How strategic use of L1 in an L2-medium Mathematics classroom facilitates L2 interaction and comprehension

Abstract

There has been an increasing interest in and hence a growing number of research studies on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) over the past two decades. This had led to more intense debates on bilingualism versus monolingualism, the role of the first language (L1) in subject teaching, ‘translanguaging’ (Canagarajah, 2011; Garcia et al., 2011) and different models like BiRBiC in Germany proposing the complementary and comparative use of L1. So far very few research projects have been carried out in Asian L2-medium classrooms where there are significant differences in the learners’ L1 and L2. Adopting an exemplary case study approach, this study investigates a bilingual teacher’s strategy use in a Mathematics L2-medium classroom in Hong Kong. It examines how this teacher makes judicious and informed decisions in the use of L1 to mediate, facilitate and internalise her learners’ knowledge of Mathematics and the target L2 English. Through the analyses of data from classroom observations, teacher-student interactional discourse, teacher and student semi-structured interviews, stimulated recall and artifacts, the teacher was noted making strategic use of L1 to mediate her learners’ shift in the medium of instruction, scaffold their entry into L2 in gradual ways, maximise student-student interaction in the classroom, enhance the quality of learner responses and activate as well as advance their use of L2. Methods that the teacher used included ones that resemble what L2 teachers would employ in language teaching: noticing, syllabification, understanding morphological cues, think-pair-share, vocabulary-building strategies, questioning techniques, immediate correction and others. Results of the current investigation support as well as extend the findings of previous studies and have serious implications for bilingual teachers in L2-medium classrooms, teacher educators, language-in-education policy makers and researchers exploring different CLIL models.