A study on teachers' and students' use of L1 in EFL secondary education context

Whether or not to use L1 in language classrooms has been a controversial issue for years. Mainly, two contrasting approaches have emerged: using the monolingual approach or using the bilingual approach. The monolingual approach adopts the English-only policy but sees the students' native languages (L1) as a factor that prevents them from learning English. The bilingual approach sees students' L1 as a tool to help them learn English. This study tries to explain in detail whether the use of L1 in Turkish secondary schools has a negative or positive effect on the target language (L2) learning. In addition, the study examines the perceptions of teachers and students for the use of L1 in English classes in Turkey and seeks to find the rationale for English teachers in Turkey using their L1 in the classroom. For many foreign language teachers, using L2 in the classroom has been the main goal, and the teachers refrain from using L1. But the use of L1 has never been less frequent. On the contrary, teachers unwittingly continue to use the main language intensively. In this study, a mixed-method research design was used to obtain the necessary data. For the questionnaires, a five-point Likert scale was used and the questionnaires were conducted with 100 students and 40 teachers. There were also interviews with four teachers and their lessons were observed for two hours per week for four weeks. The results of the research have shown that the use of L1 in an appropriate and limited amount is useful when learning a foreign language. Moreover, excessive use of L1 in English lessons has negative effects on the learning process. When English lessons were observed, it was found that there were various reasons for the use of L1, and these functions of L1 use are listed in the findings chapter of this study.