The Attitudes of Libyan Teachers Towards Using Their Mother Tongue in English in Secondary Schools Classrooms

Abstract

This paper investigates the attitudes of the Libyan EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers towards using their mother tongue (L1) in English classrooms in secondary schools in Bani Walid. Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used for data collection. This study was conducted on 36 EFL teachers teaching at public secondary schools in Bani Walied, using a questionnaire survey, and 8 teachers were observed. The findings revealed that the teachers hold positive attitudes towards using Arabic in EFL classes. The EFL teachers in the study preferred using the mother tongue for various situations and purposes. In addition, they employed its use and recognized its usefulness in certain contexts such as clarifying the meaning, giving proper instructions, explaining grammar rules and checking students’ understanding. The discussion of the findings concludes that the mother tongue can be used by teachers to facilitate teaching and learning and to save time. Moreover, the language used in the classroom plays a major role in the process of EFL teaching as it directly influences the acquisition of English (L2).