The effects of l1 use on the achievement of the students in the teaching of grammar concepts

The purpose of this study is to indicate the effects of the use of L1 concepts in the teaching of the L2 grammar on the achievement of the students and the retention of the learning. For this reason, a language learning model ? the L1-Assisted Language Learning ? was designed on the basis of the Minimalist Program as the theory of language along with Constructionism as the theory of learning. In order to test the hypotheses of this study, a pretest-posttest control group design was used. The research was performed with the C level students at the School of Foreign Languages (Dokuz Eylül University) in the Fall term of 2008-2009 Academic Year. In the experimental group, there were 24 participants, while there were 23 students in the control group. An achievement test of English grammar, written by the researcher, was administered three times as the pretest, the immediate posttest and the delayed posttest. During the course of the experiment, the control group was instructed by using the traditional methods of teaching, whereas the experimental group was instructed by using the grammar concepts in L1 or namely by the L1-Assisted Language Learning (L1-ALL). At the end of the experiment, the experimental group received an exit survey with the purpose of describing their views on the L1-ALL practices. For the analysis of the data derived from the achievement test of English grammar, t-test and covariance analysis (ANCOVA) was applied, and SPSS 16.00, along with TAP statistical software, was used.According to the results of the study, there was a significant difference both between the immediate posttest scores (p=0.041) and between the delayed posttest scores (p=0.002) of the two groups. Also, the difference between the delayed posttest-pretest mean scores (p=0.001) and the difference between the delayed posttest-immediate posttest mean scores (p=0.039) were statistically significant in favor of the experimental group. In other words, the L1-ALL practices are more effective than the traditional methods in increasing the achievement of English grammar, and the grammar instruction through the L1-ALL practices is more lasting than the traditional methods. The analysis of the data from the exit survey indicated that the use of L1 concepts in the teaching of grammar was considered positive.