Abstract:
The mother tongue (MT) also referred as the first language (L1) of the learners is
no longer the doctrine of compromise but acknowledged as a pedagogical tool (Atkinson 1987,
1993; Harbord 1992). Given the realities of the ESL classrooms in Ampara district, there is no
justification to promote L1 to scaffold second Language (L2) learning,also referred as target
language (TL). The study aims to explore the extent to which the junior secondary learners are
provided TL affordances via teacher talk to facilitate L2 learning. A qualitative research design
was employed. In order to capture the verbal interaction that takes place in the classroom, data
was collected through classroom observation and the classroom discourse was audio recorded.
Selected language episodes (LE) of the classroom discourse were transcribed and analyzed
using Myers- Scotton’s (1993) Matrix Language-Frame model to identify the dominant language.
A word count of one hundred and fifty words of a lesson was considered to quantify the L1 and
L2 used in the lessons of twenty five classrooms.
As reflected in the finding, L1 use was 23-83 % which shows an average of 72% of the selected
LE. This clearly indicates that L1 was the dominant language and its unrestrictive use did not act
as a scaffold to facilitate L2 learning and perhaps English language was taught as any other
content subject. Despite the guidelines given for teaching and learning in the Teacher’s
Instruction Manual (National Institute of Education 2009, p.25) “target language should be the
language of the classroom and mother tongue could be used sparingly, where necessary to
make meaning clear”, the quantity of L2 used was lowwith a variation from 18-77% across the
classroom contexts with an average of 27.71 % in each classroom.
