psychologist Ausubol mentioned: Any meaningful study should base on the former study process, it must include transfer. In China, student’s English-learning depends on mother language. Despite the negative transfer, positive transfer exists widely. It includes the following aspects.
1. Phonetic:“There are great similarities in Chinese and English, especially the pronouncing rules”.7 In Chinese, for example, the character “青”, it consists of Horizontal and Vertical, it’s pinyin is /qing/, while in English, such as: “Park”, it consists of the alphabets: p a r k, the phonetic symbol is /pa: k/. The English alphabets like the Chinese stroke and the phonetic symbol like the pinyin.
2. Vocabulary: It’s convenient and efficient to memorize new words, if English teachers explain the words’ meaning in Chinese when students have difficulty in distinguishing them. such as: respectable-人格高尚的 值得尊重的, respectful-有礼貌的 尊重他人的,and respective-各自的. It’s easier for students to understand and master them.
3. Grammar: There are some similar sentence patterns in English and Chinese, for example, “I study English.”(我学英语). This sentence has the same structure as the Chinese: “Subject + Predicate + Object”. Students could understand it completely and quickly, if we find the similarities between English and Chinese.
B. Children’s Psychological Condition
Children’s good memory, strong imitation ability decides the primary school is a “golden age” of developing language ability. How to develop their language ability? In my opinion, we should start with interest; motivate them to learn English actively. Then, teachers should find excellent learning environment for children to learn more, to strengthen their impressions of English words or sentences. In primary school, students will be limited by finite vocabulary and short concentrating time. Thus, it will be more difficult for teachers to ask students to guess and understand some English, especially the abstract words and grammar. Moreover, if students can’t follow their teachers for a long time, they will feel tired and bored, and start to lose interest and confidence in learning. At the same time, it’s not a secret that junior learners fear to speak English, they worry about their pronunciation and grammar. This kind of psychology is negative. It affects students seriously and makes the teaching results inefficient. So, it’s easy to say adopting mother language correctly in English teaching and learning will increase the teaching efficiency. For instance, when teachers are explaining some abstract nouns, such as: friendship, excuse and science, English teachers will be tired and waste much time if they explain them in English. Since some mother language rooted in Chinese students, the teachers could use some Chinese to assist their teaching activities, by doing so, students can not only understand clearly, but also they will have deep impression at the same time.
We should always arouse students’ interest in language teaching. However, we can not adopt only several joyful-singing and game for a long time, the reason is that students’ interest will be lost quickly when these kinds of ways are not fresh. Therefore, singing and playing games should be considered as additional ways to improve students’ language abilities instead of cultivating their interest. But, if we use mother language at the proper time, the learners can understand and remember the new knowledge quickly, which in turn makes the young learners more confident and interested in learning.
IV.The application of mother tongue in primary school English teaching
As we have discussed in part III, the positive transfer of language plays a facilitative role in English learning, and the children’s psychological characteristic determines their way of learning, the author thinks that the application of mother language in primary school English teaching is necessary.
In English teaching and learning, mother language has more or less certain effects on the study of words, phrases, grammar or sentences. Thus, there are some similarities between English language and mother language. “The fundamental point is that English learning usually bases on their mother language firmly. Mother language always has more or less effects on English learning objectively.”8
It will be very effective to apply the mother tongue to English learning, especially to the lower class students. The English teaching can be carried out with the help of the mother language. Whether the teacher allows and advocates this kind of translating or not, students will unconsciously explain and understand the target language with the help of mother language. The reason why they can’t get rid of the role of mother tongue is that some contents are difficult to understand without the mothert Language, especially, limited by the cultural difference.
Here are some examples about the mother tongue affecting English teaching. When students learn the word “legislate”, they know the meaning of this word is“ 立法 ”, but they have
difficult in memorizing. At this time, we can divide it into three parts: leg-is-late, these three words are the ones that students have learned, and their meanings in Chinese are: 退,是,迟. We can apply mother language to help us remember the word “legislate”, it goes like this: 为腿(leg)立法,总是(is)太迟(late). In this way, we can promote students’ interest in memorizing and pronouncing English vocabularies, and the effect of study will be much better.
From the above discussion, we can find that the application of mother language in primary school English teaching is helpful and necessary, and it is unacceptable to avoid and expel the use of mother language.
V.Conclusion
By analyzing the positive transfer of language and the children’s psychological characteristic, this thesis mainly talks about the positive affect of mother language in English teaching. However, this thesis only discusses about the adoption of mother language in primary school English teaching, will it really work in the natural language classroom? If it really works, can mother tongue be used in middle school language teaching? All these problems need to be solved in the further study.
