This is a complex question.  Using the L2 in class SHOULD help the students improve their proficiency. 

But I think that Stephen Krashen's i + 1 framework also applies.  Students should be continually challenged with just a small amount of difficulty more than their current proficiency level.  One level above.

So while using the L2 in the classroom is arguably good, if the vocabulary, grammar, etc, are too far beyond the student's current proficiency they will not understand and will become demotivated.

So, the more proficient the students, the more L2 should be used, I think, but always with careful attention to the difficulty level.

This is a complex question.  Using the L2 in class SHOULD help the students improve their proficiency. 

But I think that Stephen Krashen's i + 1 framework also applies.  Students should be continually challenged with just a small amount of difficulty more than their current proficiency level.  One level above.

So while using the L2 in the classroom is arguably good, if the vocabulary, grammar, etc, are too far beyond the student's current proficiency they will not understand and will become demotivated.

So, the more proficient the students, the more L2 should be used, I think, but always with careful attention to the difficulty level.

Thank you Michael! How about the case that the teachers are able to justify the language and usages at the learners' levels?

Khang

I believe I'm in agreement with Mr. Michael.

When using English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI), I believe you have to consider the objectives of the course; whether it is focused on basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS), or learning academic content using concepts, critical thinking, and analysis (CALP) (Cummins, 2000). Also, Halliday, Systemic functional linguistics, as well as Vygotsky on everyday & science concepts. 

This I believe is overlooked at International colleges were EMI is used. If the course concerns BICS I want to encourage target language usage and participation as much as possible, but for content courses, students may not be able to grasp the higher level concepts using the target language.

Having taught using EMI for over 25 years, it wasn't until I started to use Paulo Freire's 5 step problem-posing process (social action learning) that I began to see real engagement. During the process I give the students the option to use their native language when necessary; using mixed grouping is also very important. For me the problem-posing process helps students contextualize the content to their own lives which gives the content personal meaning with their native language as support. 

There exist different methods of teaching foreign languages. I was lucky to study English in special school in the former USSR, where the use of Russian was minimized. During the first year visual information (word and picture of its meaning) was used to build basic knowledge. When pupils know the first 1000 words, native language may no longer be used and explanation using the foreign language can be understandable.

However, it is very difficult (and bad for pupils) when native language is not used at all. Teaching of German in Austria is typically done in a class with many people from different countries, and native language is not used at all, because teacher cannot translate into all languages. This is very difficult for perception at the initial stage, when students understand the meaning of very few words.

I personally think (as a former student) that the fraction of native language in explanation should be not zero from the beginning (otherwise pupils can learn wrong meaning of some words) but should decline over time and completely disappear at some point. It is also important that students can communicate between themselves to learn correct meanings if some had failed to do that in class.

Yes, but the teacher must explain the terms with clearity before using them.

Dear Nguyen, 

Hello, 

Simply put, teachers and learners should use the target language in the classroom for most of the time. However, the teacher may explain some terms in advance in the source language to help the learners, but it should not exceed than that, for students need to get used to listening to the language they are doing. Listening and practicing are the two most and most crucial issues in teaching/learning any language. As it is said in English, 'practice makes perfect.' And last, but for sure not least, teaching the target language in the source language is truly a meaningless act to practice. 

Regards, 

karwan

I use the target language for the lectures for a post-graduate course where all the students are French.  However, the tutorials are typically run in French and reading from sources covering both languages is encouraged; in French to gain an understanding of the subject and in English to develop the technical vocabulary further in the target language.  

Very complicated question, here in India with so many diverse languages and local slang of their own, it would be difficult to restrict to the habit of using a target language and thus we resort to teaching and learning in english as a standard protocol for subjects and for languages ofcourse the same language has to be used in schools, if the student has to learn how to write in those language besides reading and conversing. For that purpose, in schools they adhere to the target language through out the process of teaching and learning.

using target language during teaching and learning process in classroom refers to the imitation theory, where the learners imitate what they hear and see, if this act is absent during teaching and learning process, they have nothing to imitate. but, the students will face difficulties on understanding the vocabularies and pronunciation, it can be caused by the lack of listening comprehension. so, it is the role of the teacher to reinforce their pronunciation and do correction. so, i think it is better using L2 more than vernacular during teaching and learning process...

Thanks....

I taught English as a Foreign Language for almost 40 years and I always used only the target language in class. I will only speak about practice now and not theory. I taught English to Italian students at a school in Italy (all levels and age groups - children, college students, housewives, businessmen, etc.) and, even if we were fluent in Italian, none of the teachers were allowed to use Italian in class. We had to use the target language exclusively. The director of the school was very strict about this and he roamed the halls listening to the teachers. If you were caught using Italian, you were in trouble! This system worked very well. The first lessons were, of course, limited in vocabulary and lots of pictures and demonstrations were used. Then I taught English to international students at GWU in the US. My students did not have the same native language so it was not possible to use any language in the classroom except English, the target language. These two situations, I think, show that it is certainly possible to teach a foreign language from the beginning using only the target language in the classroom. 

Hi,

I'm teaching German as a Foreign Language and use German about 95% of the time. If my students don't understand a word, I try to explain it to them in German and translate the word into English. :)

Hi there

I've been teaching English as a foreign language for more than 25 years. and I trust the pupils ability and level in aquiring Eng. So, it is very important to reconsider the level of the pupil and try to add more English. the more he is getting better the more English you can use.

There are situations where the subject is unbreakable, far away from the pupils background and can't be explained thoroughly to them. I'm sure here comes the role of the mother tongue that the teacher should be using. It is a must to explain in order to proceed in the teaching process. Using only English to explain a difficult issue may hinder this process.

for more information you can read more from Cortazi's articles about target culture and the pupils', and Krashen's approach I-1 / I-2 and I+1/I+2

(I minus one/ two..: means to reduce the pace of teaching)

(I plus one/ two..: to increase the pace of teaching)