TEFL Why oh why oh why Part Two- L1 in class
You finally come to the end of students staring at you blankly through the grammar explanation, and introducing pairwork brings on jokes, chat, imaginative use of language, and maybe even some flirting- unfortunately, little of any of it in English! Why do students switch to their own language in an English class, despite your best Basil Fawlty-like shows of displeasure every time they do it?
It could be because they want to joke about that time you split your trousers crouching down to monitor pairwork without you understanding. Or it could be because they want to produce the paranoid feeling in you that they are joking about the time you split your trousers by chattering away in a language you don’t understand and laughing. Alternatively, it could be one of the much more likely reasons I’ve put in my latest Usingenglish.com article- Why Your Students Speak L1 in Class. Tips on how to use and/ or avoid L1 included.