Teacher perception and support of student native language use in the classroom

This paper describes how teachers see their roles in the classroom with regard to their students\u27 native language use. The purpose of doing this study was to be able to more effectively address teacher needs and concerns in this area, so that teachers would be more likely to encourage students to use their native languages in the classroom. Information was collected by asking volunteers to respond to a series of vignettes describing student native language use. The researcher found that teachers at this school were supportive of student native language use, as long as it was clearly for academic purposes, and was teacher directed. The researcher also found that teachers generally did not fully utilize their students\u27 primary languages because of a lack of knowledge and skills in this area