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As I mentioned before my teaching practice has been heavily informed through the
collaboration and feedback from the ESL instructors as well as through my reflective journals. I
now recognize that I need to use various methods of displaying and giving information to my
students. The use of technology could have really helped switch up the class from only using
worksheets, pictures, and vocabulary lists and provided a more interactive approach to ESL
learning. There may be a time when I am teaching beginner level ESL students who do not speak
the same native language as I do and I need to be able to help them understand word meaning. I
also realized that I focused a lot on communicative practice and trying to help my students
communicate with the doctor or their employers. While this is a major component to survival
English skills it is not the only one, being able to read and write are just as crucial.
Through this process of self-study action research I have been able to analyze and reflect
upon my own teaching practice. In doing so I have learned more than I had anticipated about
myself as well as my students language learning. I now realize that not only did my students use
the native language as a crutch, but so did I. Instead of thinking of other ways to help my
students comprehend the content I immediately used Spanish to help students understand. While
the students and I may have felt more comfortable with this approach I realize that the students
are ultimately getting less target language practice. Due to time constraints, I am not able to
immediately implement the proposed stage two action and assessment plan. However, in the
future I do plan on trying the new teaching approaches mentioned by the ESL instructors who
observed and collaborated with me. Through their observations I have been able to view the use
of native language in a completely different manner, more like one of the many tools that I can
use from my toolbox, instead of relying on the native language as the only accessible tool in my
toolbox.
Conclusion
I sought to examine the potential of students native language use in my ESL instruction.
The native language can be used as a tool, but not the only tool, to help support second language
acquisition and has many roles when integrating bilingual approaches. In order to help support
understanding on the topic. I have explored methods and designs employed by institutions and
researchers in our field and have used them as a guide in my own self-study action research and
design. While reading the literature related to my topic I have deepened my knowledge as well as
opened my mind to various teaching perspectives and approaches. Mandrinan (2014) has
succinctly described the pros and cons of mother tongue language use in the second language
It has been found that the use of first language in the second-language classroom helps
facilitating the process of understanding. Research suggests that the first language should
not be banned in the second-language classroom but that neither should its use be
constantly encouraged, otherwise the mother tongue may replace the target language
I identify some of the issues specifically related to adult ESL learners and the
approaches that could help foster and improve the success of students who have low proficiency
in English, and in turn created a learning environment where students have a voice and can
express their thoughts and needs. Bilingual educators, such as myself, can help create a learning
environment and lessons that are conducive to student comprehension. According to Cummins,
during the first stages of language acquisition it is important to constantly refer to the mother
tongue in order to make connections. These types of connections are what help create and foster
Based on the literature and my self-study action research data and findings analysis we
can infer that first language does indeed have a role in the beginner second language classroom.
However, the extent and context to which the native language is used can also present some
challenges and debilitating factors, mentioned in the theories against native language use section
and in my findings. In summary, the intent of this self-study action research was to examine my
use of students native language in the second language classroom and ways in which I can
improve my teaching practice. The findings and results from this self-study action research have
greatly added to my personal teaching practice and the limited literature on beginner level adult