Exploring Teachers’ Attitude and Reason to Use Learners’ Own Language in EFL Classroom

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to explore teachers’ attitudes and reasons to use learners’ own language in EFL classrooms. To meet this purpose, a descriptive case study design was employed. Dangila High School English language teachers and students in West Gojjam, Ethiopia, were involved in the study. To collect data, classroom observations, one-to-one in-depth interviews, and attitude questionnaires were administered. Both quantitative (SPSS 20 Software) and qualitative (Open Code 4 Software) were used to analyze the data. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to test the reliability of both teachers’ and students’ attitude questionnaires. The Cronbach’s alpha test result was 0 .847 and 0 .766 confidence level, respectively. The finding indicates that teachers’ attitude towards learners’ own language use in EFL classrooms is a positive and important tool that could contribute a lot to students’ success. The result also shows that own language use in EFL classrooms shows some important components that make it different from and useful over the existing approach of EFL teaching. English language teachers’ reasons to use learners’ own language in EFL classrooms are to clarify difficult concepts, motivate students, teach grammar rules, and teachers do have other learner-based pushing factors and reasons like: students cannot understand English, own language makes the lesson simple, students’ weakness, and teachers’ weakness