I have clearly and politely stated my opposing view on using students’ native language in classrooms. In a reply to Martin, who seems to be one of very few professional posters on this site, I have also suggested that teaching English with a native language of adult students is suitable.
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/forum/index.pl?read=106778

The one language concept in the classroom is what esl teachers are prepared for when they get their teaching certificates, and it is what we usually practice in our countries educational systems. Basic words and pictures assist our educators to communicate with early learners while simple words, synonyms or rephrased explanations guide most of our young learners at primary and secondary levels. The one language concept has not been set up by teachers, business people or cultural ambassadors but experts in the field.

Unreasonable goals have corrupted the education, in the case of this argument the process of learning English. Where a simple explanation of a word “infant”, for example, a few words “a small baby less than one year old” can be used, another language distorts the new word acquisition. Students that experience such a learning environment get used to the communication in two rather than one language, and so they often expect to same treatment. Such practices in education as this one have been common in places where students are to quickly learn for the test and where a high number of words to acquire fast are necessary; or, in places where educators of the same first language of students are a better choice.

In the end, this all is about people who learn how to communicate in one, two or three languages. If they can learn their languages before they are out of their primary or secondary schools, they should learn them all in the same way as they have learnt their first languages. What the INDEPENDENT user of a language means to us, remains to be seen as some eslteachersboard members may have their take on it.