The Roles of Mother Tongue in Enhancing English Language Acquisition in English-policy Classes

Abstract

The balance of using L1, L2, and English-only policy classes has been widely explored in English language teaching. However, research on the possible and reasonable spaces for L1 in English-only policy classes among students from diverse cultural communities has been very limited. This paper reports findings of employing the Vietnamese language among Vietnamese student-teachers of English from different ethnic groups (Kinh-Vietnamese, Hoa-Chinese, and Khmer-Cambodian) to learn English in English-only policy classrooms. These 60 student-teachers were in the final year of their program at a teacher training college in Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The findings belong to a larger project which was designed as a qualitative case study collecting triangulated data from questionnaires, observations, textual analysis, interviews, and focus groups. Results showed that Vietnamese played significant roles in students' processing and performing tasks to adapt to the English-only classroom policy. The students' use of Vietnamese (even by non-native Vietnamese students) enabled them to work productively and facilitate the establishment of a positive and inclusive language atmosphere thanks to the proper use of Vietnamese as a tool of cognition, affection and pedagogy.

The effect of code-switching in the teaching and learning of mathematics in College of Education

“…The conclusion drawn by their findings in African teaching of L2 revealed that teaching with local langauge gave better results in Mathematics achievement than teaching entirely in English. (Nguyen, 2020). Research has shown that the use of a child's first language in education enhances linguistic, cognitive, and academic achievement (Baker-Bell, 2020;Sibomana, 2020).…”