Bibliography
1 Atkinson, D. 1987. The Mother Tongue in the Classroom; A Neglected Resource? ELT Journal 41/4.
2 Hardboard, John. 1992. The Use of the Mother Tongue in the Classroom, ELT Journal 46/4.
3 Krashen, S.1981. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Pergamum.
4 Swan, M, 1985.A Critical Look at the Communicative Approach. ELT Journal 38/1, 2-39/2.
5 郭铭华,2002,论母语在外语教学中的作用,外语与外语教学
6 孔凡富 王栋,山东外语教学,1996年第2期。
7 熊 伟,2004,试析母语在外语教学中的作用,辽宁师专学报
8 http://www.hzenglish.cn/blog/u/licuiyi/archives/2008/1049.html
9 http://edu.gznet.com/ce/2008-09-03/1220428343d8266.html
10 中华少年英才网http://www.cnlad.net/a/tchera/135806510.shtml
11 中国儿童教育网 http://www.cnfirst.net/xiaoxue/jiaoan21448.html
I. The introduction
English, as a tool of international communication and the media of information transmission, is becoming more and more important. Realizing its importance, many countries set the English course. English lesson is given in Chinese primary schools. As a foreign language, English is completely new for the Chinese pupils. Therefore, how to help them study it well is a big task placed in front of every English teacher. As we know that language learners will be affected by their mother tongue, so, should we make full use of our mother language to help the pupils to learn this foreign language? This thesis tries to talk about this problem.
II.Different opinions on the use of mother language in English teaching
As for the application of mother language in foreign language teaching, wide and intensive discussion always exist in the field of foreign language teaching. Generally speaking, two viewpoints exist: pros and cons.
The viewpoint that objects to use mother language in foreign language and study formed along with the appearance of Direct Method at the beginning of last century. Direct Method emphasizes that we should do communication, reading and conversation just through the foreign language itself to put foreign language into full use, and it clearly put forward that we should not use the students’ mother tongue in the foreign language teaching, nor the translation and formal grammar. Direct Method is not as popular as before, but the influence is very wide. In the 1960s, Communication Approach appeared at the stage of foreign language teaching. Communication Approach says that the students’ communicative ability is the goal of foreign language teaching. It objects to the teaching method which is based on the grammar, and also it discards the teaching method based on listening and speaking. Its important characteristic is that learning the foreign language through the foreign language itself. It maintains to teach the students the different functions of languages, the methods of using languages, and so on. Many scholars object to use the mother language in English teaching, such as Grover and Walters, in their book of A teaching Practice Handbook, they warn the people not to use the mother tongue indiscriminately.1 In some teaching works called as “humanistic”, such as Caring and Sharing in the Foreign Language Classroom written by Muscovite and Teaching English a Way and Ways written by Strike,2 the same idea that mother language shouldn’t be used in the language classroom, is also held.
The viewpoint that we should draw support from our mother tongue in foreign language teaching mainly based on two facts. First, practice shows that mother language is the medium for a student to master a foreign language. “Most students learn a foreign language on the basis of that they are familiar with and what they have mastered.”3 When they start to learn English, they always understand English through their mother language. That’s to say, only when the mother language is the bridge, the foreign language and thought can work together. For example, if the beginners want to speak English, they always think what they want to say in their native language, and then translate it into English. Only by their repeated practice, the students can reach the automation-thinking in English. Second, the result of psychology research shows that only when the direct contact among words, word groups and concepts is established, thinking completely in foreign language can be reached. The viewpoint that we should draw support from the mother language in the foreign language teaching mainly comes from the research on psychology, and also on which three teaching methods are based. The first one is Grammar Translation Method. By this method, the teacher explains the complex grammar rules and the isolated words which are divorced from the context. Teaching material takes the text as its main body. The second one is Contrastive Method; it means the students contrast their mother language and the foreign language in the process of learning. The last one is Cognitive Method. It advocates that the mother tongue is allowed to be used.
III. The language transfer and the children’s psychological condition
Since there exists so many different opinions on the use of mother language in English teaching, is it necessary to adopt the mother language in primary school English teaching? The author holds that it is. From the language transfer and the children’s psychological condition, the necessity of using mother language in the primary school English teaching is analyzed.
A. The language transfer
The function of mother language in English teaching is called language transfer.4In other word, the knowledge or structure of Chinese transfer toward English teaching and learning. “As a conception of cognitive psychology,transfer refers that the early learning is affected by past knowledge. It can be divided into two parts: positive transfer and negative transfer. If the existing knowledge has good influence on the learning knowledge, we call it the positive transfer; otherwise, it’s the negative transfer.”5
In the English teaching, when students communicate in English, they are always influenced by mother tongue, or they try to express their thoughts by the use of mother tongue, which is self-evident. “Just as a good comparison made by Betaken, a German professor on English teaching method: “Mother tongue is not a coat. The learner can’t take it off before he goes into the foreign language classroom, and leave it outside the classroom.”6 In the daily English teaching, when our mother language has the same form of expression with English, it will promote the students’ English learning, and then the students will not only learn English more relaxed, but also remember it more easily.
A psychologist Ausubol mentioned: Any meaningful study should base on the former study process, it must include transfer. In China, student’s English-learning depends on mother language. Despite the negative transfer, positive transfer exists widely. It includes the following aspects.
1. Phonetic:“There are great similarities in Chinese and English, especially the pronouncing rules”.7 In Chinese, for example, the character “青”, it consists of Horizontal and Vertical, it’s pinyin is /qing/, while in English, such as: “Park”, it consists of the alphabets: p a r k, the phonetic symbol is /pa: k/. The English alphabets like the Chinese stroke and the phonetic symbol like the pinyin.
