AnalysisoftheUseofMotherTongueinSecondaryVocationalSchoolEnglishTeaching

【Abstract】In the worlds close contact， English is playing a more and more important role. Whether to use the mother tongue or whether the mother tongue influences vocational middle schools English classrooms is a question to which people pay attention generally. The purpose of this paper is that through the study of 18 pre-service teachers class transfer records， the influences of the mother tongue on vocational middle school English teaching can be studied， and through the visiting data to get the corresponding revelation and countermeasures. Through the research， the author found that using mother tongue in vocational middle school English teaching plays an important role. However， English teachers cannot ignore the use of the target language – English. After all， under the new curriculum reform of vocational middle school， more details and more concrete requests are set for the teachers and students in English classrooms.

【Key words】mother tongue； secondary vocational school； English teaching； classroom observation records

【作者簡介】廖星，广西商业技师学院。

1. Introduction

Nowadays， in foreign language teaching， whether to use the target language and the mother tongue at the same time has always been a controversial topic. We all know that the use of mother tongue and the foreign language teaching has a close relationship， when students learn a new language. Students often naturally transfer the target language learning to some of the rules of their native language. Teachers discourse that on one hand， it has an exemplary role for the target language use； on the other hand， it is also an important way of promoting students language input. Some researches， made by domestic and foreign scholars and experts， have been aware of the role of mother tongue in foreign language teaching， but it is still a question that how teachers reasonably and appropriately use， especially the use of mother tongue in English teaching in secondary vocational school English classroom teaching is scarce. The author wanted to do some research for the future to provide some theoretical bases for secondary vocational school English teaching.

This article hopes to go through the 18 pre-service teachers classroom observations to study and attempt to answer the following questions：①Is it necessary to use their mother tongue in the secondary vocational school English classes？ ②Can we use Chinese to help English learning？ ③If so， when could English teachers use Chinese and for what purposes？

2. Research and design

2.1 Profile

The following survey was conducted in Guangxi Commercial Senior Technical School. By researching the transfer records that were presented by the 18 pre-service teachers from Guangxi Teachers Education University， and 5 serving English teachers who teach in both Chinese and English， the author made a comparison. The author hopes to answer：①Whether teachers need to use their mother tongue in secondary vocational school English class？ ②Dose Chinese help in English study？ ③If so， when use the Chinese and for what purpose？

2.2 Objects

Transfer records that were presented by the 18 pre-service teachers from Guangxi Teachers Education University， and 5 serving English teachers who teach in both Chinese and English.

2.3 Instrument

classroom observation.

2.4 Procedures

Two variables of this study are as follows：English and Chinese-English bilingual. This experiment started from mid-May， 2017， to the end of May， 2017， covering a period of two weeks. These 18 pre-service teachers were assigned to two grades in this school， nine of them were in freshman class， another nine people in secondary vocational school second grade. In their teach grades， the author found that they do not unifiedly use a language to have a class. They basically use English-Chinese bilingual teaching. In order to solve the first problem， whether to use mother tongue in the classroom， the author adopted the method of random access. The author visited 5 serving teachers， 10 pre-service teachers and 50 students （with the method of random access， 25 students from the first grade， and 25 from the second grade）.

In the short period of time in Guangxi Commercial Senior Technical School， the author also listened to several other pre-service teachers classes. The author discovered that the attitude towards that using Chinese language in the classroom would help students learning was relatively clear. All of them considered that it would help students to promote their English learning. But the situation is not the case， it requires students to answer. So the author designed a small table.

The last problem is one of the most important in this paper. Under the new curriculum reform， requirements for the students have become different. In what sections use the Chinese， for what purpose these problems are resolved will be good for the research of this aspect to provide the corresponding theoretical basis and data support. For the last research question， the author collected and analyzed 18 pre-service teachers and five teachers in-school records and 18 classes students date and then wrote them into the document for research. In order to better manifest the questions that are studied， the author designed the second table.

In order to get all the data in the table， the author thought that it was necessary to do a new table. The purpose of the table is to know for each of the 18 pre-service teachers and every teacher and the students in this school， how many words they spoke in the classes were English， how many words were Chinese， and the percentage of the total number of sentences， so the author designed the third table.

3. Data Analysis

3.1 Analysis

For the first question， five in-service teachers gave a definitive answer， that was they needed mother tongue in the classroom. The question can be solved easily， that is in secondary vocational school English classroom teachers and students will choose to use Chinese.

For the second question：Can Chinese do some help in learning English？ The author visited the 20 teachers and 50 students. The result is obvious. At first， the author said 10 pre-service teachers view， no pre-service teacher denied the role of Chinese in language teaching， accounting for that 60% of the teachers thought the Chinese had a great influence on English teaching. For students， students and teachers opinion was the same. There were more than half of the students held the positive attitude that Chinese did lots of help to their English learning. More than half of the students said that Chinese did a lot in helping them learn English. Hence， these data approve the previous questions. Without Chinese， the students in the English Classes that we visited cant understand some contents， and could lose their interests in English. “English classes just like to see on the book from heaven without the help of the Chinese.”The students said again.

Next is the last question， that is， when to use Chinese， and for what purpose？ In order to get the data， the author analyzed the 5 teachers in this school and the transfer content of 18 pre-service teachers class teaching videos， and demonstrated the total number of sentences statistics in table. The author then gathered statistics of the total number of the sentences and the percentages of using mother tongue in each part about the 23 teachers and the students from the 18 classes used in the English classes.

