The use of first language in developing ideas in second language writing according to Siti Hamin Stapa and Abdul Hameed Abdul Majid (original) (raw)
2012, American Journal of Social Issues and Humanities
Language teachers have been debating whether or not to use the students' first language (L1) in second language (L2) teaching. Some teachers have the opinion that first language may be used under certain limitations and others feel that it should not be allowed at all. Nevertheless, the use of first language in second language teaching has been advocated with grounded theory for as far as it merits the situation. The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the use of first language to generate ideas for second language writing among low proficiency ESL learners. This study employed the experimental research design where the students in the experimental group used Bahasa Melayu in generating ideas before they resumed writing their essays in English. On the other hand, the students in the control group used English. The essays are graded by two independent raters and the scores are analysed using the paired ttest. The findings show a marked improvement in the writing performance of students who used their first language to generate ideas before writing using their second language. Based on the findings of this study a recommendation could be made to the writing teachers to use the students' first language especially in generating ideas among low level proficiency ESL learners.
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