explanation in native language?

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shir39

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Nov 22, 2011
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Interested in Language
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Hebrew
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Israel
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Israel
hi , i was wondering- is it recomanded to mix the native language (other then english) in the classroom in order to explain somethign to the students ? if not- how do i make them understand what i mean while they can't understand it in english?
 

English Freak

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Jan 13, 2011
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English Teacher
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Persian
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Iran
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Iran
hi , I was wondering- is it recommended to mix the native language (other than English) in the classroom in order to explain something to the students ? If not- how do I make them understand what i mean while they can't understand it in English?
Welcome to the forum.
As far as I know it's never recommended to use the mother tongue in class while teaching a second language. On the other hand, according to what the experts say, (e.g. Jeremy Harmer) it's not possible to ignore and put aside the mother tongue completely. But you must do your best to bring it to zero.
I've been to this situation myself. When my students have difficulty understanding something, I often kill myself to make them understand the matter in English (by gesticulating, miming, using realia, giving examples, etc.). If most of them understand, I've been successful. If most of them don't understand, I'll take the last remaining weapon which is "the mother tongue".
 

Raymott

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hi , i was wondering- is it recomanded to mix the native language (other then english) in the classroom in order to explain somethign to the students ? if not- how do i make them understand what i mean while they can't understand it in english?
There are different schools of opinion within the linguistic discipline of Second Language Acquisition. There is a recent tendency towards not using the native language at all.
However, the liberal use of the native tongue to explain concepts has not been proven to be ineffective.
I personally think it is comical to see a teacher doing charades and linguistic contortions for half an hour trying to explain a word which can be dispensed with in a few seconds by giving a cognate in the native language. But some people will suffer a lot for an ideology.
 
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