1. Role of L1 in the English classroom
Dannae Del Campo Méndez
Language acquisition and how people learn a language are discussions directly
related to education. That is why some authors have guided their attention to the
first and second language learning, the language acquisition and the importance
of L1 in the learning process of L2. Authors as Cook refer to the child differences
in the learning process of L1 and L2 dividing them in eight main ideas in which we
can find factors such as: the children’s behavior, emotional life, needs and
interests, mental capacity, and others… with these factors in mind Cook (2011)
specifies that the environment in the classroom “is likely to be freer, more
spontaneous, with less direction by the teacher and less control of the language”
(para.37). To complement Kook’s words is Krashen, he focuses on the topic of
“first language interference” and how this may affect the learning of an L2. His
researches demonstrate three cases in which the role of the mother tongue
makes interference in the second language performance. Krashen (1981) pointed
out that the mother tongue “appears to be strongest in complex word order and
in word-for-word translations of phrases”, “first language influence is weaker in
bound morphology”, and also that “first language influence seems to be strongest
in acquisition poor environments”. Newmark’s work (1997) suggests that the cure
for this interference of L1 is simply the cure for ignorance, this means, learning.
To develop the topic of “first language acquisition” from different points of views
is Freeman. He explains insights from sociology, linguistics and psychology.
Moreover he describes two views or methods about language development in the
areas of reading and writing, one view is that language is learn and the other one
is that language is acquired.

2. As a personal opinion after reading these different texts I can say how important
is for future teachers to acquire this knowledge. The authors focused on different
features yet all of them demonstrated with facts, researches, studies, etc… how
important is the acquisition of a language and at the same time how this affects in
the process of learning a second language, as English is for us. In Cooks’s words
(2011) and refering directly to language teachers with a wise reasoning , is that
he insists that teachers might consider children’s needs in the classroom rather
than in their foreseeable future, in this way their motivation is more powerful and
it will be easier to catch their attention. Moreover Cook (2011) kept maintaining
my interest and at the same time changing my perspective of the development of
a class with certain important points which I totally ignore before reading this
text. One of these points is the fact that L2 can have more ability to learn syntax,
because it has the example of L1 structure, but at the same time we can learn
from krashen’s words (1981) that L1 can make interferences on L2, so it made
think how thin is the line between how helpful can L1 be and how it can guide
students to commit mistakes. On the other hand, we have Freeman (2004) who
explained different insights which, personally, I did not thought about before,
students always tend to think about the linguistic insight although the sociologic
vision it is also important. Freeman (2004) notes “the best support that adults can
give to children is to encourage them to initiate conversation and make it easy
and enjoyable” (para.32), in this way they can modify the things they say which
are incorrect with adults’ help. Moreover Freeman (2004) also explain how
affective factors can make adults hesitate at the moment of learn a new language,
we are going to work with teenagers who are forming their selves to become
adults, so it’s our responsibility to find the way of making them realize that there
is no point in hesitation but to demonstrate them and give them the confidence

3. to start talking and learning English. Finally, and as a conclusion, as a future
teacher is important and it’s my responsibility to commit myself with what I just
studied and put everything in practice in an appropriate way so that I can teach
efficiently.

4. References
- Cook, V. (2011). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching (3rd ed.)
- Krashen, S. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. University of
Southern California.
- Freeman, D. & Freeman, Y. (2004). Essential Linguistics What you need to know to teach
reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics, Grammar. Heinemann.