Teachers’ Perspectives Toward L1 Use in Early English Immersion Programs

ELTR Journal : A Publication on the English Language Teaching Research, Vol. 01, No. 01, Januari 2013, p. 16-27Recently, many more pre-schools in Indonesia offer English immersion programs. As English is only a foreign language, a question concerning the classroom language may then raise. Is it possible to use English only and avoid the use of L1 to pre-school aged children? This study tried to investigate this issue from the teachers' perspectives. The interviews and classroom observations data showed that L1 was still necessary to use. All participants believed that this was due to the role of each of the languages in the children's daily life. Moreover, the data also showed that L1 was used for several purposes