The changing perspectives on learners’ L1 in L2 teaching: Recommendations in L2 teacher training handbooks over the last five decades
The changing perspectives on learners’ L1 in L2 teaching: Recommendations in L2 teacher training handbooks over the last five decades

Summary/Abstract: Throughout the history of L2 teaching, various approaches toward the presence and functions of the L1 in L2 instruction have been observed. While L1 use was a cornerstone of some methods, it was totally rejected in others. The article reports the findings of a qualitative content analysis of thirty handbooks for teacher education published in the years 1970-2015, conducted with the aim of investigating what recommendations for teachers’ use of the L1 were made, as well as tracing the differences in this respect between materials published in particular decades. The results show that although certain recommendations for L1 use in L2 teaching have always been present in the training materials, a wider and more differentiated range of L1 functions is addressed in more recent sources. Moreover, a greater appreciation of the L1 as a useful resource, and not only as a last resort, can be detected in contemporary L2 teacher education handbooks.

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