2. Vocabulary: It’s convenient and efficient to memorize new words, if English teachers explain the words’ meaning in Chinese when students have difficulty in distinguishing them. such as: respectable-人格高尚的 值得尊重的, respectful-有礼貌的 尊重他人的,and respective-各自的. It’s easier for students to understand and master them.
3. Grammar: There are some similar sentence patterns in English and Chinese, for example, “I study English.”(我学英语). This sentence has the same structure as the Chinese: “Subject + Predicate + Object”. Students could understand it completely and quickly, if we find the similarities between English and Chinese.
B. Children’s Psychological Condition
Children’s good memory, strong imitation ability decides the primary school is a “golden age” of developing language ability. How to develop their language ability? In my opinion, we should start with interest; motivate them to learn English actively. Then, teachers should find excellent learning environment for children to learn more, to strengthen their impressions of English words or sentences. In primary school, students will be limited by finite vocabulary and short concentrating time. Thus, it will be more difficult for teachers to ask students to guess and understand some English, especially the abstract words and grammar. Moreover, if students can’t follow their teachers for a long time, they will feel tired and bored, and start to lose interest and confidence in learning. At the same time, it’s not a secret that junior learners fear to speak English, they worry about their pronunciation and grammar. This kind of psychology is negative. It affects students seriously and makes the teaching results inefficient. So, it’s easy to say adopting mother language correctly in English teaching and learning will increase the teaching efficiency. For instance, when teachers are explaining some abstract nouns, such as: friendship, excuse and science, English teachers will be tired and waste much time if they explain them in English. Since some mother language rooted in Chinese students, the teachers could use some Chinese to assist their teaching activities, by doing so, students can not only understand clearly, but also they will have deep impression at the same time.
We should always arouse students’ interest in language teaching. However, we can not adopt only several joyful-singing and game for a long time, the reason is that students’ interest will be lost quickly when these kinds of ways are not fresh. Therefore, singing and playing games should be considered as additional ways to improve students’ language abilities instead of cultivating their interest. But, if we use mother language at the proper time, the learners can understand and remember the new knowledge quickly, which in turn makes the young learners more confident and interested in learning.
IV.The application of mother tongue in primary school English teaching
As we have discussed in part III, the positive transfer of language plays a facilitative role in English learning, and the children’s psychological characteristic determines their way of learning, the author thinks that the application of mother language in primary school English teaching is necessary.
In English teaching and learning, mother language has more or less certain effects on the study of words, phrases, grammar or sentences. Thus, there are some similarities between English language and mother language. “The fundamental point is that English learning usually bases on their mother language firmly. Mother language always has more or less effects on English learning objectively.”8
It will be very effective to apply the mother tongue to English learning, especially to the lower class students. The English teaching can be carried out with the help of the mother language. Whether the teacher allows and advocates this kind of translating or not, students will unconsciously explain and understand the target language with the help of mother language. The reason why they can’t get rid of the role of mother tongue is that some contents are difficult to understand without the mothert Language, especially, limited by the cultural difference.
Here are some examples about the mother tongue affecting English teaching. When students learn the word “legislate”, they know the meaning of this word is“ 立法 ”, but they have
difficult in memorizing. At this time, we can divide it into three parts: leg-is-late, these three words are the ones that students have learned, and their meanings in Chinese are: 退,是,迟. We can apply mother language to help us remember the word “legislate”, it goes like this: 为腿(leg)立法,总是(is)太迟(late). In this way, we can promote students’ interest in memorizing and pronouncing English vocabularies, and the effect of study will be much better.
From the above discussion, we can find that the application of mother language in primary school English teaching is helpful and necessary, and it is unacceptable to avoid and expel the use of mother language.
V.Conclusion
By analyzing the positive transfer of language and the children’s psychological characteristic, this thesis mainly talks about the positive affect of mother language in English teaching. However, this thesis only discusses about the adoption of mother language in primary school English teaching, will it really work in the natural language classroom? If it really works, can mother tongue be used in middle school language teaching? All these problems need to be solved in the further study.
Bibliography
1 Atkinson, D. 1987. The Mother Tongue in the Classroom; A Neglected Resource? ELT Journal 41/4.
2 Hardboard, John. 1992. The Use of the Mother Tongue in the Classroom, ELT Journal 46/4.
3 Krashen, S.1981. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Pergamum.
4 Swan, M, 1985.A Critical Look at the Communicative Approach. ELT Journal 38/1, 2-39/2.
5 郭铭华,2002,论母语在外语教学中的作用,外语与外语教学
6 孔凡富 王栋,山东外语教学,1996年第2期。
7 熊 伟,2004,试析母语在外语教学中的作用,辽宁师专学报
8 http://www.hzenglish.cn/blog/u/licuiyi/archives/2008/1049.html
9 http://edu.gznet.com/ce/2008-09-03/1220428343d8266.html
10 中华少年英才网http://www.cnlad.net/a/tchera/135806510.shtml
11 中国儿童教育网 http://www.cnfirst.net/xiaoxue/jiaoan21448.html