Language in Context: Instructional Language in EFL

Language in Context: Instructional Language in EFL

Although it is a commonly held belief in SLA that target-language instruction is the best method for foreign language acquisition, the literature only supports the effectiveness of this approach and no direct studies have been made comparing programs where instruction in provided in the target-language against similar programs where L1 is the language of instruction. While arguing that there are time where target-language instruction yields benefits, this paper argued that there are also times when L1 instruction yields equal, if not greater benefits, and that, more importantly, instructional language policy decisions should be based on the pedagogical practicalities of the program in question and not perceptions that have been prejudiced by historical, political, or socio-economical factors. All things being equal, instruction provided in the target-language does not yield any inherent significant level of improvement greater than instruction provided in L1 in the L1 linguistic environment.