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How To Prevent EFL Learners Switching To Their Mother Tongue?
Abstract
In EFL classes, because of various reasons, language learners usually switch to their mother tongue in speaking courses where the medium of the class is not only English. Therefore, this action research study was a modest attempt to investigate the differences in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in terms of their speaking motivation and target language use in a classroom where they have a foreign language teacher. The current study was conducted on 10th grade students in a private high school in Samsun. The participants of current research were 9 high school students who took the speaking courses from a Nigerian English language teacher during four weeks. The researchers’ semi-structured observation and structured interview sessions were employed to obtain qualitative data. Based on the observation and interviews, the results showed that the students were more motivated to speak English and less tend to switch their mother tongue when the English-only policy was followed by the teacher. In the setting, where the teacher employed English as a medium of communication, the students also broke down the prejudices against speaking English. Furthermore, it was found that foreign English language teachers had motivating effects on the students.
Keywords
References
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Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
Linguistics (Other)
Journal Section
Research Article
Early Pub Date
September 8, 2025
Publication Date
September 17, 2025
Submission Date
October 23, 2024
Acceptance Date
July 4, 2025
Published in Issue
Year 2025 Volume: 20 Number: 47