What does research tell us about using the first language as a pedagogical tool?

Journal article

The use of EAL learners’ L1s as a teaching resource is widely considered to be good practice. Research conducted in bilingual schools has demonstrated that children who attend them tend to do better, both academically and linguistically, than similar children at English-only schools. What are the implications of these findings mainstream monolingual schools with linguistically diverse student bodies?
This article first summarises research that describes the purposes to which bilingual learners put their L1s, then summarises research that assesses the effects of deliberate use of children’s L1s as a pedagogic tool – for example, by using L1 to translate unfamiliar vocabulary. It finds that the body of relevant research evidence that might inform teacher practice in this area is vanishingly small and equivocal in its findings.

Authors: Chalmers, H

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Reviewed (other)
• Publisher: National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum (NALDIC)
• Journal: EAL Journal
• Volume: Summer 2017
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 54-58
• Publication date: 2017-06-01
• ISSN: 2398-8533
• Language: English
• Keywords: SBTMR