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L1 in the Classroom: It's a Sin?

Speaker: Mario Rinvolucri
Moderator: Stephanie Taylor (Richmond Publishing)
Date: Wednesday 9 June 1999

An inspiration to thousands of teachers around the world through his many publications and his teacher training - Mario Rinvolucri chats about the pros and cons of using L1 in the foreign language classroom.

MODERATOR> Hello, good evening and welcome . . . . Thanks for joining us tonight, when we are fortunate to be joined by Mario Rinvolucri who has inspired thousands of teachers round the world through his writing and tireless training schedule. The topic tonight is the use of L1 in the foreign language classroom. Welcome, Mario.

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> Hi everybody. Here I am talking to you from Pilgrims in Canterbury UK.

MODERATOR> Mario. What led you to your current interest in this topic?

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> Well, the idea of using L1 at the beginning of learning L2 is common sense. It is absurd to think any one over five could approach L2 any other way.

Andrés> With young learners it is desirable to do 'total immersion'

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> Yes, sure if we are talking 3-8 I fully agree, but Ana Robles has shown clearly that 14 years old Spanish kids doing L2 composition go from L1 and often come back to it while writing. This code-switching is normal. Andrés> I think it is necessary to 'create a proper atmosphere'. To what extent do you think one should try to use L2 in the classroom and why?

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> One should move to L2 as fast as possible but it's vital to carry the learner with one and not to drown him or her in strangeness. I think one can move smoothly from a largely L1 beginning to more and more of L2. This can be beautifully done with storytelling for little ones.

MODERATOR> What about with adult learners?

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> I think exactly the same principle holds.

Michael Martin> Sometimes I spend a lot of time explaining the meaning of a word in English and I have the feeling that the students don't understand.

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> In the 70's, when I was a virtuous no language 1 teacher, I tried to mime the word 'although'. Can you guess what it looked like? It is clearly infinitely more efficient to slip in a quietly voiced translation into L1.

Michael Martin> When I translate the students understand almost immediately with a low % of usage mistakes. Shall we keep on avoiding use of L1?

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> I can't see why.

MODERATOR> What about EFL teachers who do not dominate L1 of which there are many?

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> Mmmm interesting one. Maybe Brits and Americans really do need to have a go at seriously learning the language of their students. The problem is when the students speak 5 different mother tongues, but this is not the case in Spain.

Carmen Nogales> I agree that it is not 'a sin' to use L1 - particularly in secondary schools. Kids should feel they can understand concepts without feeling guilty that they are using the 'wrong' language.

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> Why do we have to use words like 'guilty' and 'sin'? I thought this debate was about language not theology.

MODERATOR> Yes, but I think lots of teachers DO feel guilt - or something similar. Don't you?

Dr Sai Kin Lee> Sometimes it seems that you use too much L1.

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> Hello Dr Sai Kin Lee. Of course the aim of using L1 must be strictly to reduce its use as fast as possible. The beauty of using language 1 for second language teachers of English, that is people who are not natives of English, is that they can improve their own English via mixing the languages. If you want I can give you an example.

MODERATOR> Go ahead

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> If you tell stories to beginners in both languages you naturally start with a story mostly in L1. When you re-tell the story you put more of it into the target language until finally you tell the whole of it in L2. The insecure teacher can thus build up her full English text gradually and so teach herself.

Leonor> In the secondary classroom a lot of what we do is grammar and we are forced into a situation of translating, particularly because our students are expected to take examinations.

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> Hello Leonor, I don't go along with long, complete, sleep inducing grammar explanations in L1. This would be a bit self indulgent and not very useful. How many teenagers really get to grips with the language via intellectual grammar explanations in any language?

Anna_bate> It seems too easy to be translating all the time. Why would you start a story in L1 when you can use visuals to get their imagination going?

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> Hello Anna, I am certainly not advocating self indulgent lazy use of L1. I do advocate exercises including L1 which speed up familiarisation with L2. For example, with elementary students, I give them an interview text where the questions are in L2 but the answers are in L1. This helps them work out the meanings of the questions from the answers.

MODERATOR> What's the next step here?

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> The next step in the next lesson is to present the answer texts in mixed L1 & L2. For example, yo am muy pleased to be taking part in this encuentro.

MODERATOR> That's really interesting!

Dr Sai Kin Lee> This sounds very strange but funny.

MODERATOR> And the next step, Mario?

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> Obviously you have to be very careful and principled about the way you mix the languages, the salt and pepper approach doesn't work. Have you heard of the German - English book 'Dear Doosie'? It's half in German and half in English. I've used this to improve my German though it's designed to improve a German person's English. The book is now in a Czech-English edition.

Dr Sai Kin Lee> I personally think it is not a very good approach.

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> Dr Sai Kin, could you state your objections?
Dr Sai Kin Lee> Back in Hong Kong years ago, we tended to speak half in English and half in Cantonese.

MODERATOR> Were you taught that way?

Dr Sai Kin Lee> No not really. But we only used half and half when we talked with friends but not at school nor at any formal situation.

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> I am not advocating constant code switching at intermediate and advanced level but I feel that the pure direct method that has dominated UK EFL thinking for the last 30 years is a bit like the Arab way of teaching swimming; take the kid to a bridge and drop him in the river- he usually swims.

Anna_bate> I can see it is a good way to learn specific words and may help them remember because it's new and amusing.

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> I think its a bit more than that, Anna, because the learner slides fairly seamlessly from the mother tongue into the target language.

Dr Sai Kin Lee> Either you drown or you learn. This is true when you are in a L2 country.

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> I learnt Italian this way a casa mia in talking to Italian maids I used the Italian I could and filled in the rest with English. This was between ages 5 and 7.

Anna_bate> I grew up in France at an international school and learnt to speak three languages at once but no one outside could understand it.

Dr Sai Kin Lee> I think if you were born in a sort of bilingual background, the mixture of the two languages is different.

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> Sure, and the experience of being a beginner in the L2 country for some can be suffocating, bottling up and even nightmarish.

MODERATOR> What about the question of multi-lingual classes Any suggestions here?

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> There are plenty of exercises which mix L1 and L2 which you can use in multinational classes. Let me give you an example . . . . Give the students a situation like; the woman is on the roof. Ask them to write ten sentences on ten slips of paper saying what she is doing on that roof. They should write the first sentence in their L1 the second in English, the third in L1 etc. The students then get up and mill and try and find people who have written the same ideas but in the other language. Chinese students will seek out Chinese ones, Nepalese will seek out their countrymen etc. This is a creativity exercise and a two language exercise and helps students in multinational classes to hear, take on board, and maybe respect each others L1's.

MODERATOR> Well, Mario and chatsters. We have come to the end of the hour session. I would like to thank you all very much and I would like to close by wishing Mario a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY. How nice of him to give up celebration time to be with us tonight!!

SPEAKER_Mario Rinvolucri> It feels really good to be 59 and talking to you folk! bye for now.