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can bring positive and negative effect on the students. Besides, the writer hopes that this study can help the teachers and students to adjust one to another so that
the purpose of the English teaching can be achieved together. The teachers can manage the use of L1 in their teaching quality. The writer also hopes that this
study can also be a good inspiration to them to design an effective English teaching-learning strategy.
1. Historical view of the issue
As reported by Miles 2004, several hundred years ago bilingual teaching was the „norm‟, with students learning through translation. Pursuant to him, the
use of L1 to study L2 was almost universal and readily accepted because language teaching placed an emphasis on the written word above the spoken word.
According to Howatt 2004, in the middle of the nineteenth century, foreign language teaching received more attention. Pursuant to him, first language
acquisition was the model for learning a second language. Therefore, translation was considered as a source of confusion and was replaced by pictures and
gestures. The late nineteenth-century was characterized by developing a new
language teaching principles Richards and Rodgers, 2001. As stated in them, using L1 in teaching a foreign language became a controversial issue among
reformers. Some believed that mixing two languages would not help students to reach fluency; therefore, learners should employ their abilities to understand the
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meaning of the new language. On the other hand, Howatt 2004 emphasized that the importance of L1 is especially used when introducing unfamiliar items.
English does not become the predominant culture in the British colonies in keeping with Phillipson 1992 and Hawks 2001. According to Phillipson
1992, English is the only language that should be spoken in the English- language classroom
when the British‟s teachers went abroad to teach English.
2. Advantages and disadvantages of using L1 in the classroom
2a. Advantages of using L1 in the classroom
There are many different opinions on the use L1 in English classroom. Some people think that the use of L1 in English classroom can help the learner
and is effective for the students to learn English better. The first advantage is L1 as the communication means that the use of L1 in the classroom would control the
communication teacher and students. Kim and Petraki 2009 believed that L1 may enhance language learning. According to them, students might have a better
understanding toward what they were supposed to learn. Eldridge 1996 argued that code switching between L1 and L2 should be used for explaining things as
cited in Harmer, 2001. Pursuant to his research demonstrated in code switching process, students tended to use L1 when working on a task in class, especially
when one of student was explaining something to others their friends. Furthermore, Tang 2002 also argued that L1 is used in classroom to help
students understand L2. Like in perception of Miles, R 2004, L1 does not hinder
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the students to learn English but it could be instrument to communicate in the classroom and help them learn English.
In the classroom, the use L1 also could be used as relationship among teacher and student. By using L1, the students would be more comfortable to
discuss the lesson with their teacher. Some teachers admit to use L1 for this purpose so that their students would have motivation to learn English. Those
statements have agreement from Chavez. Chavez 2002 claimed “[the] students
prefer using both L1 and L2 because the classroom is not real context for L2 social culture
” as cited in AL-Nofaie 2010. In consonance with him, students would use L2 if they met Native English or when in the situation real context
social culture. L1 could be used to explain the words that are hard to understand.
According to Al-Nofaire 2010, L1 could be used in English learning to explain the meaning of a new word and giving class instruction, especially those which
were difficult to explain. Based on the Kim and Petrakis‟ observation 2009, the
result of their research showed that from teachers‟ and students‟ perception to explain grammatical role, they prefer to use L1 than L2. In agreement with them,
when the teacher taught English, they preferred to use L1 to explain things that are hard to understand.
2b. Disadvantages of using L1 in the classroom
Although there are many advantages using L1, using L1 in the classroom also have disadvantages. The disadvantages are the reason, why teachers and
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students should use L2 in English learning. Just as Krashen 1985 suggested, the entire lesson as much as possible should be learned in L2. Halliwell and Jones
1991 supported that to achieve success in English learning, the students should be encouraged to practice in speaking and understanding in L2 as cited in Al-
Noifae, 2010. They also added the reason was because the students could understand the message even when they did not know the exact meaning of words
or structure. They did not need to understand all the words they heard as long as they were able to understand the message. Phillipson 1992 stated that
“[t]This idea that the L2 lesson should be taught in L2 in order to maximize exposure, and
thereby learning, is perhaps the key concept which monolingual supporters have based their approach on
”. From this statement, he believes that the focus on L2 c
an enhance the students‟ habit of use L2 in English learning.
According to Krashen 1985, L1 should not be used in the classroom because it would not be maximal to English learning. Pursuant to him, the use of
L1 in English classroom might have negative effects to the English language learners. Such negative effects were also mentioned by Howatt 1984 and
Littlewood 1984. Howatt 1984 mentioned that if the students were given freedom of the use L1, it might cause a negative effect of L2. The negative effect
was that it might create a tendency to speak using L1 rather than using English. This is because the students might feel more comfortable using their L1 rather
than English. Howatt believes that limitation to the use of L1 is important so that the goals of teaching English to the students might be achieved.
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Another negative effect, as stated by Littlewood 1984 was the negative transfer caused by mistranslation of L1 use. Since the words and grammatical
forms in English were different from their L1, the students might have a negative transfer of the words and grammatical forms. Littlewood 1984 also pointed out
that in order to arrive at the correct rule for generating correct words and sentences, the students might need to attend to their English input which the
teacher taught them. They might have to form appropriate patterns to correct their mistakes by remembering word orders and classifying the words to their correct
functions like adjectives, nouns, verbs, etc. For a more in depth this study, in the next section the writer also shows the
methodology of the research, such as context of the study, participants, instrument of the data collection, data collection procedure, and data analysis.
B. THE STUDY
1. Context of the study
