PRACTICAL CASE 8

Do you think we must give all the class in English or better translate into the mother
language? Reason your answer.
In this practical case, which is directly related to themes 2 and 7, I am going to justify why
it is better to give all the class using English as the vehicular language rather than
translating into the mother language of the students.
According to Organic Law 8/2013 of December 9 th, in article 26 about Pedagogical
Principles is stated that in the process of learning a foreign language, the lessons have to
be carried out using the foreign language being taught and the use students' mother
tongue will must be only used as a support.
It is essential to understand that children at the Primary stage are having their first contact
with a whole new language. If we think about how children acquire their mother tongue, we
can see that they have a lot of expossure to the language with a lot of input all day long.
Therefore, if we want our students achieve communicative competence in English, that is,
to use English appropriately to accomplish communication goals, then, we can infer the
necessity of providing them with lots of input in the foreign language, as the classroom will
probably be the only place where they are going to be exposed to it.
Moreover, making an analogy with first language acquisiton, before children begin to
speak they have been listening to the language, as it is not possible to make students
produce sounds that do not exist in their mother tongue or words that are completely
unfamiliar to them.
For that reason, I reckon that using only or mostly English in our lessons is the best way to
provide children with enough input to prepare them to speak in English. To do so, we need
to support our speaking with images, facial expressions and gestures to help students
understand what is beign said. We can also have a poster with classroom language and
instructions to which we can reffer as we speak.
Furthermore, it is important to repeat as many time as students need, and use always the
same expressions so students get used to them, such as: open your book, sit down, listen,

repeat, etc.
However, sometimes we can encounter situations in which it would be best to use the
students' mother tongue. If we realize that eventhough after constant repetition and image
or gestures support

the students are still not understanding we will have to use their

mother tongue to make it clear, otherwise it could be frustrating for them.

To sum up, I would like to say that we must speak overall in English and only use the
students' mother tongue in very specific and difficult situations, because as I have
mentioned above, when learning a new language a lot of listening is needed in order to be
able to speak and use the language to accomplish commnication goals, which is, as we all
know the main aim of the foreign language subject.