Using the Learner’s Native Language in the Classroom
Whether or not academic subjects should be taught in the students’ native language as they are in the bilingual education classroom is indeed a controversial topic, one that will not be addressed here. There are advantages to teaching students to read in the language they speak, and there are advantages to studying academic subjects in the language the students understand best, but there are also advantages to providing English learners with as much contact with English as possible. Suffice it to say that this question is beyond the scope of this book. This section will instead deal with the use of the learner’s native language in the ESL classroom, the mainstream, and the ESL component of the bilingual class schedule.
Most students will not be able to communicate in English beyond a survival level until they have had several hundred hours of English language contact, instruction, and interaction. Even the very quickest learners will require literally thousands of hours before they attain near-native fluency. Clearly “the phrase of the day” or a daily half-hour of English conversation will not bring students to fluency in a few years. Although using the students’ native language will not hinder the learning of English, time spent communicating in the native language is time not spent communicating in English. Your students will not get sufficient contact with English if they spend most of their ESL class time merely talking about English in their native language.
There are, of course, a few no-brainer situations. When you explain how to get out of the building in case of a fire or how to operate the eye bath in the chemistry lab, you need to be absolutely certain that everyone understands. In such situation, to not use the students’ native language or allow a student or staff member to translate into the native language could be considered even criminally negligent.
If you choose to use the students’ native language in your lessons, be certain that it enhances rather than detracts from English instruction. It is important to not consistently provide side-by-side translations for everything you say in English. There are two reasons for this. First, the human mind, like flowing water, seeks the course of least resistance. If your students are expecting that everything important is going to be repeated in their native language, their brains will automatically shut down when they hear English. If you are going to use the native language in your ESL class, do not use it consistently or predictably. Keep your students on their toes when you speak English.
Also bear in mind that it is easier for someone who is struggling with a new language to follow speech in that language when the speaker is not always switching back and forth. The graduate-level Spanish literature class in which I learned the least was taught by a professor who kept stopping her lectures to make English-language explanations to the three non-Hispanic students in the class. The frequent switching into English made it harder to follow what she was saying in Spanish. People who are fully fluent in two languages have little trouble switching, but it is tougher for those who are still learning. Our professor was not, as she believed, doing us a favor.
DON’T FORCE THEM TO GO MUTE
Although it is essential that students have sufficient contact with English, a total prohibition on the use of the students’ native language in school will likely prove unwise. Students who cannot speak English but are not allowed to speak anything else may respond by going mute, sometimes for years. This is not an exaggeration. If you choose to speak to your students only in English, during the first few months of the course it would be wise to allow them to respond in their native language either to you or to a bilingual assistant, at least at specified times. It would also be wise to provide after-class sessions when someone could answer students’ questions in their native language. That is far better than having them spend the entire year sitting in silence.
WHAT WORKS BEST IN THE STUDENTS’ NATIVE LANGUAGE
Some English lessons are best taught partially in the learners’ native language. If a teacher is explaining how a certain grammatical structure parallels that of the students’ native language, a brief explanation in the native language may help the student to immediately grasp a concept that might otherwise take months to figure out. Postlesson explanations and advance organizers are also appropriate. If a student does not understand a lecture, it is acceptable to give an explanation in the native language after class or outside of class. It may also be useful to provide an explanation or synopsis as an advance organizer in the native language before watching a movie or reading a work of literature. Such an explanation will help your students follow the thread of the work. Use your own judgment in these matters. Some of the less motivated students may use native-language sessions as a way to glean enough material to limp through your tests and as an excuse to pay less attention to what is said in English. If you see this happening, scale back on the amount of native language used in class.
Although there are dangers in the use of frequent side-by-side translations, in some instances they can be useful. When a student needs to know the meaning of a word or a phrase that cannot be demonstrated or explained in English, and a translation is the quickest or most efficient way to convey the meaning, by all means translate, but do so quickly and move immediately back into English.
CONSIDER THE LANGUAGE AND THE CULTURE OF THE COMMUNITY
When choosing whether or not to allow the use of the native language, consider the nature of the linguistic community. In a border community or an ethnic enclave where most people are bilingual, it may be unwise to be the only person in school who will not tolerate the use of the students’ native language.
On the Texas-Mexico border where I teach, the parents of some of my students have unpleasant memories of being punished for speaking Spanish in school. If you impose an English-only rule, be sure that your students and their parents understand that this rule is to enhance the learning of English and is not in any way meant to disparage their language and culture. By the way, it will be easier to convince them of your good intentions if you happen to be able to speak their language reasonably well.
If you use the students’ native language in the ESL classroom, it will be tempting to use it excessively. Again, the mind seeks the course of least resistance, and that means finding the best common language. It is easier and more pleasant to speak when people understand you. One way to avoid this tendency is to set aside certain times for use of the native language. If you are teaching a three-hour ESL block, you could set aside one half-hour per day or a short period at the beginning or end of each class during which use of the native language is permitted but not used exclusively. During that time you can entertain questions, discuss school rules and procedures, translate vocabulary, make grammatical explanations, or provide advance organizers or post lesson explanations.
Working With Younger Students
The balance between native language and English use in ESL instruction should be much the same for both younger and older students. If, however, you work in a bilingual program in which content classes are taught almost exclusively in the native language and only an hour or two per day is allocated specifically for English instruction, finding time for sufficient contact with English can be a problem. In such a situation, use English as much as possible in nonacademic situations.