120 Hr TEFL Course Module 1-Using L1

Module 1: Teaching and learning

Not Saved

1.3.2 How can we use our students’ native languages to our advantage?

While a new language like English will cerainly present obstacles for your students to overcome, there are ways you can take those obstacles and turn them into advantages. If your students are coming to class already understanding a language other than English, why not use that to help them learn better? Here are some ways that teachers can use a student’s native language to help them learn a new language:

• It is important that you understand cognates, and how to use them. A cognate is a word, or root word, used in different languages and has a similar etymological background. In other words, you can provide a link for your students between their native language and English. These cognates can be little pockets of comfort for your students as they tread into the unknown territory of a new language.
• Developing further on the above point, emphasize breaking words down to their roots as you are teaching them. This helps students have a better understanding of the patterns of the English language, which will help them succeed more quickly. This makes it easier for students to link the two languages through cognates, but also makes it easier for students to make connections between new words they are learning.
• Using different texts is a good way to help students ease into the new language. Providing a translated version of the text may change the structure, connotation, and intent, but it will give the student a frame of reference for when they get stuck. Translated texts can be a crutch for new language learners, but if they are used properly, they can work as a guide to help students feel more comfortable with a new language.

• Try asking questions in the student’s native language, but ask them to answer in English. Or switch it around and ask them questions in English that they need to answer in their native language. This may be more work for you, depending on the diversity of your classroom, but it can help students ease into understanding English.
• Use your students’ native language to help scaffold and model in English. This can be as simple as having your students write in their native language and then showing them how it would look in English. You could then ask them to do the same thing following your model. Unfortunately, this may require you to be fluent in many of languages, but you can work through it with the student if you don’t speak their native language.
• Have your students help each other. Even if the students do not speak the same native language, they are going through the same process and can bond in their desire to learn English and help each other learn.