Aspects of the use of learners of mother tongue in foreign language teaching

Motivation. Learners with high motivation generally do better.

Self-confidence. Learners with self-confidence tend to be more successful.

Anxiety. Low personal and classroom anxiety are more conducive to second language scquisition.

(Richards and Rodgers, 2005:183).
It means that positive affect is necessary, but not sufficient on its own, for acquisition to take place.
Truly, Krashen had made the incredible contribution to the second language education. He argued that people learning foreign languages follow basically the same way as they acquire their mother tongue and thus the use of native language should be minimized in the learning process. Krashen himself tells about what he was trying to achieve: “It is possible that ‘no pain, no gain’ does not apply to language acquisition” (1991:423). Definitely this may be true for recent communicative methods when compared to older methods. Foreign language learning is a very complex process, with many factors involved and thus there is simply not only one comprehensive theory to guide teachers at their profession. According to Russell, “the pending change in second-language teaching is often called an ‘incomplete revolution’ because the educational establishment refuses to implement the system” although it has got acknowledged merits, choosing instead to weaken in the mediocrity we face today (Internet 6).
This chapter focused on the changing role of mother tongue throughout the history. The fact is that the mother tongue use in the foreign language classroom has been always controversial among linguists and teachers, of course. Nowadays it can be said that the communicative approach has received wide support. I agree that the target language should be used as the main language and as a medium of communication however; I believe that the mother tongue has also got its role in foreign language classroom. Its role is minimal but facilitating pupils´ learning and language acquisition when needed.

3.