The use of L1 and L2 in class.

“I also enhanced my understanding that there was a difference between using translation as a method and using the L1 system as a reference for students, a facilitator”. (Isabela) I believe that this statement says it all. I agree with Isabela that translating a word in class in order to help students learn better is not a big problem, the problem is to translate every sentence; every word. Otherwise the purpose of learning English and practicing it would be lost.

I have been working as an English teacher for almost 13 years, and before working here at the Casa I worked in a school where Portuguese and English could be in the same sentence, but simple commands were spoken in English; on the other hand, big sentences could be “mixed”, for example: Ana, você trouxe seu homework? (For kids and juniors). And if students did not understand a word; teachers could speak English-Portuguese-English in which we called “sandwich”, for example: flats-sapatilhas-flats. So, when I started working at Thomas I thought that no matter what E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G should be spoken in English even if students did not understand a word. And one day, I was being observed by an experienced observer and my students were learning clothes; most of the class did not understand the word “sweatshirt” they got confused, they kept asking me “teacher, but and sweater? Is it the same? And coat?” and I gave my best to explain it; I showed them the pictures, but they did not get it. So during our post, she told me “Vivian, if your students don’t understand something and you explain it over and over; it is ok to say: sweatshirt- casaco because we could see that they were confused”.

Later on, we talked a bit more and from that day on I understood that a thumbs-up for translation is when it is used in class in order to help students learn the language, but quickly. However, what is the purpose of teachers speaking Portuguese in class? Students do not receive much input and the more Portuguese in class teachers speak the more students will speak too.

Another issue is, how much should teachers speak in class? Well, this is a tough question but I prefer to ask how much should students speak in class? Since, students are in class to learn, to produce; they should participate more, speak more; they should be there not only as a receiver but as a producer too. If teachers speak all the time, students can get bored and they will receive only the input and their output would be poor. I believe that there must be a balance between TTT and STT.