Use or Avoid? The Perceptions of Prospective English Teachers in Turkey about L1 Use in English Classes

Abstract

This paper following a mixed-method research design investigates the role of L1 use in L2 teaching from the perspectives of Turkish prospective English teachers. Data were collected from 374 Turkish prospective teachers in ELT department of four state universities in Turkey through a questionnaire. It was aimed to obtain a general view about whether Turkish should be used in teaching English; and if used, to what extent it should be used in the situations specified in the questionnaire, and for what purposes Turkish should be used in these situations. According to the results of the study, some of the participants proposed that L1 use should have no place in language learning/teaching since it exists as a barrier to the process of language learning and hinders the exposure to L2 and the chance to practice it whereas a great majority of them (N=243) considered L1 use as a contributing factor to ease the process of language learning and comprehension of learners.