From the table， we can visually see that in explaining the new words and the new text parts， 18 pre-service teachers have chosen to use the native language or a combination of the two languages to give lectures. When the students learnt the new words， they used the bilingual method to read and recite， so we can say more than 90% of the students used Chinese to help them grasping the new words. When the classroom discussion began， the author found that the teacher participated in the students discussion， mainly using the Chinese. In classroom discussions， the author found that the students from each group used Chinese to talk with their members， so we can say the classroom discussions that are had in this vocational school were almost in Chinese. Hence， it is a reasonable reasoning that if the English classes on the premise of promoting the exchange of information and facilitating language learning， its necessary to use mother tongue to explain some certain terminologies and to explain some complex grammar. After all， teachers should pay attention to practical teaching because for some grammar and vocabularies， the non-English majors would have few chances to use them in their future work.

3.2 Teaching implications

（1）We can use Chinese in class， but should grasp a degree.

Using the mother language to help study English is a kind of highly effective time-saving nimble， and also a humanist procedure. It will enhance the thinking flexibility and the conceptual clarity of the students.

But we also have to admit that English is the target language. Blindly using the mother tongue or using both of these two languages may cause the students excessive dependence on the mother tongue， and can also lead them to learn the English that is not very authentic， which will hardly make them form the English thinking. All these things will have bad influence on their learning English further English. In the survey， the author also found a big problem， because of the excessive dependence on the mother tongue； some students had poor performance in listening practices. They are accustomed to the bilingual teaching in English classes， but listening materials are all in English， it makes them not understand. So in the English classroom， we should adjust the proportion of the use of the native language. After doing the investigation and analysis， we had better not use the Chinese exceeding 40%， in case that “English classroom becomes the Chinese classroom”， only in this way can we guarantee the use of English.

The author also suggests that the student should use English thoughts to ponder the questions， and make progress in a day-by-day accumulation. Every day， they can read some beautiful English articles. During their free time， they can also contact some English-speaking natives. They can also listen to the English music and watch English videos that are suitable for their health growth.

（2）We should consider that in which parts we are supposed use Chinese.

We cant use Chinese throughout an English class. In the new vocabulary and grammar teaching， for example， we can use more mother tongue， and that will help students master the knowledge more easier. In data analysis， the author found that the 18 pre-service teachers basically did not use English in the classroom discussion. Therefore， the author believes that in the free sessions， teachers should guide students to think in English， and let them express their thoughts in English. Only in this way can students study better and adapt to the standard English pronunciation and intonation. In addition， the author wants to mention the listening because the author had two listening classes in Guangxi Commercial Senior Technical School. In the listening training classes， the author suggested that the students had enough target language inputs. This did not look like the grammar and the glossary teaching. Only in this way could the students hearing ability get enhanced. One thing is the same， that is using mother tongue is a method， but not a purpose. The ultimate goal of English teaching is to make students master what they have learned， and be able to use them independently.

（3）How to balance the relationship between the mother tongue and target language under the requirements of the new curriculum reform is also worthy of considering.

The new curriculum standard divides English curriculum goals into nine ranks. The compulsory education stage curriculum altogether has five levels. Each level gradually deepens students language skills. The author discovers that each level asks for the ability of listening， speaking， reading and writing.

Now they have all been entered into the English curriculum reform of vocational school， and how to implement the new curriculum objectives and requirements of the new curriculum has become particularly important because that will have influence on childrens future achievements and the degree of grasping the English language. The new curriculum asks for using English to communicate and to promote English teaching， but taking into account the specific condition in other places， the author still recommends use the target language and Chinese appropriately， only in this way can the teaching can get promotion.

We should always pay much attention on the subject role of students in classroom teaching， creating a good learning atmosphere， to reflect the students subject status and develop their subjective initiative. English is a practical language arts， is a kind of communication tool. If we have an authentic communicative environment， learning English will be as easy as learning their mother tongue. Even in the absence of a true pure communicative environment， we can also create an environment to speak and use English and allow students to participate in.

In English class， the author suggests the students take part in all the teaching processes， and each teacher should pay attention to training students spelling， writing composition and other parts. Under the new curriculum reform， there is a need for students to improve their listening， speaking， reading and writing abilities. We need to balance the relationship between the mother tongue and the target language.

4. Conclusion

4.1 Full text summary

Based on the study of 18 pre-service teachers classroom transfer data and corresponding visits， the author got the first-hand information， and the author also proved that the questions that were put forward at the beginning of this paper. The teachers can see in English teaching in vicational school， the use of Chinese will do lots of help， but they also do not advocate using Chinese to teach all the parts of English classes.

4.2 Shortage

This paper is based on the transfer records that were presented by the 18 pre-service teachers from Guangxi Teachers Education University， so 18 samples are too few. Also， the author only researched one single school， and hardly investigated the in-service teachers， and the lack of support is also a weakness of this paper.

4.3 Possible solutions for improvement

Studies on the target language and the use of mother tongue in vocational school under the new curriculum can hardly been seen. The author hopes from now on more people will be able to participate in this area of research， and hopes people can provide their own opinions and the respective opinion for this aspect. At the same time， in the future research， the author will focus on the sample datas being authoritative and comprehensive， making the results more convinced.

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