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This article challenges the widely held assumption in monolingual English as a foreign language (EFL) settings that students prefer their teachers to rarely use their mother tongue (MT)the language children initially learn in order to communicate. Through an examination of data derived from eight classrooms in four private language schools in Cyprus, the author identifies 16 speech acts performed by the students' exploitation of the first language (L1)-MT and L1 are used interchangeably-and unveils the students' overall stance toward MT classroom integration. The findings reveal that the participants did not perceive L1 usage in the EFL classroom as imposing a learning constraint, with the majority of them accentuating its benefits and admitting the impossibility of alienating it from the classroom. Although they opposed an L1 usage prohibition, the participants also stressed the necessity to improve the oral input of their second language-the language students learn in addition to their MT. Studies that explore the student voice, the article concludes, should form a productive starting point for important EFL research areas because they can foster awareness on issues that are considered important by learners but are undervalued by teachers (and vice versa).

For a considerable number of years, mother tongue (MT) use has been ostracized in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms as a form of poor teaching that negatively affects target language (TL) acquisition (McMillan and Rivers, 2011). However, research on the potential disadvantages of teaching approaches that integrate MT use is inconclusive, as is research on the positive effects of an all-TL learning environment (Hall and Cook, 2012). Thus, EFL teachers who share the same language with their students are often left wondering to what extent and in what contexts they should employ TL and MT. Unlike the curricula of other countries, where policy makers often suggest the maximal use of TL, the Norwegian curriculum for the subject of English does not contain any direct statements prescribing English as the sole language of instruction. The present study investigated the perceptions of Norwegian primary school teachers in different grades regarding their TL use when teaching EFL using an online survey. Specifically, the project addressed the following research questions: (1) How often do teachers use English in the EFL classroom? (2) In what situations and for what purposes do teachers use the TL? (3) Is there a correlation between years of teaching experience and the amount of TL use in the classroom? (4) Do teachers who have college credits in English employ the TL to a larger extent than the teachers who do not? The participants’ self-reports suggest that while the TL is used up to 50% of the time, its use varied from giving instructions and stating objectives to giving praise and criticism. This implies that Norwegian teachers may employ the TL to a lesser extent than the existing literature suggests (Macaro, 2005). However, no correlation was found between the amount of TL used and teachers’ expertise in and experience teaching the TL. To caution against an overdependence on MT, the article concludes by reiterating the need to develop and define systematic practices of MT use that facilitate foreign language acquisition and by calling for future research to shed light on bilingual or multilingual approaches in foreign language teaching.

Because of the lack of research on the use of the mother tongue (MT) in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom in European contexts, and because the topic is rarely discussed in teacher training programs, teachers often assume that students prefer an environment that makes little to no use of their MT. What complicates matters further is that while policy makers suggest maximal use of the target language (TL), European curricula for English as a subject do not contain any direct statements prescribing English as the sole language of instruction. Thus, EFL teachers who share an MT with their students often wonder to what extent and in what contexts they should employ the TL and MT.  Observing four Norwegian EFL teachers in primary and lower secondary school over several lessons, this study attempts to unravel teacher attitudes towards MT use in the EFL classroom by presenting interview findings for the first time in a Norwegian setting. Additionally, the study explores whether the lack of clear guidance in the Norwegian curriculum for the subject of English regarding the use of the MT may add to the confusion among Norwegian EFL teachers as to how, when, and if the MT should be used. The results suggest that despite acknowledging the potential of the MT in the classroom, the four participants also felt guilty about its presence in their classrooms, particularly since their reported behaviours did not reflect their actual behaviours. In light of these findings, this paper suggests future research to shed light on what ratio would qualify as judicious MT use. It also highlights the importance of discussing the use of MT in EFL teacher training programs.

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