STUDENTS' PERCEPTION TOWARDS THE USE OF L1 IN THE EFL CLASSROOMS: A CASE AT TRA VINH UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The issue of whether to use the monolingual or bilingual approaches in EFL teaching and learning has been the subject debated for years. This quantitative study aims to investigate the English majors’ perceptions towards the use of L1 in the EFL classrooms. A questionnaire was administered to 50 students in order to identify their reasons for using L1 and their perceptions towards their teachers’ use of L1 in the English classroom. The findings reveal that the students resorted to their mother tongue mostly for dealing with complex knowledge and accurately expressing their problems in the situations where they thought they needed help from the teacher. Besides, the participants appreciated their teachers’ rational use of L1, especially at the initial stage of the course.