Evidence for the bilingual option: Re-thinking European principles in foreign language teaching

Wolfgang Butzkamm, Michael Lynch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In Europe and the western world in general, the monolingual approach has persisted in the guise of the communicative approach—clearly a direct method derivative—until the present day. This paper calls for a drastic revision of a methodology where the learners’ mother tongue is only a stopgap device. It presents different groups of learners whotestify to the effectiveness of a bilingual approach. The evidence is in: For beginners, L1 [first language] support is an immediate solution, not a last resort. Detailed proposals are made to improve courses for immigrants with native languages unrelated to conventional European school languages. At the same time, this paper calls for a bringing together of foreign languages teachers and teacher educators to conduct combined research on what works best for foreign language learners.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-14
Number of pages14
JournalJournal for EuroLinguistiX
Volume15
Early online date30 Oct 2018
Publication statusPublished - 30 Oct 2018

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Language Teaching
  • Teacher Education
  • SLA

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