Use of native language in learning English for specific purposes

Learning / teaching languages is vital in higher education. There are two main approaches to language teaching, the monolingual and the bilingual. This article aims at examining students’ attitudes to using the mother tongue in learning English for Specific Purposes and analyzing their self-assessments of translating from native language (L1) into English (L2) and vice versa. The respondents in this study are the 1st and 2nd year students of two specializations, Healthcare and Philology at Klaipėda University, and they will need English for their future profession. The analysis of their responses has revealed that all learners need a support of their mother tongue in English classes. The reliability and validity of the findings were checked by applying the SPSS software (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) and the obtained statistical data imply that conclusions can be extended beyond the relatively small amounts of the respondents’ samples of the current research