The Place of L1 in French as a Foreign Language Class

The Case of Slovenian High Schools

Abstract

Throughout the history of the teaching of foreign languages, the role of the mother tongue has changed a lot: considered essential in the grammar-translation methodology, it was then banned from classes: “We have also sometimes accused the mother tongue of adverse effects on the learning of a foreign language because of the interference it would cause. In some now contested theories, it was thought that learning a new language could only happen if one erased – sometimes only temporarily – any other language, starting with the mother tongue” (Defays 2018: 35).

The first language then reappeared with the communicative approach; however, opinions on the place that the first language should occupy in the foreign language classroom are far from unanimous.

For this article, we set out to explore what is happening in Slovenian high schools. We started with observations of classes. Our aim was to see to what extent and in which situations the first language is used by the teachers. We supplemented our observations with semi-structured interviews with the teachers. According to Castellotti (2001: 49), it is “the teachers who remain the masters of the game, masters of whether or not to accept the first language, masters of using it themselves for certain uses […]”. We were particularly interested in seeing when and how teachers use the mother tongue and whether the use of the mother tongue changes with the level of the learners.