L1 in the very young learner classroom
L1 in the classroom is always a controversial topic, but with very young learners I think it is much clearer than with other age ranges and levels. Basically, my policy is always that I will only speak the students’ language (assuming I can) if they are upset or there is a very extreme danger or misbehaviour, and then only if there isn’t another teacher who can do that for me. Even then, I will try to do that away from the rest of the class and/ or try to make the distinction between that and my normal classroom policy clear by stopping the class to deal with them and taking them out of the room or at least into a doorway.
Here are my reasons for that part of the policy (what the students can and can’t do is explained further down):
- With very young learners, if you are using language or activities that need explaining in L1, you are probably just doing the wrong thing
- They are close in time and language learning methods to bilingual kids who learn the distinction between languages more quickly if one parent speaks each language exclusively
- Production will be far behind comprehension, and most of what they comprehend will be classroom instructions etc rather than the 10 or so flashcards you take in
- Parents like it
With the students, in contrast, I let them use as much L1 as they like as, unlike older kids, that won’t stop them using English with me once they know what it is. The only exception is when they say something in L1 that I know they have said before in English, or using an occasional “No Japanese/ Korean/…!” as a way of cutting down on noise and regaining control. With the last point, this is also a sign that you’ve got something wrong and so something I use less than I used to at this age. The main argument against this seems to be that some parents don’t like it and expect their beginner kid to only speak English in class.
Sure there must be other views out there…
