Effects Of L1-Allowed And L1-Not-Allowed Pairing On Junior High School Students’ Production Of English Language-Related Episodes

In the past,the dominant view towards the use of L1 in L2 classes was that it should be strongly discouraged,if not outright prohibited.Many scholars felt that the use of L1 would interfere in the development of the L2(e.g.Odlin,1989;Kellerman,1995).Recent research(e.g.Orland-Barak&Yinon,2005;Carless,2008),however,has shown that teachers(novice and experienced teachers as well as teacher trainers)view the use of L1 in the L2 classroom more positively,seeing some use of the L1 as a constructive tool in teaching and class management.Most of the previous studies were done abroad and centered on university students,while few studies on L1 use in pair work have been done in China,particularly for junior high school students.Therefore,the present study was conducted to investigate the number of LREs and the functions of L1 served according to L1 use and different task types,which can not only make up for the lack of this field but also help improve English classroom teaching in junior high school.To be more specific,the present study aims to answer the following question:1.How do L1-allowed pairs differ from L1-not-allowed pairs in the production of LREs in error correction and dictogloss?2.To what extent do L1-allowed pairs differ from L1-not-allowed pairs in terms of the nature of the LREs produced?The participants for this investigation were 32 Grade eight students from a middle school in Yangzhou,who received a twenty-day study.They were divided into two groups:L1-allowed and Ll-not-allowed.16 students of similar English proficiency were assigned to each group and each group had 8 pairs.Before the tasks,every group was given 20 minutes to get familiar with the tasks and the requirements of each task.In the tasks,both groups were asked to hold a discussion before fulfilling such types of tasks as error correction and dictogloss in 30 minutes,15 minutes for each task.All pair talks were audio-recorded by mobile phones.From the analysis of the data,we have obtained some findings as follows:First,the production of LREs was different between L1-allowed and L1-not-allowed pairs in both error correction and dictogloss.L1-allowed pairs produce more LREs than Ll-not-allowed pairs,and more problems identified in tasks can be resolved in L1-allowed pairs.What’s more,all three types of LREs including L-LREs,M-LREs and F-LREs produced by L1-allowed pairs were more related to the tasks themselves,while many LREs produced by the Ll-not-allowed pairs did not seem to be related to the tasks and students cannot easily correctly resolve the problems in the tasks.Second,in terms of the nature of language-related episodes,LREs produced by L1-allowed groups were more interactive than those produced by L1-not-allowed groups and L1 served different functions in collaborative work.In error correction,L1 mainly served the function of"grammar talk" to correct grammatical mistakes in the text.In dictogloss,"vocabulary"functioned in that students mainly used L1 to get the correct spelling of unfamiliar words or to find how to better express their feelings.Additionally,"off-task","phatics",and "metacognitive talks" were also important L1 functions in this two collaborative tasks.The findings may offer some important implications for English teaching in junior high school.Teachers need to renew their view of students’ use of L1 in carrying out collaborative English-related tasks,since students may benefit a lot from the use of first language during the completion of English-related tasks in pairs.It is also suggested that with the help of appropriate use of L1,particularly for junior high school students,teachers can figure out how to better improve students’ involvement in collaborative interaction.