The use of the mother tongue in the classroom

Teachers and trainers who work with non-native-speaker colleagues will be aware of frequent differences of opinion over the question of whether or not to use the students' mother tongue in the classroom. With the expansion of ELT in Eastern Europe, this question is becoming progressively more of a stumbling block to co-operation between local teachers and those sent from Britain. This article seeks to look at various ways in which teachers at the chalkface use L 1 and what theoretical view of language learning (if any) motivates them to do so, as well as to compare these with some alternative techniques using the target language.