L1 is needed when we teach L2

The students use the mother tongue in class because a principal cause of the L1 use is required by the activity, if students are linguistically incapable of activating vocabulary for a chosen task. Another reason is that translation is a natural thing to do in language learning, and code-switching between languages is regarded as naturally developmental. The amount of L1 use by particular students may well have to do with differing learner styles and abilities. The real usefulness of translation in English classes lies in exploiting it in order to compare grammar, vocabulary, word order and other language points in English and the student’s mother tongue. if students are aware of the differences, language interference (transfer) and intervention from their own language are likely to be reduced. The most effective teaching materials are those which are based on the systematic comparison between the language of the learner (L1) and the target language (L2 or the language to be acquired by the students). Foreign language learners tend to transfer the system of their native language (vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and accent) into the target language when they communicate both in spoken and written form. Consequently, foreign language teachers must be able to present their teaching materials in such a way that the learners can really understand and master the rules of the target language as to how to express their ideas and feelings (which are usually made in L1). Based on the comparison between L1 and L2, there will be similarities and differences. Similarities will bring easiness, whereas the differences will bring problems or difficulties. Problems or difficulties must be solved and solving problems needs time (teaching hours). There is another assumption that the degree of difficulty will vary among the learners of English in the world. Moreover, the learners of English in the world have different cultural backgrounds. As an illustration, the difficulty of Indonesian learners of English will be different from that of German, French, Dutch, or Italian learners of English. Conversely, Indonesian students will find it easier to study Malay language than the German, the Dutch, the French or the Italian do. Indonesian is close to Malay language because the two languages came from the same source.