Study On The Application Of L1 In Teacher Talk Of High School English Teachers:

As for the role and effect of L1 in SLA and FL/L2 classroom teaching, it has been a long debated issue among linguists and educators. Opinions about this issue vary greatly and no agreement has been reached until now. The debates on whether the learner’s L1 should be used in the foreign language classroom have increasingly grabbed attention in the SLA study. While much has been explored about this issue, research examining the application of L1 in teacher talk remains relatively limited. Teacher is the demonstrator of the target language, whose quality and quantity of discourse can exert direct influence on the success or failure of classroom teaching and students’mastery of the target language (Hakansson,1986). Nunan (1991) ever said, teacher’s discourse was of foremost importance not only for the organization of classroom teaching but also for SLA. It is commonly believed that only with the assistance of perfectly organized teacher talk can teaching go smoothly and result in positive teaching effect. In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of researches conducted about the issue of teacher talk (Chaudron,1983; Gaies,1977,1979; Henzl,1979; Long,1981,1983; Allwright,1984; Ellis,1990; Swain,1985;). However, there are relatively few empirical studies about the actual use of L1 among teachers from high school under the Chinese context, for most of such kinds of studies keep the focus on the perspective of university teachers. For above reasons, to enrich the relevant literature, this research will investigate the actual use of L1 among non-native English teachers in EFL classroom.The author conducted the current research in two middle schools in Neijiang (the author’s hometown). Seven English teachers and more than 200 students were chosen to participate in the study. Narrative accounts were constructed for each teacher by using classroom observation data and semi-constructed interviews. These accounts illustrate how the English teachers use L1 in their teacher talk in EFL classroom as well as the cognitive and other factors that shape their decisions with specific reference to the use of L1. The different amount, the occasions, the functions and reasons of using L1, both teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards L1 use will be addressed respectively. By comparing the results, the factors that build teachers’ different instructional decisions on L1 use will be discussed, and the author tries to seek for the influence and functions of L1 in SLA from the perspective of its application among English teachers. The triangulation methods of classroom observation (including sound recording), interview and questionnaire will be conducted to find the answers. Based on the analysis of the data, the author found that all the seven participating teachers have employed L1 in their teacher talk to some degree. Vast majority of students and teachers considered L1 application to be facilitative in English learning. According to the results of the comparison among cases of study in the practical L1 implementation, the extent and teaching condition of L1 use varied greatly, especially between teachers from different schools. Besides,three factors were summarized in contributing to teachers’ language choice, including the perspectives from students, teacher themselves and the environment. On account of the present research, the author concluded that L1 should not be totally prohibited. However, as the extent to which L1 is used and the purposes for which it is used in different conditions vary greatly, teachers are suggested to take the need of the students, the capability of themselves and the teaching environment into consideration when they are making the instructional decision in language choice.With the result of the current research, it is hoped to provide some reference and advice for pre-service teachers and novice teachers as well as other educational practitioners. The final objective is to draw all the teachers’ awareness of their teacher talk in language choice, especially the use of L1 in classroom teaching, so as to meet both the students’ needs and teaching need, bringing in the improvement of the teaching and learning effect.