Examining the functions of L1 use through teacher and student interactions in an adult migrant English classroom

ABSTRACT

The first language (L1) of language learners is a rich source of language knowledge that bilingual teachers and learners can bring to classrooms to facilitate second-language (L2) acquisition. While previous research suggests that L1 can provide learners with cognitive, pedagogical, and psychological benefits, what functions that it performs and how it supports language learning has not been thoroughly explored. This study aims to investigate different functions of L1 use in a beginner English class for 17 adult migrants in Australia through analysing teacher–students and students–students classroom interactions. Data were collected from lesson recordings, classroom observations and two interviews with the English–Chinese bilingual teacher. This study provides a refined categorisation of L1 functions through speech data rather than teacher’s self-reports. Results show that the L1 was frequently used by the teacher for pedagogical purposes, classroom environment control and social relationship building. In particular, the L1 was mainly used for eliciting answers, giving classroom instructions and explaining meanings, and it was employed by learners to ask questions, give responses when they lacked the necessary skills in the target language, and to offer peer assistance. This study has implications for bilingual language support and learning materials design for beginner adult learners.

KEYWORDS:

• L1 use
• English language teaching
• adult migrant learners
• bilingual teachers
• code-switching

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Lai Ping Florence Ma is a lecturer in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at Macquarie University in Sydney. She has had extensive English teaching experience in Hong Kong and Australia. Her research interests include NNESTs’ studies, adult migrant English learning, bilingualism, and academic literacy.

Notes

1 Previous research on the purposes for using the L1 has been conducted in EFL contexts (e.g. Atkinson 1987; Hosoda 2000), ESL contexts (e.g. Auerbach 1993; Piasecka 1988; Storch and Wigglesworth 2003) and adult migrant English learning environments (e.g. Chau 2001; Murray and Wigglesworth 2005; Wigglesworth, 2003). Research has also been conducted in teaching contexts such as teaching other foreign languages, for example, teaching Spanish (e.g. Antón and DiCamilla 1998; Brooks and Donato 1994) and in an immersion program (e.g. Swain and Lapkin 2000).

2 Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) is an Australian government-funded program which provides English language tuition to migrants in Australia and assists them with learning the foundation English language and settlement skills. It aims to enable migrants with no or little English with the skills to participate socially and economically in Australian society. Eligible migrants can receive up to 510 hours of English instructions and the program is provided at around 250 locations.

3 The inter-coder agreement percentage is the degree to which the two coders agreed on the categorisation of items. It was calculated by counting the number of agreed coded items, dividing it by the total number of coded items, and multiplying that number by 100.