What's the Problem? L2 Learners' Use of the L1 During Consciousness‐Raising, Form‐Focused Tasks

Abstract

This qualitative study provides preliminary insight into the role of the first language (L1) when pairs of intermediate-level college learners of French and Spanish are engaged in consciousnessraising, form-focused grammar tasks. Using conversation analysis of audiotaped interactions and stimulated recall sessions, we explored the ways students used the L1 and their second language (L2) to solve a grammar problem. Students who were allowed to use the L1 (Group 1) worked collaboratively in a balanced and coherent manner; students who were required to use the L2 (Group 2) exhibited fragmented interaction and little evidence of collaboration. Findings from the stimulated recall sessions suggested that reading, thinking, and talking appeared to be simultaneous and integrated processes for the students in Group 1, whereas these processes appeared to be sequential and competing for the students in Group 2. In addition to suggesting that using the L1 for these kinds of tasks reduces cognitive overload, these findings invite teachers to tackle the "problem" of the L1 in the foreign language classroom.RECENT ATTENTION TO THE ROLE OF THE first language (L1) in second language (L2) learning has challenged long-held anti-L1 attitudes that have dominated foreign language (FL) pedagogy for several decades. 1 In particular Cook (1999, 2001), basing his idea on the premise that the L1 and the L2 coexist collaboratively in the learner, set forward the notion that L2 learners should be viewed as multicompetent language users rather than as deficient L2 users when compared to native speakers. Although this notion goes against communicative language teaching approaches that focus on the primary importance of L2 input and L2 interaction in L2 learning, it offers applied linguists and FL teachers the op-

The Use of L1 as a Consciousness-raising Tool in Teaching Grammar to Beginner and Upper-intermediate EFL Students

“…This finding is in line with that of other researchers (Scott & De la Fuente, 2008;Swain & Lapkin, 2000;Ferrer, (n.d)) who investigated the role of L1 in teaching a second or foreign language. Moreover, the finding is supported by the same assumptions that the Skill-Acquisition Theory is based on.…”

“…To date, research into the incorporation of L1 use in the teaching grammar has had a wealth of publications and findings to offer (Swain & Lapkin, 2000; Ferrer, (n.d); Scott & De la Fuente, 2008). In fact, in recent years there has been an increasing interest into discovering the facilitative roles that students' mother tongue could play in the instruction of language structures.…”

Going covert: Inner and private speech in language learning

“…Identification and categorization of PS are frequently corroborated by the stimulus response (SR) technique, whereby participants view/hear recordings of their own previous verbalizations and make retrospective comments on these. SR interviews, as in Lee (2006), Borer (2007), Scott & de la Fuente (2008), and Yoshida (2009), contribute to better data interpretation. In Yoshida, for example, the learners' comments produced in the SR sessions helped the researcher more accurately identify whether an utterance was an instance of PS or addressed to someone else (2009: 140).…”

“…In this function, L1 PS takes the form of metalinguistic or metatask comments, affect expressions, and verbalizations to guide actions (Scott & de la Fuente 2008;Stafford 2013;Jiménez-Jiménez 2015). In Scott & de la Fuente (2008), English-speaking learners of French and Spanish who were instructed to use only the L2 to conduct an L2 grammar task, nevertheless, talked to themselves in the L1 to translate the text, recall grammar rules, review the task, and plan what to say in the L2. The L1 appears then as a powerful and convenient resource to be used naturally and strategically in private for cognitive operations demanding use of the L2.…”

Estratégias utilizadas por aprendizes de línguas afins: a troca de código

“…7 Cf. Antón;DiCamilla, (1998);Brooks;Donato, (1994);Centeno-Cortés;Jiménez, (2004);Scott;de la Fuente, (2008);Lapkin, (2000);Villamil;de Guerrero (1996). constante à LM que o aprendiz terá condição de planejar e levar a termo diversas atividades, de estabelecer um ambiente de colaboração com os outros participantes, de dominar processos cognitivos indispensáveis para a realização de qualquer tarefa e de expressar sua individualidade.…”