Yeap. If you come to Asia not knowing a word of the local L1, you are gonna have a blast tryin' to teach in places like China and Thailand. You'll need Rogaine after teaching here a year. Not because your hair fell out, but because you pulled it out.

If people come here knowing English only, they will indeed sound just like grunting cavemen to their students.

Gloppput sckopt chaku!

I certainly understand what your saying,Howard. As I said I DO use a little L1 in the classroom sometimes, and yes previous bosses and parents have encouraged me to use more L1.

In the short term it can help some of the slackers whose L2 is low or virtually non-existent, but at the same time I think too much L1 can actually stunt the progress of more able students.

What I often do is ask the stronger ones to personally help the weaker ones. I often have to keep reminding them to reply in English when I ask a question,so I think to much L1 from me would be contradictory and a bad example.

All the best!

I agree that being able to speak some of the L1 can come in useful when teaching in a foreign country. I can't however see it as being ESSENTIAL.

I have used some Chinese when disciplining some of my students,such as 'Anjing!'-(Quiet)' and 'Zuo'-(Sit),etc.In those circumstances using L1 seems to be more effective in exercising authority.However at the same time I find it sometimes works against me with the students just thinking it's hilarious to hear the foreign monkey shouting in Chinese.

If I get a feeling beforehand that a particular class might not understand a particular word that may hinder them in a class activity, or understanding of the target vocabulary I will look up the Chinese word,but only use it as back up!

To be honest I'd rather they look up the word they don't understand in their electronic dictionaries(even though I'm not a great fan of them), than just sleepingly sitting there saying, 'I don't understand!'

I generally only allow that, if I'm sure no-one understands, and I find it virtually impossible to illustrate the point.

I DO agree that it makes a lot of sense to learn as much basics of a language that you can before you go and live and work in another country(in fact I would recommend it).There is no doubt that it would certainly help in relations with fellow staff members(including your boss),in making friends and gaining independence.For instance shopping for yourself etc.

However, I disagree that it is essential in the classroom.I feel that when learning English with the local Chinese teachers the students are being exposed to, much too much Chinese as it is.In fact it seems that a larger percentage of each of those classes are in the L1 language.

As one FT put it so succintly on another forum.'As regards the local teachers the students are not LEARNING English, they're learning ABOUT English'.

In this regard, it certainly would make sense for the FT's to speak as little L1 as possible in the classroom,in order to try to redress the balance and get the students thinking in L2.

Do students respect foreign teachers more if they can and do speak L1? Possibly they often do!However if the same foreign teachers teaching skills and English were poor, surely that respect would be diluted somewhat.

On the other hand would an FT who could hardly say hello in Chinese, fail to gain the respect of the students if he had excellent teaching skills and a good knowledge of English?There are MANY excellent FT's in China who can hardly string two Chinese words together!

I have to agree with the TEFL mill in this respect. As regards the CLASSROOM L1 is not important,it's simply about your ability to teach and speak the L2!

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Did you hear about the white farang teacher who went to Thailand to teach English?

The idiot didn't know one word of Thai and STILL thought he could teach English in Thailand!