Investigating Teachers’ Perceptions of L1 Use in English as a Foreign Language Moroccan Secondary Classrooms: A Post-Communicative Perspective

Abstract

This article draws on an online survey to collect data about the perceptions of Moroccan secondary school teachers of English in connection with their use of translation in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching and learning settings. As in previous research on L1 (first language) use, this study emphasizes the unavoidability of translation and the discrepancy between teachers’ attitudes and their real teaching habits. Uncovering participants’ lack of awareness of the communicative benefits of translation is the major contribution of this study. We recommend reconsidering the communicative prospects of translation for teachers who face the dilemma of inevitable translation, and the trepidation of its long-held uncommunicative assumption.