Language of Instruction vs. Instructed Language. : A Systematic Review of Research of What Language to Use in the Teaching of English as a Second/Foreign Language.

Abstract: The aim of the current thesis is to investigate the role of the students’ first language in English as a second language teaching by means of a review of articles written on the topic between 1990 and 2013. It will identify the importance of using the L1 during the L2/FL learning and teaching process from both students’ and teachers’ perspective and it will then compare them. It will outline the reasons, the strategies and the advantages coming from using students’ mother tongue as a medium of instruction in a second/foreign language educational context. Several well-experienced foreign language teachers and researchers have investigated the validity and the effectiveness of the limited use of the students’ mother tongue in the second language learning process. Possible addressees interested in this review are teachers already involved in foreign language courses as well as student teachers in training programs who wonder which might be the best way to approach the context of foreign language education. Despite the fact that the history of language teaching methodology is marked by a concerted opposition towards the use of students’ first language in classrooms insomuch as it inhibits students’ proficiency in the target language, in the last century, its role has been re-evaluated. Most of the articles reviewed came to the conclusion that a limited and judicious use of the students’ mother tongue in the classroom does not reduce the exposure to the target language, but it can even bring advantages to the learning process.