Use of home language in Nepalese EFL classrooms

Abstract

The present research entitled Use of Home Language in Nepalese EFL Classrooms aimed to explore the practices and purposes of using learners’ home language in Nepalese EFL classrooms. To meet the objectives of the study, I selected two secondary level EFL teachers from two different community schools of Gorkha district using purposive non-random sampling procedure as a sample. Observation guideline and semi structured interview were used as the research tools for primary data collection and some related documents were received from secondary data. Altogether twenty English classes of selected teachers were observed and they were interviewed to get the required information. After the collection of data, they were transcribed, coded thematically and analyzed descriptively. The finding of this research study show the teachers use learners’ home language in EFL classrooms for the purpose of facilitating, motivating and encouraging students in learning which lead to successful English acquisition and improve language learning. Similarly, teachers prefer occasional use of learners’ home language in EFL classrooms for a number of reasons. For example, to maintain discipline, to teach grammar lesson, to explain difficult concepts, to explain new words and difficult vocabularies, and to provide feedback. Judicious use of home language is justified in this research because L1 helps students to learn effectively, students feel easy and comfortable when teachers use home language in teaching. This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction part of the study which consists of background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, delimitation of the study and operational definitions of the key terms. The second chapter consists of the review of related literature and conceptual framework. The third chapter discusses about the methods and procedures of the study. It includes with the design of the study, population, sample, sampling strategy, sources of data, research tools, data collection procedures, data analysis and interpretation procedure, and ethical considerations. Fourth chapter incorporates the analysis and interpretations of the data. The fifth chapter presents findings, conclusions, and recommendations related to policy, practice and further research. References and appendices are also included at the last part of this thesis.