Teachers’ Beliefs on And Practices of Using Learners’ Mother Tongue in EFL Classrooms

Abstract

The thesis entitled "Teachers‟ Beliefs on and Practices of Using Learners‟ Mother Tongue in EFL Classrooms" is an attempt to find out teachers‟ beliefs on use of mother tongue in ELT classrooms and to find out the practices of using learners‟ mother tongue in English classroom. I collected the data by administrating the questionnaire to 10 teachers of higher secondary schools of Kanchanpur district and 20 classroom observations of those teachers i.e. two of each teacher by using classroom observation checklist. They were from different higher secondary schools of Kanchanpur district. Two types of questionnaire (close-ended and open-ended) and classroom observation checklist were employed to elicit data. The sample of the study was selected through purposive non-random sampling procedure. The data were analyzed and interpreted in order to find out their beliefs and practices of using mother tongue in EFL classroom. I had conducted survey research to achieve the objective of the study. The major findings of the study show that mother tongue use in ELT classrooms is believed as positive and should be used in English classroom by teachers. The teachers used it for teaching difficult vocabulary, abstract concepts, to teach poems and other forms of literary genres/literature. Most of the teachers used mother tongue 10 to 15 minutes in English classrooms at higher secondary level. Moreover, it was believed that use of mother tongue is beneficial at higher secondary level in EFL classrooms; but it was also found that overuse of mother tongue in EFL classroom may hinder learning of the students. It is recommended that teachers are required to get training regarding appropriate and judicious use of mother tongue in EFL classrooms. This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is introduction which consists of background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study, delimitations of the study and operational definitions of the key terms. The second chapter includes review of related literature and conceptual framework that consists of review of theoretical literature, review of empirical literature, implications of the review of the study and conceptual framework. Similarly, the third chapter deals with methods and procedures of the study which covers design of the study, population, sample and sampling strategy, research tools and techniques, sources of data, data collection procedures, data analysis procedures and ethical considerations. Likewise, the fourth chapter includes the analysis and interpretation of the data. Furthermore, fifth chapter includes findings, conclusion and recommendations. Finally, the references and the appendices, which are necessary for the validation of the research, have also presented.